Need to Know
22 : 11 : 18

London – On 21 November, we held our annual Food and Drink Futures Forum at our Spitalfields office, exploring the challenges and opportunities set to shape the future of food and drink.

In the first half of the Forum, The Future Laboratory co-founders Chris Sanderson and Martin Raymond presented the market shifts and rising trends set to affect the industry, including the allure of low-abv drinking, the over-50s opportunity and the long-awaited revival of carbohydrates. The event culminated with our latest food and drink macrotrend, Uprooted Diets, which LS:N Global subscribers can read here.

A selection of leading industry figures were invited to speak at the event, including Simon Rucker, the CEO of Nine Elms, and Leo Campbell, co-founder of Modern Baker. Neil Bennett, head of strategy at Love Creative, took attendees on a journey, explaining his collaboration with The Future Laboratory to create an immersive activation for the day, which imagined how our diets will look in 2035.

US – The new brand has launched three beauty products to challenge the notion that personal bodycare is an afterthought.

Nécessaire is the creation of Nick Axelrod, an editorial veteran with a background at Into the Gloss, and Randi Christiansen, a former strategy executive at Estée Lauder. The brand aims to cut through the confusion of the beauty industry by providing just three products: Body Wash, Body Lotion and Sex Gel. The products are pH-balanced and have been formulated without sulphates, parabens and synthetic fragrances to ensure the body is treated with the same amount of care as the face.

As sexual wellness products move from top drawers in bedrooms to full display in the bathroom, the brand is championing its personal lubricant as a bodycare item. ‘It’s a redefinition of what belongs in the body category – Nick and I thought that we would combine all these things that humans use on their bodies. Sex is just another thing we do with our bodies,’ explains Christiansen.

We explored this more body-centric approach to skincare last year, in our microtrend Rethinking Bodycare.

Tel Aviv – The Raveh Clinic, a new plastic surgery centre based in the Israeli city, has been fitted out to look more like an apartment than a medical office.

Local designer Maayan Zusman, who has worked on a large number of residential projects, and architect Amir Navon renovated the space to be homely and welcoming. ‘We did not want the clinic to be typical, cold and boring,’ said Zusman. ‘We wanted it to feel like a second home for the surgeon and also soft yet elegant for patients.’

Beyond the lounge-like waiting area, two patient rooms feature domestic design details such as sheer curtains and pink sink units. The overall aesthetic reflects an emerging trend among salons and spas, which are moving away from clinical design cues to create spaces where clients feel able to relax, socialise and stay a while.

New research conducted in Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain shows that consumers want to know more about the social and environmental impacts of the clothes, shoes and accessories they buy. They also expect both brands and governments to be doing more to address these issues.

The majority of those surveyed by Fashion Revolution believe fashion brands should be required by law to adopt more sustainable practices. These include respecting the human rights of everybody involved in making their products (77%), protecting the environment at every stage of production (75%) and paying workers who make their products a fair living wage (72%).

New initiatives, such as recently opened The Fashion for Good museum, are responding to this growing consumer awareness of the fashion industry’s long-term impacts and sustainable solutions.