Social Media and Digital Marketing (WK2) - Design Blog

Lately, I’ve been noticing an interesting shift in holiday design: our beloved ’90s Christmas nostalgia is getting a makeover...and people are calling it “Ralph Lauren Christmas”. Basically, take everything you remember from millennial childhood holidays (the warm, colored lights, the slightly chaotic ornaments, the cozy-but-cluttered living rooms...nothing really "curated", just vibes) and imagine it all filtered through a polished, preppy, plaid-filled lens. Suddenly, the same nostalgia comes with leather armchairs, tartan throws, brass accents, and evergreen everything. It’s like our old holiday memories went off to boarding school and came back extremely put-together.

What makes this even more interesting is that it’s not a one-off thing. It’s something that happens over and over in design. Trend cycles love to take something sentimental, repackage it with a cooler, more elevated twist, and market it as an original concept. Think about how mid-century furniture went from “grandma’s basement leftovers” to high-end minimalism/vintage, or how 70s earth tones made a comeback as modern, organic luxury. Even the early-2000s Y2K aesthetic returned recently, only this time with intentional styling instead of just shiny lip gloss and chaos.

So the “Ralph Lauren Christmas” trend is really just the latest example. It’s still the warm, familiar nostalgia we grew up with, just edited, curated, and wrapped in complementary plaid instead of multi-color fairy lights and mismatched decor. It’s our memories, but with better lighting and a touch more polish. Personally, I don't dislike it, but it is odd to be at an age where the childhood I grew up with is now being repackaged as something else. I did a project on this last year, and the example was bell-bottom jeans. When I was in middle school (circa 2000s), we thought we INVENTED bell-bottoms, and my mom couldn't tell me any differently. Obviously, as an adult, I know better now. 

Understanding trend cycles, as well as listening to your target audience to decide which trends are going to be successfully repackaged and reintroduced, is going to be instrumental in the success of your brand and design campaign. 

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