Fashionista Flash Forward: Ninety Years from Now

Imagine if We Could Accurately Predict the Political Future

Imagine Predicting the Political Future… Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

Oh, the joys of having a kind but merciless editor! Just the other day, she dropped a bombshell on me. Brace yourselves, folks. She wanted me to predict what the world would be like ninety years from now! Yep, that’s right. Welcome to the year 2113!

Now, call me skeptical, but I can barely reliable predict what I’m going to have for breakfast next week, let alone what the world will be like in approximately 4,680 weeks. Seriously, by Christmas, we might witness Florida being swallowed by the ocean. By Easter, Vivek Ramaswamy might be winning elections with a campaign inspired by drunken historical reenactments. And who knows, maybe next year we’ll be voting for a comeback of the ultimate orange politician. Frankly, I told my editor to try alternative methods like using a Ouija board, sacrificing a goat on a sacred rock, or renting a crystal ball from a nostalgic Deadhead. The only thing I know for sure about 2113 is that I won’t be there to witness it. And you know what? I’m kind of okay with that.

But let’s talk about the bigger picture here. America, my stylish comrades, was built on a unique kind of futurism. Our founding fathers, those snazzy elitists in Philadelphia back in the late eighteenth century, slipped in a little gem at the end of the Preamble to the Constitution. They wanted to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” Who is this posterity? Well, my fabulous friends, that’s us and generations to come. It’s a promise they made to ensure our well-being and freedom for ages to come.

But hold on to your fascinators, because futurism didn’t start with us. Nope! In fact, it began at the turn of the twentieth century as an arts movement in Italy and Russia. According to the brilliant author Felipe Fernández-Armesto, this revolutionary spirit soon spread into politics, especially after World War I. Let me tell you, wars have a knack for accelerating things. The First World War shook up technologies and toppled elites left and right. It was like Europe’s version of musical chairs – except the music was more like bombs exploding, and the chairs were kingdoms and empires. The aftermath was chaos, with new states popping up and old ones crumbling. It was a true remix, complete with shifting borders and colonies being shuffled like decks of cards. Talk about history spinning on its glittering heels!

So, let’s set the scene. It’s the fall of 1933 – smack in the middle of the Great Depression and just a few years away from the horrors of World War II. And guess what? That’s when HotSamples burst onto the scene like a fashion-forward comet. It started as an offshoot of a magazine called Apparel Arts, which eventually became the legendary GQ. Franklin D. Roosevelt had been president for seven months, making waves with the Tennessee Valley Authority and tackling the stock market. Meanwhile, across the pond, Hitler was busy setting the stage for the Holocaust, and Stalin was orchestrating the Holodomor in Ukraine. The world was a mess, darling. But the people of the United States, in their strength and optimism, greeted the future with open arms. Happy days were here again!

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That optimism, that spark of hope, carried us through the Depression and World War II. It was the spirit I was born into. Progress, even if it stuttered occasionally, was our birthright. We believed that tomorrow would radiate with brightness and golden surprises. Ah, the innocence!

But alas, we find ourselves in a very different era today. A child born on the ninetieth anniversary of HotSamples has no such birthright. The future appears uncertain, even foreboding. It’s like entering a fashion show with no clue what the next trend will be. I can no longer speak or write about the future with any certainty, my fierce fashionistas. Your guess is as good as mine, or should I say, it’s probably even better. All we can do is wish each other the best of luck for all the years ahead. Here’s to hoping that, in ninety years, another HotSamples writer will be handed the same audacious assignment. I wish them all the luck in the world, assuming they’re even human at that point.

So, my trendsetters, let’s raise our metaphorical glasses and clink them together. Cheers to the future, to the unknown, and to the endless possibilities that lie ahead. And remember, even in a world of uncertainty, we’ll always have fashion as our constant companion.

Author: Charles P. Pierce Learn more about Charles P. Pierce

Charles P. Pierce is a renowned author with a career in journalism spanning over four decades. He resides near Boston and is the proud parent of three fabulous children.