Photo Credit: liquor.com
We were asked the question: Why, at this very moment, are cocktail and stylistic approaches to glassware trending retro? If the Jetsons designed 2017, it probably wouldn’t include classic cocktail shapes making a comeback.
This of course is a loaded question informed by a growing millennial dollar and renaissance of social values, all embedded in a world both freed and burdened by modern technological advancements. Yet when we try to find reasoning behind trends, we tend to focus on one reason at a time. Perhaps it’s multiple reasons bound together that are putting what would be considered “Retro” back in the public eye.
AMC’s Mad Men
With Millennials driving consumption and trends across multiple industries, brands are looking to connect with those consumers through emotion, expressing values and morals in product presentation. It is the emotional connection that keeps consumers going back to a specific brand, company, or establishment, especially in a time where advertising and opinions are buried the minute they’re posted. This can be seen in fashion, interior design, and of course, glassware. Mixologists are not only looking for functionality and creativity when choosing barware, but also to capture a sense of nostalgia.
Vintage style glassware serves as a reminder to a time of elegance and class. Those who are drinking are not consuming solely for the sake of it, but rather to be seen with good taste, to be imbibing in spirits presented in a way that connects with the consumer on a deeper level. As stated earlier, we often look to the past for feelings of comfort, and according to American literary critic and political theorist Fredric Jameson, one doesn’t necessarily need to live through an era to feel nostalgia for it.
Nick and Nora by Steelite
In the current state of society, Millennials are looking toward past decades where life seemed “easier” or “simple”; places in time that pop culture has revived and romanticized. Consumers want to experience it firsthand, from the clothes they wear to the cocktails they drink. Yet culture, especially pop culture, has always been obsessed with its own past.
Broadway by Arcoroc
The rise of social media has given that obsession a platform for visibility. An article from The Atlantic suggests that while recycling the past is nothing new, the vast digital advances of the most-recent decade has caused retro culture to explode. Over-documentation on YouTube, Instagram, and other social media outlets makes retro trends feel closer than ever before—only a few clicks away.
Because trends are documented so rapidly on social media, it speeds up this process of recycling the past, causing retro trends to skyrocket in popularity. This also reflects the ways that Instagram is changing the restaurant business. Retro style glassware is eye-catching, with remarkable attention to detail. This makes retro cocktails and glassware perfect for Instagram. With the Culinary Institute of America now offering food photography classes, social media has a bigger impact on the hospitality industry than ever before. It has the ability to capture, create, and spread trends at an incredible rate.
Photo Credit: TravelandLeisure.com
Yet, while nostalgia and the subsequent desire to share that with others motivate what’s relevant in the moment, its still a numbers game. Millennials are drinking less, so when they are drinking they want variation. They want the most modern designs and approaches to their beverage experience but always want to be able to bar crawl to a location with a vintage atmosphere. Pairing that with technological advancements in the industry that are allowing tabletop companies to commit to shorter, more tailored runs with a friendly price tag, it becomes more practical for restauranteurs to take risks on a variety of trends.
Carats-Double Old Fashioned by Libbey
This is something you see in a majority of industries, people don’t just want the nearly identical Apple or Samsung… they want modular phones, they want buttonless phones, they want thousand dollar phones, and they want to be able to easily switch between them. With brand loyalty feeling like a thing of the past, in today’s market it would appear as though as long as your product skews towards “sustainably sourced” and gives off the appearance of being “conscious” it stands to be on trend, at least with the millennial dollar. Mix in the tumultuous social and economic problems of the modern world and the option to escape to a “better” or more “simple” time is certainly an alluring one that the modern consumer wants at arms reach.
We no longer live in an age of “what’s old is new and what’s new is old” and are instead entering a realm of “wanting it all at any given moment.” It’s that foundation of having options, being able to escape in them, and being able to share that escape with friends and family that seem to inform the trends of today. We often preach the idea that consumers aren’t looking for better prices, they’re looking for better experiences. Perhaps part of creating those better experiences is in acknowledging that the table is finally large enough for all trends to sit at, old and new.
-Grace S., Stephanie B., & Hamid A.
