It’s time to trade in sweatpants for sequins! After a year of being couch-bound, consumers are ready to roar like it’s the first 1920s. While Millennial brides are already pinning their perfect flapper dresses, most of Gen Z isn’t practicing the trend as explicitly as TikTok artist Flo Milli’s music video ​“Roaring 20s” but Gen Z is getting their Gatsby on.

Gen Z isn’t alone in this trend: economists, investors, journalists and artists of various ilk are all predicting a post-Covid boom. The Financial Times predicts ​“a once-in-a-century boom.” The Economist anticipates a ​“new period of economic dynamism.” And Millennial writer Cat Marnell forecasts an era reminiscent of New York City’s post‑9/​11 nightlife explosion, telling HYPEBAE, ​“counterculture and hedonism is going to be a huge thing.” Meanwhile, various categories are already seeing the horizon: luxury tour operators report travel bookings surging for the coming year; designers from Gucci to Fashion Brand Company have debuted looks featuring overlapping patterns, bright colors and loads of embellishments, and demand is up for statement pieces from investment bags to men’s fine jewelry. 2020 boom times cut across culture.

Booze may be delivered by an app these days, but we all just experienced a mega prohibition of the primal sorts. Most of the activities — like, you know, parties, concerts, and touching people who aren’t your parents — have been pretty much off-limits to Gen Z just at the moment most folks usually are pushing their limits.

It’s not that they just missed out on a year of making ​“memories,” Gen Z is coming of age during a period of collective mourning. They are mourning for those who lost their lives during the pandemic, the legacy of inequality, as well as earth’s human-induced trauma. And grieving is naturally a time when we turn to things like sex, humor, and partying that ​“drive the dopamine system in the brain, which gives feelings of optimism, energy, focus, and motivation,” according to Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist at the Kinsey Institute.

The ​“Roar” of the 2020’s aren’t only about sex, drugs, and fight clubs. We’re also seeing this primal hedonistic urge play out in mainstream consumer culture in safer ways. Growing up on the internet, Gen Z is used to pulling references out of their contexts, collapsing categories, remixing eras, and using technology to add their own fresh flair. Now, they are ready to debut their fresh looks outside of their bedrooms with a sense of self-confidence they gained during the pandemic.

Turning to past underground movements, Gen Z is remixing underground fashion from the past and creatively making a moment that’s all their own. Everything from retro Delia’s catalogs to ​‘60s counterculture, Gen Z is embracing a wide range of non-conformist fashions and emphasizing what sets them apart as individuals.

For Gen Z, it’s totally normal that you might don a corset (a nod to Regencycore) over a vintage Cheetos t‑shirt (layering like it’s 2001) and a neon fuzzy bucket hat (a pinch of ​‘90s Club Kid) all at once. They aren’t worried about matching; instead they’re focused on mixing fashion pieces for maximal visual impact in an effort to ​“peacock,” as Gap’s CEO Sonia Syngal put it.

Peacocking isn’t only taking place on TikTok, though many Gen Zs do look for fashion inspiration there. Virtual wardrobes and fantastical backdrops are dissolving retail boundaries and inviting consumers to use their imagination to remix their personal fashion with ease. Virtual fittings are no longer trapped within the confines of consumers’ homes or existing retail, rather they can happen in far-out dream spaces. Generally fashion is waging an all out ​“rebellion against minimal… with an escapist and silly edge,” according to designer and retail strategist Kate Machtiger, founder of Extra Terrestrial Studio.

Gen Z is also taking a maximal-absurdist approach to interior design, combining elements from various eras of teenage dreams. Hypebeasts wait on lines for maximal-gaudy tufted rug drops from trendy carpet makers like Gaudmother. Wiggles, blobs and squiggles are all riding this wave in the form of furniture silhouettes, mirror frames and candles. Inflatable furniture is making a comeback: Urban Outfitters now offers a line of stools that look like oversized Americana food and trippy mushrooms are becoming a core motif for Gen Z décor. And Etsy searches for ​“mushroom lamps” are up 371% while there’s been a 902% increase in searches for ​“mushroom pillows and pillowcases.”

While fashion has gone maximalist, music has embraced the overwhelm, and interior design is just absurd — these trends are not without purpose. Gen Zs are remaining true to their values and remixing culture to build their vision of a better future. For example, most hyperpop musicians are LGBTQ+, open-sourced, activists for multiple causes, and engage fans as equals. Gen Z fashionistas are achieving the remixed maximalism look by shopping in their closets or thrift stores to avoid waste. Even when Zs dress in head-to-toe vintage, that doesn’t mean they aren’t woke to the historical reality of how terrible it was for anyone ​“different” to live during those time periods. ​“Vintage style, not values” reads period Cosplay influencer Samantha Van Wie’s bio — an attitude shared by most Gen Zs.

In fact, the same creators donning vintage attire frequently mix in challenges to what they consider ​“outdated” values head-on. Meanwhile would-be interior designers are tackling mental health stigmas by making humor, authenticity and happiness central to their aesthetic. All of this may at first glance appear to be nothing more than a new generation’s play, but as Silicon Valley entrepreneur Chris Dixon famously said ​“the next big thing will start out looking like a toy.” So, the future asks are you ready to play in the Roaring 20s Remix?

WHAT IT MEANS FOR BRANDS: 

Now is not a time to be understated. If the history of pandemic lockdowns, recession and the like tell us anything: Culture is about to explode. Embrace it.

Speak to Zs’ primal side. The coming year is going to be highly emotional as consumers reconnect with their friends — and themselves. Help them navigate all the feels. Provide them with safe spaces and tools for the bad ones, and be a companion for the good ones.

Provide opportunities for consumers to be risqué and push their limits, while still feeling safe. From personal style to brand events and entertainment consumption, Zs will be looking to experience over-the-top options, but realistically may be easily overwhelmed.

Provide Gen Z consumers with tools that enable them to remix key elements of their lives, from fashion to food to purpose and career. Now is the time to mix it up and celebrate the unknowns.