According to Pinterest, we’re in a pickle for 2025 🥒
talking [holiday] nonsense, Pinterest Predicts 2025 trends, and alligator bites
Megan on Pinterest Predicts taking the crown from Spotify Wrapped
We’re putting our Spotify-wrapped disappointment aside to focus on a more worthy end-of-year data dump: Pinterest Predicts.
Each year, the website known for its wealth of #inspo leverages its internal data to predict what will be trendy the following year. The idea is that Pinterest is the starting point for the consumer journey as people look for inspiration, make mood boards, and plan their aspirational future. Therefore, looking at what’s happening on Pinterest can give foresight into what people are planning and potential future trends, especially aesthetic ones (at least according to Pinterest’s positioning of the annual report).
While we’ve been fans since its inception in 2021, and this year, we’re especially loving the campaign surrounding the report as much–if not more than–the report itself.
Usually, Pinterest simply drops the report one day in December. This time, we were treated to a whole teaser campaign! A few days before the release, they debuted a vibey video trailer giving us a taste of a few trends without context. But they didn’t stop there - the platform also pulled the classic celebrity tactic of deleting your whole Instagram feed to signal a big announcement.
Pinterest also partnered with brands to create 20 custom experiences and collaborations called “Trend Drops” tied to each trend they identified. From baroque-themed Canva templates to blinged-out gold teeth designed by celebrity jeweler Clova Rae-Smith to nautical baubles from Wolf Circus, they’re doing more than just talk about trends; they’re manifesting them.
That said, I (and other trend forecasters) wanted the report itself to go even further and would love for Pinterest to be more forward-thinking and bold in its predictions. Trends like Cherry Coded, Pickle Fix, and Doll House aren’t incorrect and likely will grow in popularity in 2025. However, they feel like more reflection than prediction, with many being readily accessible and widely mainstream.
Still, I can’t help but see this as a good problem for Pinterest to have. It's a side effect of their growing influence (with a reported 537M monthly active user base). As the typical user goes from aesthetic tastemaker to gen pop normie, their measurable behaviors will be less culturally emergent and more mainstream.
Coolness and trendiness feel increasingly quantifiable, and their value in marketing is more appealing than ever. Pinterest Predicts is one of the most accessible entry points to data-backed forecasting, but like Spotify Wrapped, we’re craving a little less playing it safe and a few more hot takes!
This week in Cool Shiny Culture:
🔮 Megan’s Cool: Luckily, my favorite fashion trend forecaster, Mandy Lee, aka @OldLoserinBrooklyn, was there to give me the bold prediction I was craving. Around the same Pinterest dropped their predictions, she dropped one of her own: the rise of the Merkin. Controversial yet brave.
🐊 Kaley’s Cool: We’ve been nudging you to check her out but now it’s officially time to know her name: Doechii! This week, Billboard named the Tampa-born rapper’s, Alligator Bites Never Heal, one of their top 10 albums of 2024. The next day she graced the Colbert stage with one of the coolest performances on late night in a minute. Next, she followed it up with an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, the same miniature stage that accelerated Chappell Roan’s meteoric breakout. No wonder Kendrick Lamar called her the “hardest rapper out.”
🎁 Megan’s Shiny: As a Carpenter, it’s my sacred duty to request that you please please please watch “A Nonsense Christmas” on Netflix. It’s a musical comedy holiday special from one of 2024’s breakout pop acts: Sabrina Carpenter. A mix of skits, performances, and special guests (Kaley’s fave Chappell makes a dazzling appearance) wrapped in Sabrina’s signature hyper-feminine doll-like aesthetic, it’s the perfect thing to give your 8-hour Yule log video a break this holiday season.
🔥🎅🏻Kaley’s Shiny: Is it just me, or are there more buzzy Christmas romance novels this year? Just like Netflix has gotten in on the schmaltz, popular authors like Susan Mallory, Ali Hazelwood, and Meghan Quinn have submitted their smutty entries to the holiday catalog. My seasonal fave?: Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey. Next up: Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
Must See TT: Sofia Richie has rhythm—sparks discourse.
Sofia Richie has done it again: unintentionally gone viral for simply living her gorgeous nepo baby life (see: her French Riviera wedding slash TikTok account launch for her past contributions to the culture). Most recently, she has TikTok in a tizzy thanks to her “moves.” We say “moves” like that because she barely wiggled in the Jake Shane clip that shook the internet. We listen, and we don’t judge. 🤷
Marketing of note 📝: Timmy talking sports to drum up male interest for his Bob Dylan biopic
My son, Timothee Chalamet, has a new movie to promote, and he’s hoping the boys will see it.
Kylie Jenner’s boyfriend made an appearance on College GameDay to talk football and apparently knows what the hell he’s talking about. Believe it or not, Timmy was the only panelist on the show to accurately predict the outcome of the Ohio game.
This seemingly random appearance comes ahead of his starring role in the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” (which, according to our faves at Who? Weekly, is quite good.)
I would bet you a dozen ripe peaches that, between Club Chalamet’s diligent social promo, the lookalike contest, and Timmy’s general rizz, the movie had been testing well with women, but the fellas needed more convincing to get them to the theater. Solution? Football.
Props to my boy for donning a hot pink jacket. He did that for us girlies & that’s why we love him.
Off to study the chokehold Sofia Richie has on y’all,
Megan & Kaley
P.S. We’re hoping to end the year with a few more subscribers, so we’d consider it a gift if you’d forward this to at least 1 person on your nice list. 🍪🥛🎁
Sharing and loving this so much!