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holland's next plumber The revival of the handmade, the inherited and the artisanal handicraft To think about the future one not only has to have a strong connection to the past but, maybe even more importantly, to be in tune with the present. Change takes time and so does the development of long-term trends. Therefore, my view on the future consists of ideas and convictions that might have originated a few years earlier. One of these statements had been that, what with all the high pressure of being online at all times, society was slowly retreating from this constant need to publicly express.

Instead, people would start putting the same amount of energy in their actual offline friendships as they would in the updating of their Facebook status. Call it the return of a Jip & Janneke mentality; where neighbors know each other’s name and there is a strong sense of community. ‘Raising a child takes a village’, the saying goes or, in this case, a neighborhood. Something which can only benefit the youngest in society, whom I watch with great sadness, their eyes glued to their mobile phones and unable to do math without a calculator.

But I have high hopes as intelligence is officially the new sexy. This also signifies a change in dress , since smart is never associated with being scantily clad, it literally means fashion is less revealing and more about covering up. Again, this had been described taking shape years earlier as the ‘burkanization’ in and outside of fashion.

This all emphasizes that, though surely our lives have benefited from becoming cosmopolitan citizens, there is a strong need for a local refuge, a craving for a more pronounced sense of pride in national identity. It also says something about wanting to be truly acknowledged, there’s plenty of room to be anonymous in the virtual world, but being recognized as Thomas Stevens has a far more profound effect than being recognized as MagazineFreak83, or whatever avatar one might have. This shift will also lead do a newfound appreciation for artisanal heritage and craftsmanship.

For years the only qualities deemed appropriate to have were singing and dancing, and while these are great feats to be in the possession of, it is time for Holland’s Next Plumber, Butcher, Builder and Baker.

The widespread democratization of fashion and design has left the middle segment of the market highly saturated and because of its mass production, it will lead to a revival of the handmade, the inherited and the artisanal handicraft. This also applies to a discipline that has raised some concerns in the past, that of printed media. The truth is, there is simply no competing with big players like H&M or VOGUE, nor is it necessary. A magazine like INDUSTRIE or The Gentlewoman have both proven to be successful because of their independent point of view, as well as their aim to gear towards more of a niche market.

The future will only establish that, even though e-books and e-zines have made life more easy, there’s no substituting the smell of an old library book or a freshly printed magazine.