The Luxury Culture and Design Trends defining 2025

To kick off our 2025 trends series, we dive into the vibrant culture and design shifts set to transform the luxury industry. Yes, we know the Pantone Colour of the Year is Mocha Mousse and that minimalism is taking a step back—but let’s go deeper. SPHERE's culture writer, Charlotte Metcalf, and design expert, Fiona McCarthy, are here to give you an insider’s look at the trends shaping the year ahead. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest insights to keep your home looking fresh and calendar brimming with culture.

Luxury Culture Trends of 2025

Predicted by Charlotte Metcalf

Books

Lovers of new literary and interesting fiction will find both increasingly hard to find as publishers focus on well-known authors such as Sally Rooney rather than writers who don’t produce blockbusters. Expect to see book- shop tables piled with books by television celebrities, for example, Richard Osman’s cosy crime series or Kate Humble’s accounts of living a simple life in rural Wales. New fiction or awarded fiction will tend to bring us glimpses of less-known worlds and experiences. Meanwhile, biographies and autobiographies of celebrities (often ghost-written) will continue to dominate.  Yet history, serious biography, travel and current affairs from the likes of William Dalrymple or Ben Macintyre will continue being promoted and literary festivals will flourish as people increasingly enjoy the opportunity to listen to authors. Fans of classics, including forgotten ones, will love the efforts being made by publishers like Persephone or Manderley Books to reprint them in beautiful, collectible editions. One trend already peaking is length – nowadays it’s rare to find a book (certainly a history book) under 350 pages.

Performing arts

The West End will continue to stage familyfriendly musicals, from The Lion King to Phantom of the Opera, while classics and new plays will struggle to find a home without a star name – like Cate Blanchett (to appear in The Seagull) or director James Graham. You’ll find experimental new writing in smaller theatres like the Kiln or the Bush, which first showed Richard Gadd performing Baby Reindeer on a tiny stage as a one-man show. Expect more immersive theatre following the success of the Bridge’s Guys and Dolls and Mamma Mia! The Party, while those who relish relinquishing control altogether await whatever Punchdrunk, which brought us The Burnt City at Woolwich Arsenal, has to offer. As ticket prices continue rising, National Theatre Live and the ability to buy a television subscription to it, and to other streaming services, like Shakespeare’s Globe Player, are set to become established ways to experience theatre.

Visual art

Expect to see London’s major art galleries mounting blockbuster shows interspersed with exhibitions showcasing artists of colour. So the Tate has a show of Lee Miller’s photographs, in the wake of Kate Winslet’s film Lee, and a Picasso exhibition alongside other shows including Nigerian Modernism and a major retrospective of Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s paintings, the first time it has shown an aboriginal artist. Meanwhile, the Royal Academy has announced its much- anticipated Van Gogh and Anselm Kiefer show but also Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism. The latter will feature works by leading Brazilian modernist painters such as Tarsila do Amaral (above). A further exhibition will celebrate the 70th birthday of Royal Academician and black American artist Kerry James Marshall with 70 of his works.

Luxury Design Trends of 2025

Predicted by Fiona McCarthy

Joyful interiors

Playfulism, a trend first coined by Living Etc, surmising the wit and warmth resonating through interiors, builds apace – it is a move away from the excessive assault of maximalism, yet still exuberant, confident and bold. Think squishy, squashy, arty, quirky, wavy, curvy, glossy, colourful and above all, fun. Faye Toogood leads with her new Squashed series of furniture for Poltrona Frau; Dinosaur Designs brings art from the walls to the table with its new vibrant Watercolour collection of bowls, jugs and vases; playfulism imbues every nook of the just-opened Bébé Bob on Golden Square in its melange of wild hues, graphic patterned terrazzo floors and energetic murals; while fabric and wallpaper motifs draw on naïve botanicals, haphazard geometrics and feelgood shades of cobalt, jungle green, lipstick pink and deep red.

Collaborations are go

Look out for interesting partnerships. Former fashion designer Henry Holland has been causing a stir in the design world since he threw his first pot, inspired by the Japanese nerikomi pottery technique, during lockdown. The naturally wavy aesthetic now graces not only ceramics, glass stems, lamp bases, mirrors and tiles, but fabrics and wallpapers in his new collaboration with Harlequin (along with ombre chevrons, checks, block- printed florals and wood grain motifs). And interior designer Rita Konig has brought out a small collection of prints imbued with a block-printed feel, from antique-inspired florals to mid-century squiggles and dots, and pared-back paisley and foliage motifs. Look out for Floor_Story’s very funky, graphic 10 x 10 Edition rug collection – featuring designs by 2LG Studio, Kangan Arora and Camille Walala, and John Lewis’s homewares collaboration (think bedlinen, cushions, bowls and lighting) with Collagerie duo and former British Voguettes Lucinda Chambers and Serena Hood.

No upper limits

Ceilings are no longer the white-washed end point of a room. Contemporary interiors are now embracing a room’s ‘fifth wall’, by colour drenching it (swathing the same hue across walls, woodwork and ceiling, the deeper the shade, the better), wallpapering it (particularly perfect for bringing a seamlessness to odd- shaped rooms), polished plastering it (as per Campbell-Rey’s recent moodily seductive revamp of Tramps), and even wood lining it (cossetting and sexy at Mayfair’s latest hot spot restaurant The Dover).