Behind every model i build, or case study i write, there are tens to hundreds of signals that i’ve consumed to land there. I learned this from andy jassy, when i used to have to do this kind of work for him.

What are the bite-sized datapoints that serve as anticipatory signals of an iceberg lying underneath? Or more crucially, how do you know when you know? TBH, a lot of everything comes down to the most hated (and perhaps, overused) word on the internet: taste. Of which, discipline and discernment are a close follow.

For me (in a business sense), my taste was built upon a mixture of the innate, yes, but mostly forged by hard-won learnings…. i had to earn it, and i got validated—consistently—for it.

Which leads me to why we’re here today. I’ve decided that we should do more BTS on signal identification before it lands in our longer case studies. Like, what are the beeps that are starting to accelerate around us, and why do they matter? TBH— i’ve found that the world is sooooo much more interesting when you use your ADHD for good ;). Kiiiidding (not really!) —anyway—let’s dig into some sexy sh*t (datapoints) making my heart palpitate lately…..

(some) of what we’re discussing underneath the paywall:

1)I built a framework for why having a boyfriend may be embarrassing, but being married is still c*nt — tied to the proactive and reactive signals emerging in the age of AI;

2)By 2050, fashion’s monopoly on aspirational consumption might be on life alert;

3)You might wanna wake up…... 74% of impulse purchases happen in bed.

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1)Our frameworks are steeped in hegemonic patterning, philosophy, sociology, economics, and psychology. 2)Our focus is unpacking how identity and status function as a rotational force— actively reorienting consumer behavior. 3)And for you, we’re surfacing culture’s critical inflection points— giving you a demystified lens on where consumption is moving next.

TLDR… a [zillennial] thinktank, if u will ;).

editor’s note: i refuse to dumb things down because, well, i respect you. i hope you enjoy the read :).

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As we discussed in great depth earlier this month (per , where we spun data into threads of gold), analogue—culture’s obsession w/ being “offline”—has officially gained momentum. How do we know for sure? Because of the ways it’s being culturally commodified. The term now signals taste, restraint, and discernment— perhaps it could even become the gen alpha vocal stim that finally displaces gen z’s use of the word chic.

And per our last chat, analogue has hit enough of a tipping point to show up as both a status symbol and a status object— a thing you can be, and a thing you can buy. This is happening through commodified signals (cough, brick users) that exist within a bubble of shared cultural language— think the advent of ‘closing rings’ via apple watches. Thus, what was once consumed implicitly (we’ll cover this in the next one) is now being consumed explicitly. This is the process that creates opportunity for a term to become singularly resonant as both clickbait and buybait.

If you’re a marketer, that might sound like walking through a field of tulips to you, but for those of us who have lived through the agitating, grating voice of dominant algorithmic consumption before…. analogue’s rise presents… kind of a crisis?

@tariromakoniClearing this up: status symbols usually do not beget egalitarian societal shifts !!!!!!! #analog #quietluxury #analysis #sociology #videoessay

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Acutely, the kind of crisis that I don’t think we (as a culture) have done a great job of articulating, economically or philosophically. So imagine my surprise when I was filming the video above, and my brain spun into a critical parallel that hit me like a ton of bricks: analogue’s rise in 2026 mirrors the rise of quiet luxury in 2022–2023.

So much so that it’s the cleanest way I can explain why analogue does (and more importantly WILL) matter. And because I can’t help myself, I also created and visualized a model to drive a larger, dare i say breathtaking, thesis home [note: NOT analogue specific… more systemic];

If you’re a brand, investor, or simply the sexiest form of consumer (academia pilled)….. i only threw this party 4U ;).

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(Some) of what we’re discussing behind the paywall: 1)Did the [redacted] SS26 show make hot rich wives buy (more) [redacted] for their hot rich husbands?; 2)Heritage-pilled brands are trending during a tr#mp presidency… what could go wrong?; 3)How this quarter proves that the algo is driving even (!!!) more consumption than perhaps, ever before; 4)And ofc… The Row vs Cos vs [redacted]….

I’m rinse and repeating Q3’s intro (ha!) because it’s still the right way to frame this convo: my background is in strategy, where I spent years advising up to a FAANG CEO on multibillion dollar growth. Which is perhaps important context to engender ur trust ahead of this analysis, but not rlly why we’re here: The Q4 LYST Index dropped yesterday, which for those unaware, is a VERY BIG DEAL.

I’ll also CONTINUE to say, time and time again, that The Lyst Index = fashion’s equivalent to The DOW. Why? They have the biggest public facing dataset in fashion (over 160M users) with an incredibly robust methodology.

It’s SO important to track and understand the contextual, macro framing of these shifts (and emergent patterns) because it informs SOOOO MUCH about consumption at large — sentiment, pricing demand (luxury vs affordables), resonant trends, and more.

Lyst was kind enough to give me a VIP Preview, so I’ve had a week to chew on these insights. Also, just so we’re all on the same page — a lot of lyst analyses that I see are.. not analyses. They are regurgitations of either what the Lyst team gives as “important insights to know” (extracted from the dataset that’s publicly viewable) or effectively re-stating the big moves (Saint Laurent holds at #1!; Prada is back in the top 5!).

That’s cool, but not why we’re here. There are plenty of sources you can turn to for a digestible line or two on what’s happening on the surface (which is still important media to consume!)… this is more about digging deeper to map micro-macro consumer dynamics (patterns) that reflect the why… we’re expanding, we’re looking around corners, and we’re distilling what matters in a consumable lens. Therefore, I’m going to act like I’m sending this up to my old CEOs (written in.. the TM version lol). Let’s rip;

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1)Our frameworks are steeped in hegemonic patterning, philosophy, sociology, economics, and psychology. 2)Our focus is unpacking how identity and status function as a rotational force— actively reorienting consumer behavior. 3)And for you, we’re surfacing culture’s critical inflection points— giving you a demystified lens on where consumption is moving next.

TLDR… a [zillennial] thinktank, if u will ;).

I’ve been observing. Which for anyone Jane Goodall pilled, is as luxurious as it sounds — ingesting massive amounts of media and theory (jstor, loml) and thinking deeply whilst watching people interact on the streets of tonally different cities (nyc, miami, palm beach).

As such, I’ve (intentionally) rendered myself silent. I’ve been deeply online and also blissfully offline. And I have an upcoming quarter filled with in-depth, perhaps blistering, observations for you.

Of which — you should know that I don’t really care if someone has broached the topic before, because that’s never the point here. Trademarked isn’t about being “first” for the sake of it, it’s about being timely while also being deep and thorough and precise… which more often than not.. means that we’re right :D.

I oftentimes say there are two wolves within me, perhaps neatly tied up within the dissonance of being a capitalist who read WSJ print every morning from age 12, to joyfully studying marxist theory at one of the most intense research universities in the world (johns hopkins).

Which neatly sets up the stakes for why I’ve been utterly fascinated by the (arguably dissonant) discourse surrounding “analogue.” I’ve found myself blissfully participating (i’m bricked for an avg of 15 hours/day each week) and seeking out other commodified ways to express just “how” analogue i’m being (an analysis for another day).

Media seemingly agrees with me (this one by Amy Francombe is brilliant). I know we’ve all been inundated by analogue as the breakaway status symbol x trend for 2026. Brands like SET ( !!!!) created timely brand activations around the concept — intersecting gorp core and athleisure with a philosophical backing found in leaving ur phone at HOME.

Brilliant, all of it. However, as much as I’ve enjoyed it (and as much as you all have loved searching for it—see the Google Trends graph above), I can’t shake the feeling that something’s slightly amiss.

Which also means… that I’ve done my research. It turns out there is a loose thread that we haven’t tugged yet.. which perhaps for some, might be an uncomfortable one.

Anyway, let’s dig in, if U dare ;).

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This week, something enormous happened. Journalist Chante Joseph wrote a viral (and brilliant) piece in British Vogue entitled: “Is Having A Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?” And while it was met with some trad-wife pilled commentary, I was SHOCKED to see the enormity of comments and organic posts (on tiktok/instagram) that are PRO the anti-boyfriend sentiment that Chante presents. '

@chantayyjayySo many thoughts! This is my 2AM summary please go and read ❤️

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For scale — Chante’s video (posted 3 days ago) received 2.8M views and 465K likes (with 4K comments/52K saves/46K SHARES); another TikTok creator shared the article alongside the caption: this is the content I buy magazines for, and it received 1.9M views and 353K likes; a smaller creator simply mentioned the article in on-screen text and it became one of her most viral videos — 1.7M views and 421K likes… I could go on and on and on and on…

Chante’s piece concluded with the following sentiment:

“Obviously there’s no shame in falling in love. But there’s also no shame in trying and failing to find it – or not trying at all. And as long as we’re openly re-thinking and criticising heteronormativity, “having a boyfriend” will remain a somewhat fragile or even contentious concept within public life. This is also happening alongside a wave of women reclaiming and romanticising their single life. Where being single was once a cautionary tale (you’ll end up a “spinster” with loads of cats), it is now becoming a desirable and coveted status, another nail in the coffin of a centuries-old heterosexual fairytale that never really benefitted women to begin with.”

Here, she skillfully leads readers to subtly question if male proximity, once a form of symbolic capital, might now be a liability…. a groundbreaking line of questioning that begs to be probed deeper (in an academia-adjacent way). Which… is our calling card over here.

And as wise people have said for centuries, if you want to know what’s really happening— follow the money. To which I say: gladly.

Unearthing the Commodification of Commodification

Like angels harkening from the sky, the concurrent timing on this stuff is.. nuts. Last week, the influencer monetization + curational startup ShopMy officially became a unicorn (raising $70M on a $1.5B valuation).

When I incubated the research arm of a VC within my strategy team at a FAANG company (none of these words are in the Bible), my job was partly focused on spotting and tracking inflection points + extracting complex narratives across the startup ecosystem to paint an accurate picture of What’s Next for my two CEOs. If I were still there, I know I’d have gotten an exec text on this raise, not only bc Big Fat Raises matter… but because leaders are increasingly interested in the ones that have nothing to do with AI.

I should note that I am ALSO saying This Matters as someone who was bullish enough to invest in ShopMy — for me, the why is a bit more personal, but no less exacting: their business model corroborates the business and economic justification of influence. Even better — it’s reliable, repeatable, and scalable.

Their raise is less about flaming the embers of #girlboss culture, and far more about corroborating a very important thesis: that influence, largely built and sustained by women, is a legitimate economic engine. I mean, according to NIQ in 2024, women around the world will control 75% of discretionary spending in the next 5 years; women currently influence 70-80% of all consumer spending. Contextualized within ShopMy’s valuation… you start to see affirmation of a nascent shift: the commodification of commodification.

Finally, we can exist in a world where women are getting rich off of making the economy rich. I can’t even breathe as I type because there’s so much insane theory to unpack what! this! means!! within the context of the consumer landscape… alongside some STRONG theory-backed discovery on What’s Up Next if you’re a brand/founder/investor algjaljfalkfjalfalkajf.

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