New-stalgia
Millions of Americans, nostalgic for better times—both real and imagined—are re-mixing elements of the past to fill the void.
Dissatisfied with today’s increasing complexity, political chaos and polarization, people of all ages are longing for simpler times, and businesses and politicians are stepping up their nostalgia marketing to meet demand. Here’s a brief look at the trend.
NEW YORK—Flip phones. Vinyl records. Low-rise jeans. Point-and-shoot film cameras. Boom boxes. Mix tapes. Wrist watches needing manual re-winds. Print books and magazines. Fur boas. Stranger Things.
Pre-digital. Analog only, with a twist.
Ironic? For a while now, generations Z and Alpha—the world’s youngest and most digitally immersed generations—have been embracing aesthetic and analog elements from eras they never experienced first-hand. According to the Human Flourishing Lab and other research, Gen Z digital natives have unprecedented access to the past online, chiefly the pre-digital 1980s, “and are driven by their search for stability in a rapidly changing world.”
But this year, says Mike Bechtel, managing director and chief futurist at Deloitte Consulting, “2025 is becoming so politically turbulent, intense and economically uncertain, the entire country needs a little escapism—and that need is being reflected in a shift in consumer preferences for products representing, or at least referencing, simpler times.”
It’s not so hard to figure out why. “When was the last time you felt secure about the future?” Gen Z influencer Deja Foxx said in a podcast interview I had with her last month at SXSW. “For Gen Z, who came of age during a pandemic, climate crisis, economic uncertainty and now today’s increasingly ugly, polarized social and political landscape, the answer may be—never.”
But it’s not just Gen Z that’s taking some refuge in remixing the past.
What some culture watchers are now calling “new-stalgia”—a desire for familiarity combined with novelty—involves reimagining and revitalizing past elements to create resilience in the present.
Fear Factor
In today’s political, economic, social and environmental climate, we’re not just looking to the past for comfort. We’re also scrambling for clues to help us navigate the future.
Here are a few of the most prevalent forces both driving and tapping into today’s new-stalgia trend:
Americans are both angry and unhappy—and worry about the future. “Looking at the past to slow down the present” influenced last year’s global elections and some of the cultural shifts now being experienced in the U.S. and Europe, says this year’s World Happiness Report. In this annual, Gallup-led survey of how more than 100 countries rank their well-being, the U.S. has fallen to its lowest level of happiness (24th) since the survey launched in 2012. The United Kingdom (23rd) also has tumbled, and both nations are still reeling from “a rise in political polarization and anti-system voting … including the election of Donald Trump in 2024.” A steep decline in social trust and “life satisfaction” is “pushing groups of people … to support anti-system and populist political parties,” the report said. “ …Low-trust people are found more often on the far right, whereas high-trust people are more inclined to vote for the far left.” Taking comfort in the past eases fear.
New-stalgia promotes ‘belonging.’ For generations Z and Alpha, new-stalgia has materialized into a longing for “better memories never lived” in a simpler time—a powerful hook for companies and politicians looking to rethink connection and expand community engagement. “For a generation managing their personal brands across multiple platforms while navigating an overwhelming news cycle, there’s something deeply appealing to younger consumers about eras when phones were just phones and social media didn’t exist,” says Deloitte’s Bechtel. Authenticity also matters. Gatorade’s “It Hasn’t Changed” ad campaign uses nostalgic, black-and-white images of famous athletes in action from its commercials aired since its founding in 1965. The goal: to remind and reassure consumers, new and old, that the company’s 60-year mission—to help all athletes fulfill their potential—endures.
New-stalgia is fashionable. At January’s Paris fashion week, nostalgia was, for some designers, a defining theme. Dior chief designer Maria Grazia Chirui told AFP.com, the Paris-based news agency, that her Spring-Summer 2025 collection was “inspired by the creativity of past centuries,” while designer Zuhair Murad, who has been working with his homeland of Lebanon under Israeli bombardment, said his collection was “inspired by the nostalgia of past peace, and also by the idea of a tropical island that would be a refuge from the harsh realities of life.” Vogue and Elle fashion journalist Lara Johnson-Wheeler says that for many of the 2025-2026 Fall-Winter collections, fashion designers “have been approaching nostalgia positively by … treating memory lane like an escape, like our allotted exercise time outdoors—actively engaging in it to find peace and stability in troubled times.”
New-stalgia is influencing corporate strategies for the future of work. A 2021 article by writer Clay Routledge in the Harvard Business Review argued, post-COVID, that nostalgia “is an important psychological resource that helps individuals cope with life’s stressors, build strong relationships, find and maintain meaning in life, and become more creative and inspired.” Routledge says nostalgia’s influence remains strong. Historically, it wasn’t always celebrated. In the 17th Century, it was thought to be a mental malady and a potentially deadly disease. But today, says Tim Wildschut, a professor of social psychology at England’s University of Southampton, nostalgia is widely considered to be both a creative mindset and emotion which can help people socialize, feel empathy and find more meaning in life.
The downside?
In a world of unrest and instability, new-stalgia can “act as a comfort blanket,” Deloitte’s Bechtel adds, “but be wary, too.” He says new-stalgia also can be used by politicians to re-frame history for political advantage. In politics, nostalgia has sometimes been used to alter, re-frame or exploit our memories of the past—often to increase sales, win close elections or to justify potentially unpopular policy changes.
Trump signed an executive order last week entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which directs Vice President Vance to eliminate what Trump calls “divisive race-centered ideology” from Smithsonian museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo. “Museums in our nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn—not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history,” Trump said, referring to recent exhibitions about the country’s history of both struggle and success living up to the tenets of democracy, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Deloitte’s Bechtel says studying the past provides lessons for the future. “When one way of running the world seems to be exhausted, but the next has yet to come into being, the past can hold some important lessons,” Bechtel said in an interview. “When nothing seems to make sense, history becomes an important discipline. But the best way to harness the past demolishes prejudice and opens creative horizons and helps people to decide what to bring with them and what to leave behind as they keep moving forward.
“This (new-stalgia) trend is still evolving but will remain an important reflection of how the world sees us and how we see ourselves going forward.”
What do you think? Is playing to nostalgia by marketers and some politicians helping to preserve the status quo, disrupt it—or move us with less fear through turbulence and uncertainty into the future?
Please share your comments with us. We always love to hear your take and new insights on cultural trends in this turbulent time!