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Fujifilms newest camera model, the Instax Mini Evo Cinema, is a gadget thats designed for the retro camera craze. The device is a vertically oriented instant camera that can take still images, videos (an Instax camera first), connect with your smartphone to turn its photos into physical prints, and capture images in a wide range of retro aesthetics. Its debuting in North American markets in early February for $409.95. Fujifilms new model taps into a younger consumer bases growing interest both in retro tech and film photography aestheticsa trend thats been driven, in large part, by platforms like TikTok. The Instax Mini Evo Cinema turns that niche into a clever feature called the Gen Dial: a literal dial that lets users toggle between decades to capture their perfect retro shot. [Photo: Fujifilm] How the Gen Dial works Almost everything about the Instax Mini Evo Cinema screams nostalgia, from its satisfying tactile buttons to its vertical orientationand thats by design. According to Fujifilm, the cameras silhouette is inspired by the 1965 Fujica Single-8, an 8-millimeter camera initially introduced as an alternative to Kodaks Super 8. While the Instax Mini Evo Cinema does come with a small LCD display, its main functions are controlled with a series of dials, buttons, and switches, which Fujifilm says are designed to evoke the feel of winding film by hand, add to the analog charm, and expand the joy of shooting and printing. The most innovative of these is undoubtedly the Gen Dial. While there are plenty of existing editing apps and filter presets to give a photo a certain vintage look in-post, this may be the first instant camera to actually brand in-camera filters by era. [Photo: Fujifilm] The dial is labeled in 10-year increments, from 1930 to 2020. To choose an effect, users can simply click to the era theyd like to replicate, then shoot and print. According to the company, selecting 1940 will result in a look inspired by the vivid color expression of the three-color film processes, for example; 1980 pulls cues from 35-millimeter color negative film; and 2010 evokes the style of early smartphone photo-editing apps (throwback!). “Overall, our goal with Mini Evo Cinema is to deepen options for creative expression,” says Ashley Reeder Morgan, VP of consumer products for Fujifilm’s North America division. “Beyond video, the Gen Dial provides an experience to transcend time and space over 100 years (10 eras), applying both visual and audio to the mini Evo Cinema output.” From left: 1940, 1980, and 2010 styles [Photos: Fujifilm] For amateur photographers looking to achieve a certain vintage aesthetic without spending endless hours in Adobe Lightroom or fiddling with complicated camera settings, its the perfect intuitive solution. Retro cameras get a TikTok-driven boost For Fujifilm, the Instax Mini Evo Cinema is part of a broader, internet-driven revival of the brands camera division. While Fujifilm previously spent years moving away from its legacy camera business to focus on healthcare, its $1,599 retro-themed X100V camerawhich went viral on TikTokrecently triggered a resurgence in its sales. The companys most recent financials, released in September, show that its imaging division (which includes cameras) experienced a 15.6% revenue increase year over year, which Morgan says is attributable to the success of its instant and digital cameras. “Overall, we have been thrilled to see younger generations rediscovering the joy of photography, whether instant, analog, or digital,” Morgan says. The X100Vs popularity online is likely driven by Gen Z and Gen Alphas interest in retro tech aesthetics (see: Urban Outfitters iPod revival), as well as a more general resurgence in film photography in recent years. Analog cameras are having a moment, and companies like Polaroid and Fujifilm are cashing in.
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Reddit is now the fourth most visited social media platform in the U.K., overtaking TikTok. The online discussion platform has seen immense growth over the past two years, reaching 88% more internet users in the U.K., thanks to a combination of shifting search algorithms and social media habits. Three in five Brits now encounter the site while online, according to Ofcom, up from a third in 2023. The U.K. now has the second largest user base behind the U.S., according to company records shared with the Guardian. Reddit has also witnessed a drastic demographic change over the same period. More than half of the platforms users in the U.K. are now women and one-third are Gen Z women, many of whom turn to the platform for forums dedicated to skincare, beauty, and cosmetics. A change in Googles search algorithms last year, prioritizing content sourced from discussion forums, is partly behind the platforms growth. Reddit has since become the most-cited source for Google AI overviews, after inking deals with Google and OpenAI, placing the platform at the lucrative intersection of traditional search and AI discovery. Thats combined with the ways we search online evolving in recent years. Many internet users bypass Google altogether and instead seek out human-generated reviews and opinions on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, or Reddit. Gen Z are very open to looking online for advice around these life stage moments, like leaving home and renting for the first time, which happens a little bit later for some of this generation, Jen Wong, Reddits chief operating officer, told The Guardian. Its a very safe place to ask questions about balancing a cheque book, or how to pay for a wedding. Rival platforms like YouTube and Facebook have become subsumed with AI-generated slop, and the percentage of Americans using X since Elon Musk took over has dropped drasticallysince overtaken by Redditaccording to new findings from Pew Research. Here, Reddit stands out as one of the last remaining platforms that holds a semblance of the small community-run forums of the early internet. Users follow topics of interest rather than influencers. Everyone is anonymous rather than at the mercy of an algorithm. Rather than offering answers it thinks users want to hear, or serving an endless stream of spam, bots and slop, the human-centred discussion threads that remain at its core invite curiositythe foundation the internet was built upon in the first place.
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E-Commerce
Amanda Lee McCarty, sustainability consultant and host of the Clotheshorse podcast, remembers fixing a tear on her Forever 21 shirt with a staplerjust long enough to get through the workday before tossing it out. In the early 2000s, when fast-fashion brands began flooding the market, clothing became so cheap that shoppers could endlessly refresh their wardrobes. The garments were poorly made and tore easily, but it hardly mattered. They were designed to be disposable, encouraging repeat purchases. “It didn’t seem worth the time and effort to repair the top,” she recalls. “And besides, I didn’t have any mending skills at the time.” [Photo: Levi’s] McCarty isn’t alone. Starting in the early 1900s, schools trained studentsmostly girlsin the art of sewing and mending clothes in home economics classes. Students learned how to operate sewing machines to create tidy hemlines and sew buttons by hand. But by the 1970s, partly due to the feminist critique that home economics classes reinforced traditional gender roles, these courses slowly began getting cut from public schools. There are now several generations of Americans with no sewing skills at all. In a recent study conducted by Levi’s, 41% of Gen Zers report having no basic repair knowledge, such as fixing a tear or sewing on a buttonwhich is double the rate of older generations. [Photo: Levi’s] This also coincided with clothes getting cheaper, thanks to a global supply chain and low-wage labor in developing countries. Suddenly, clothes were so inexpensive that even the poorest families could buy them instead of making them. Eventually, as McCarty illustrates, they were so cheap that there was no point in even mending them. Today, the average American throws away 81.5 pounds of clothing every year, resulting in 2,100 pounds of textile waste entering U.S. landfills every second. This transformation of the fashion industry has led directly to the environmental disaster we now find ourselves in: Manufacturing billions of clothes annually accelerates climate change, and discarded clothes now clog up landfills, deserts, and oceans. Levi’s believes that one step in tackling the crisis is to teach Gen Z how to mend. The denim brand, which generates upward of $6 billion a year, has partnered with Discovery Education to create a curriculum aligned with educational standards that teaches high schoolers how to sew a button, mend a hole or tear, and hem trousers. This curriculum, which launches today, is available for free and will be shared with teachers across the country who can incorporate it into a wide range of coursesfrom STEM to civics to social studies. [Photo: Levi’s] “Needle-and-Thread Evangelism” The idea took hold during a poker night. Paul Dillinger, Levis head of global product innovation, noticed that a button had popped off a friends Oxford shirt. Oliver said he didnt have time to throw it away and put on a new shirt, Dillinger recalls. It was an illustration of everything thats wrong with the current paradigm. And it could be fixed with a little needle-and-thread evangelism. Dillinger, who trained as a fashion designer and is a skilled garment maker, spent 20 minutes teaching the groupmen in their mid-twentieshow to sew the button back on. Since then, hes made a habit of preaching the gospel of mending with everyone in his orbit, including his colleagues at Levis. [Photo: Levi’s] One of them was Alexis Bechtol, Levis director of community affairs. She saw an opportunity for the company to scale that education beyond informal demos. Bechtol helped spearhead the Wear Longer program and the partnership with Discovery Education, which specializes in developing age-appropriate lesson plans aligned with state and federal standards. Levi’ and Discovery Education worked together to create a curriculum that teaches students the foundations of mending a garment by hand without a sewing machine. There are four lesson plans that are each designed to take up a single classroom period and are flexible enough to be incorporated into courses across disciplines. Kimberly Wright, an instructional design manager at Discovery Education who worked on the curriculum, says the lessons arent positioned as a revival of home economics. Instead, theyre framed as practical, transferable skills relevant to a wide range of careers. Were seeing a resurgence in skills-based learning, Wright says. Across the country, theres a shift toward not just making students college-ready, but career-ready. The initiative is funded through Levis social impact and community engagement budget rather than its marketing arm, although the curriculum will be branded with the Levis logo. Dillinger believes that it is valuable for Levi’s to be associated with mending, because it emphasizes that its products are designed to be durable and long-lasting. “Levi’s wants to be the most loved item in your closet, the thing you wear most often,” he says. “If we empower our customers to sustain this old friend in their closet, it creates brand affinity.” [Photo: Levi’s] A Small Fix for a Larger Systemic Problem At its core, the curriculum aims to challenge Gen Zs perception of clothing as disposable. In theory, mending keeps garments out of landfills. Its about extending the life cycle of your product so you dont have to buy something new, Bechtol says. Gen Z is coming of age in a world dominated by ultra-fast-fashion players like Shein, where clothes are cheaper than ever. Mending is no longer an economic necessityand in some cases, it can cost more in time and money than a garment is worth. Levis is trying to reframe mending as something else: a creative act that allows wearers to personalize their clothes. Over time, Dillinger says that personal investment changes how people value what they own. Once youve invested time and care into repairing a garment, it shifts the value equation, he says. It becomes more like a plant or a petsomething youre responsible for sustaining. There’s no doubt that mending is a crucial part of the sustainable fashion movement. McCarty, who once stapled her shirt, now repairs her clothing to extend its life. But she points out that the fashion industry’s bigger problem is flooding the market with cheap clothes and encouraging constant consumption. While individuals can buy less and wear clothes longer, she says brands must take responsibility for producing fewer, more durable products. “It’s sort of like putting a Band-Aid on a bleeding wound and calling it fixed, when there are larger issues to deal with,” she says. [Photo: Levi’s] McCarty extends this critique to Levi’s itself. While some Levis products are durable, she notes that the company also produces large volumes of lower-end jeans for retailers like Target and Kohls. These garments are often made with synthetic fabrics that are harder to repair and wont biodegrade. “Levi’s is selling far more volume in lower-end jeans than they do in premium,” she says. “Some of these products are just not repairable.” Still, McCarty believes the Wear Longer program could meaningfully educate Gen Znot only about mending, but also about the broader consequences of overproduction. Dillinger agrees. “Once you become a participant in the life of the garment, it becomes harder to ignore the broader industrial reality of how clothes are made,” he says. “You’re not participating in a similar set of tasks to the people who made the clothes.” Ultimately, Dillinger sees mending as a form of empowerment. Teaching young people how to repair their clothes gives them agencyto extend what they own and to engage with fashion more critically. “The sooner we respect kids as emerging adults with agency, the sooner they can make more responsible decisions for themselves,” he says.
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