Logging Off Is the New Luxury. How Can Brands Adapt?

Rare Beauty is trading screen time for face time.

In April, the Selena Gomez-led beauty brand debuted a new event series called “Rare Offline,” inviting a handful of customers to phone-free dinner parties with the idea of giving them a place to connect without digital distractions. The latest, hosted in Paris earlier this month, also served as a preview event for Rare Beginnings, the brand’s latest fragrance — a category difficult to experience online.

“It’s really not about generating content; it’s generating that connection and relationship with people,” said Rare Beauty’s chief marketing officer, Ashley Murphy. “It’s still valuable if no one posts.”

It’s a sign of the times if even a brand fronted by the most followed woman on Instagram is eschewing online moments for offline ones. Fashion and beauty brands have long designed their events for digital consumption, creating photographable moments and experiences that attendees could photograph and share afterwards so its impact far outlasted the day itself.

Now, though, the hottest trend is hosting an event that isn’t meant to be documented at all. Pinterest held a phone-free Coachella activation complete with activities like charm bars and beauty touch-up stations in partnership with E.l.f.. Nylon magazine and New York-based clothing label Emily Dawn Long both hosted phone-free parties in the past year. Others, while not necessarily banning phones, are designing activations that engage the senses and are most effectively experienced in-person, like art classes, movie screenings and sensory out-of-home advertising.

They’re catering to Gen-Z shoppers, who may be the first generation to grow up online, but are also increasingly looking to disconnect. The Brick device, which blocks users from accessing specific apps for given periods of time, has seen a surge in sales and app downloads. A poll from trend forecaster The Future Laboratory found that 35 percent of respondents (and 52 percent of students) said they wanted to cut their screen time, while 57 percent said they’re seeking a less connected lifestyle. Among Gen Z, Pinterest searches for “analogue aesthetic” jumped 260 percent from January 2025 to 2026.

“If so many people are now online, a slow life, an analogue life becomes this aspirational luxury,” said Cassandra Napoli, head of consumer forecasting for WGSN, which named “digital privilege” as one of the key trends of 2026.

For fashion and beauty brands, the opportunity is clear. With consumers seeking ways to unplug, give them IRL moments that don’t just feel like a backdrop for an Instagram photoshoot. The key is to make sure they feel right for the brand in question. Rare, for instance, has made mental health a part of its story from launch. Emily Dawn Long, who is known for her cheeky graphic T-shirts, created one in conjunction with her no-phones party that read “nobody dances anymore.”

These events will likely end up splashed across social media anyway — the Rare team was capturing content from the sidelines of its Rare Offline dinners, even as attendees tucked their phones away. It’s not a matter of going entirely off-the-grid, but rather, creating space for customers to pause and have an experience without worrying about capturing the perfect shot — often driving deeper feelings of brand love and loyalty.

“If Gen Z is headed off the internet, or they’re having more of a hiatus relationship where they’re taking breaks or they’re detoxing completely, how do you reach them?” said Napoli. “You need to have exciting new ways of engaging people.”

Phone-Free Moments

For many brands, leaning into spaces and activities that naturally lend themselves to being phone-free is a good place to start.

Intimates brand Soma, for instance, hosted a preview of the film “Spa Weekend” earlier this month, where attendees filled bags of candy and popcorn and relaxed in Soma robes at the Whitby Hotel’s luxe cinema. Activewear brand Gymshark regularly hosts pilates classes in its recently opened New York studio.

“These moments for disconnection already exist and brands miss them and try to create new ones, like forcing a book club,” said Alice Crossley, principal strategic foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory. “[Listen] to people talk about the ways they disconnect … you don’t have to make up a way to get rid of your phone.”

Others are creating tactile events that require attendees to use their hands — essentially making it impossible to simultaneously be on their phone. Womenswear retailer Tuckernuck, for example, releases a seasonal “find the fun” bucket list filled with offline activities, from hosting a classic movie night to playing pickleball. The brand has hosted classes in its Washington, D.C., New York and Nantucket stores, including yoga, floral arranging and watercolour painting. It also sent out madras-print disposable Camp Snap cameras to influencers and customers as part of its summer heritage collection launch, and sold them in stores, too.

These events, according to Madeline Grayson, one of the brand’s co-founders, help foster a deeper relationship with customers.

“It’s a nice way to get to know people when you’re doing an activity with them,” she said. “When you’re just standing around at a cocktail party, it doesn’t come as naturally.”

Even out-of-home advertising formats are being designed to engage the senses, like Rare Beauty’s rollerball billboards released in New York this month, designed to give passersby a sneak peek of the brand’s new Rare Beginnings scent. In June, Beauty label Tower28 put up a billboard in Manhattan equipped with a button that, upon pressing, would spritz the brand’s SOS facial spray.

Campaigns, too, have embraced this aesthetic. The recurring theme through this summer’s ads was a sense of retro escapism, with brands like J.Crew launching sleepaway camp-themed campaigns reminiscent of a pre-smartphone era. The theme of apparel seller Nude Project’s summer collections was “The Luxury of Time,” culminating with a campaign titled “Airplane Mode” which showcased a couple enjoying a slow summer in a camper van, washing each other’s hair outdoors.

Keeping the Mystery Alive

While even events technically labelled as “offline” still usually make their way to social media, brands are becoming more thoughtful about how they’re doing so. The realisation, said Napoli, is that sometimes, keeping people guessing can drive more interest than making information instantly available to all.

“Invisibility becomes aspirational because there’s a lack of mystery in the world,” said Napoli. “Privacy becomes a luxury and a status symbol in a world where privacy is stripped away, because we live in such a tech-driven society.”

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s July wedding, for example, drove $15 million in media impact value for the couple’s wedding-wear designer Dior within 48 hours, according to marketing performance platform Launchmetrics, despite the fact that no images of her dress were available publicly (and still haven’t been released nearly two months later).

Even online, brands have taken to creating more insular networks for their most avid followers, such as posting “close friends” stories on Instagram. Providing this sort of insider access, such as sneak peeks at products, is another way for brands to show they care about their most loyal customers.

“It really is thinking about how you can continue to go deep with that relationship and focus on depth versus necessarily reach,” said Murphy. “Sometimes we make it feel like it needs to be so much bigger than it needs to be, and oftentimes consumers are just so excited to feel seen, heard, and valued.”