Echoing new concepts detailed in Global Store Openings: Winter 2023 (see Ultra-Nature Reverence) and the future-positive messaging in Eco Comms: Summer 2023 (see Project Optimism), the grand imperative was to rethink our relationship with nature and indigenous cultures, including recasting green energy and biomaterials via a seductively inspirational design lens.

Tapping into the growing audience appetite for hyperrealism in physical environments as well as online (see Virtualised VM in Global Store Openings: Autumn 2023), several installations offered significant spatial inspiration by fusing virtual, AI-fuelled dreamscapes and surrealistic iconography with the tactile frisson of physical environments.

Heritage matters: rounding off a year of luxury brands flaunting their heritage credentials via opulent travelling exhibitions (from Bulgari’s immersive Serpenti-collection celebrating showcase to Gucci Cosmos detailed in Evolving Luxury Retail: Trends & Opportunities), Swiss fine jeweller/watch-maker Cartier unleashed its roaming self-homage, while US resales site StockX and The Museum of Graffiti showcased the conjoined history of hip hop and sneakers.

Homing in on the power of play, including the allure of nostalgia in new formats and the evolved notion of kidulting (childlike, now often encompassing mindfulness-inducing activities for adults), several brands backed inspirational playscapes and/or campaigns with an overtly liberating sense of playfulness. Embracing cultural diversity underscored more than one.