Hello everyone and welcome back to another post. I hope you are all doing well and are looking forward to the weekend ahead. Today I have another fashion topic for you all and that is 'trend forecasting'. Now you may or may not know what it is, what is it for and how important it is in many of our lives. That is why I am here today; to give you a better understanding of what trend forecasting really is...
What is trend forecasting?
The first question you may be asking is what actually is trend forecasting. Many of you may have hear the term used before but never really knew what is was. Trend forecasting is essentially the process used to create and generate the trends we follow in fashion. You know those trends that make or break an outfit or wether make you fashionable or not. Well those are all created by trend forecasters. Trend forecasting isn't some computer programme that generates random trends each season. It is actually a job that requires hard work and lots of research. The trends aren't randomly selected from a list. They are researched and generated by the trend forecasters and are created by getting inspiration from all over the world.
What do trend forecasters do?
The trend forecasters have an amazing job that allows them to travel the world to gather lots of research and inspiration. They look at many different sources to gather a range of inspiration that they then start to put together to create inspiration boards. The inspiration gathered could come from sources such as: cars, medicines, home furnishings, different cultures and countries, food, drinks, flowers, music, books, movies and architecture. Pretty much anything really. They would also look at the popular: colours, fabrics, textures, materials, prints, graphics and beauty to help create the inspiration boards. A lot of time and effort goes into creating our trends; they aren't just selected from a list. It doesn't stop there either. Trend forecasters do not only predict the trends for our high street. They will predict and generate trends for the: mass market, street style, ready-to-wear and even haute couture. Where do you think designers get their inspiration from? Trend Forecasters of course! They work with specific brands to give them the basics they need to start creating their own designs and collections. They essentially create mood boards and vision boards for the up-coming trends and hand them out to designers to use and get inspiration from. This is why the fashion industry as a whole works in sync with the trends and the times.
Can we see the trends before they emerge?
There are a few free websites that give you sneak peaks of upcoming trends such as: Peclers Paris and Nelly Rodi Lab. However, the majority of trend forecasting sights are only used by brands and designers which cost them a lot to purchase. They often get the up-coming trends by subscribing to a website or getting sent a magazine or book. These are hard to get your hands on if you don't work in the industry. One of the most popular websites that brands and designers will use is WGSN. If you check out the YouTube documentary: Alexa Chung Uncovers Fashion Industry Secrets and go to 36mins 18secs then can see a little behind the scenes clip at WGSN to give you an insight into trend forecasting.
How are the trends put into place?
So essentially trend forecasters are the creators of fashion trends. They are the ones that travel the world to see what sorts of things are influencing people in different ways. This then inspires them to create a collection of images and research that includes all of their findings. This is then published on their website or turned into a magazine which is then distributed around the world to brands and companies that subscribe to them. It is then up to the brands and companies to use the imagery as inspiration for their own collection. How they use it from here is personal to them and their way of creating the clothing and accessories we see each season.
How important is trend forecasting?
You may look at trend forecasters and think about how important their job really is. Do we really need someone telling us what trends we should be following or someone that does a designers job for them? This is where you need to think deeper back to the start. If there was no such thing as trend forecasters then brands and designers would all be designing completely different collections that inspire them and not what their customers want. I know when I was studying fashion design at college I actually found it hard to come up with ideas and designs without having a starting point to focus on. I needed that starting point and having a trend to follow and then research really helped with my projects and creating an outcome that was on-trend for the up-coming season. Without trend forecasters or even trends in general, fashion wouldn't be moving and evolving in the way it is now. We probably wouldn't have collections each season and shops wouldn't really know what their customers wanted as there would be nothing to follow or work with. Without trend forecasters we would be stuck in the same position in fashion and nothing would move or evolve.
How to get a job as a trend forecasters?
If you want to become a trend forecaster you have to have a creative mind and soul. You need to be able to recognise what is influencing other people around the world and why. If you don't understand why a specific thing has influenced someone then how can you expect people to follow it as a fashion trend as they won't understand it either? As I am not a trend forecaster I do not know exactly what qualifications or skills you need but I know it would be really useful to take a course at university if you are new to the area. That way you can learn and evolve into the trend forecasting business. I hope that now you understand a little more about the industry and how it works. I hope it has also inspired a few of you to look into it more and maybe dream of a career in that area of the fashion industry.
I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a little more about trend forecasting. If you want to learn more about it I'm sure there are many more blogs and documentaries to check out. If you would like to see more posts from me discussing different fashion topics then make sure you head back every Friday for more. You can also pop back every Wednesday to see outfit styling posts from me. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and I will see you back here again soon...
Emma Victoria
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