Fashion and trend forecasting is a process to predict the behaviour, buying habits and inclination of the consumer during a particular time of the year.
Apart from the age, geography, or income levels of the consumer, one has to look at the occasion, mood, beliefs, and fashion cycles and predict upcoming trends.
The calculation is done as follows: Season>Target Market>Consumer>Colors>Fabrics>Silhouette>Texture>Usage

Fashion Trend Forecasting

Six months before every season starts, the merchandising and design departments speculate on upcoming trends, collecting valuable data from professional agencies, taking into account the current season/weather conditions. 
They ensure colours are matching the seasons, with pastel colours for Spring, and earthy tones for the Fall season.

Fashion Trend Forecasting: Seasons

Companies in the fashion industry have cut-throat competition and are turning to market intelligence to survive, sometimes at the expense of their competitors. 
Conventional market research is no longer sufficient, and the real-time data provided by social media and online data research companies are sought after for decision making.

Fashion Trend Forecasting: Market Intelligence

"There's no fashion if nobody buys it."

Consumer feedback and suggestions are recorded by manufacturers to make the necessary tweaks to their product lineup.
Surveys are typically done by phone or customer feedback forms to find out about shopping habits, preferences, income and lifestyles.

Fashion Trend Forecasting: Consumer Research

The main purpose of the fashion and trend forecasting industry is to provide a desirable product that appeals to the customer's needs on time.
The fashion market only exists when a substantial number of customers buy the products.

The Need For Fashion Forecasting

Understanding Fashion Trends: Fashion Trend Forecasting

<ul>
<li>Print magazines started in the late 1600s, with noteworthy occurrences (The Plague, for instance) and gossip from the Elizabethan age. </li>
<li>The first one was named ‘The Treasure Hidden Secrets’ and was aimed at ‘honest matrons and virtuous virgins’. </li>
<li>The print magazine format gravitated towards catering to educated women.</li>
<li>In 1732, the first male-centric magazine was bought out, called ‘Gentlemen Magazine’ containing essays and articles.</li>
</ul>

The History Of Fashion Magazines

<ul>
<li>In France, the first fashion magazines were printed under Louis XIV, displaying fashion wear worn by aristocrats. </li>
<li>The Georgian era saw fashion magazines storming the consciousness of women wanting to escape from their roles of a wife or daughter.</li>
<li>Harper’s Bazaar, which described itself as ‘A repository of fashion, pleasure and instruction’ launched in 1867, followed by American Vogue in 1892. </li>
<li>The popularity of these magazines was the escapism it offered to people, especially women longing to be in a fantasy or dream world.</li>
</ul>

Fashion Magazines Take Over

Magazines were the visual window to the world before the advent of TV or the internet.
Magazines seem magical, a doorway to a beautiful world of colours and glamour. The smell of glossy paper and the allure of picking up a fresh, new issue of one’s favourite magazine is an unmatched experience to many.

Magazines As A Teleportation Tool

A lot goes behind creating magazine issues on a regular basis, and the publisher/Editor-In-Chief has a truckload of responsibilities, from the visual elements to the framing tone and content.
Other responsibilities of an Editor-in-chief include creating an editorial board, content mapping, reviewing and proofreading articles, managing the financials and representing the publication in the business world.

Magazine Hierarchy: Editor-In-Chief

A managing editor sees the day-to-day issues and processes of the magazine and manages the work assignments of associates and assistant editors.
Other key responsibility areas include drafting articles, proposing concepts, communicating with department heads and addressing problems.

Magazine Hierarchy: Managing Editor

An assortment of editors create the online and offline content, holding consultations from editorial teams, managing the incoming stories, and keeping track of industry events and the news that impacts the work.
Graphic editors and digital managers create visuals for the online and print versions, ensuring that there is reader engagement. Interns, assistants, freelance workers and photographers make the outer periphery of the process of creating a magazine.

Magazine Hierarchy: Editors

When a new story or press release reaches the editor, they decide to accept them or transfer to other editors. Some content has to be discussed with the head of content or the managing director before processing further.
Submissions are proof-read and the content is uploaded online, with the editors and visual editors working to format the content. The entire setup is a continuous wheel of meetings, updates, challenges and deadlines.

How An Issue Is Created

<ul>
<li>The world wide web that came in the 1990s transformed many industries, including fashion journalism.</li>
<li>Many magazines started digital subscriptions, experiencing mixed response.</li>
<li>Social media ensures that visual content, pictures and videos are preferred over the written word.</li>
<li>Digital magazines are now beating their print counterparts, with a projected readership of 40 million in 2021.</li>
<li>The pandemic has further accelerated digital readership and print editions are getting thinner and thinner.</li>
</ul>

Magazine Publishing In The Digital Age

The History of Fashion Magazines, how they operate and what has changed

There are three ways of interpreting when each "fashion week" started.
<ol>
<li>When fashion shows started to become assembled seasonally.</li>
<li>When the phrase "fashion week" began to be used.</li>
<li>When an organisation began organising these shows.</li>
</ol>

How "Fashion Week" Started

America's first fashion show was held in 1903 in a New York City speciality store, Ehrich Brothers. Over the next two decades, fashion shows became mainstream and were held at department stores and hotels.
In 1943, fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert clustered these shows into a time frame to boost American fashion during the occupation of France. In 1993, the New York's fashion show was combined in a single location under Fern Mallis, the then Executive Director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

Fashion Shows Became Consolidated

The New York Fashion Week was first called "7th on Sixth" and was sold to IMG in 2001.
In 2004, Olympus became the title sponsor, and New Yorks events became known as the "Olympus fashion week". In 2007, when Mercedes-Benz became the title sponsor, it became known as the "Mercedes-Benz fashion week New York." Today, shows are still grouped seasonally but organised by many producers.

New York Fashion Week

The London Fashion Week was the first English-speaking fashion event to use the term "Fashion Week." Events were organized by the British Fashion Council, which still organize the events to this day.
London was also the first fashion week to stream their events live in Spring 2010.

London Fashion Week (1984)

<ul>
<li>Milan's "fashion week": Since 1958, the National Chamber for Italian Fashion (Camera Nazionale Della Moda Italiana) organised fashion events, but some of the largest design houses, such as Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci, show independently.</li>
<li>Paris Fashion Week (1945). There are two "fashion weeks" in Paris - the high fashion shows and the ready to wear shows. Most shows appear under the banner of the French Fashion Federation, which controls accreditation for their shows, but there are some independent events during Paris Fashion Week as well.</li>
</ul>

Fashion Week In Milan And Paris

History of Fashion Week

English designer Charles Frederick Worth seems to be the first fashion designer that used models. From the mid-1860s, the house was hiring young women.
This development changed the relationship between the dressmaker and the client. Instead of the designer coming to the customer, the designer gave a simple presentation to clients.

When the dressmaker and client relationship changed

In 1901, Lady Duff Gordon presented her 'Gowns of Emotion' using models on a stage with scenery, lighting and music, while their entrances were choreographed with poses. This innovation introduced the idea of showing fashion to a larger audience.
The traditional catwalk took place in department stores where large spaces were available. These presentations for middle-class shoppers were vital in validating the fashionable styles set by designers.

The first catwalk

In the 1960s, fashion designers started to break away from hosting a catwalk show in department stores and salons. Balmain presented a 1965 collection in a wine cellar, and Piere Cardin held a show outdoors next to the Seine in Paris.
Once we headed into the nineties, the fashion show got bigger and cost millions to stage. But the visual spectacle didn't really add to the basic concept of the fashion show. The shows were mostly happening behind closed doors for fashion editors, buyers, celebrities and private clients.

Breaking away from the department stores

Fashion shows have always been about creating visibility and exposure for a designer's collection with the end goal of selling clothes. Technology placed fashion weeks within reach of everyone and changed it into a pop-culture phenomenon. As the fashion influencer emerged, the street style followed.
The rise of social media also led to brands choosing to livestream their shows to all. The change has expanded over the last year, causing designers to embrace a digital format over gatherings.

Social media and fashion shows

With social media being the better platform, many designers embraced the creative challenge this presented. They showcase their collections via fashion films or shoots and find other inventive ways to draw audiences.
The designers who had the most success on social media were those who scaled back the least. The pandemic has allowed time to reflect on the sustainability and role of the fashion industry.

Embracing creative challenges

Ever wondered how today’s runways came to be? We delve into fashion history and then consider where we may be heading next

The fascinating history of the catwalk show

A fashion statement could be defined as something original worn to make a bold statement about fashion knowledge or draw attention to oneself. Women who started wearing pencil skirts in the 1950s were making a bold fashion statement in their clothing, as it differed widely from the accepted fashion trends.

The Fashion Statement

Fashion statements can mean a variety of things. <ul><li>They can be a statement of liberation, such as women wearing pants in the 1950s and 1960s. </li><li>They can be statements of personality, such as funky vintage wear that reflects your aura. </li><li>They can even be statements on the state of fashion, such as Jennifer Lopez's infamous belly dress.</li></ul>

The Meaning Behind a Fashion Statement

You don't have to be a celebrity to make a fashion statement. Lady Gaga, Madonna, and Jennifer Lopez are only a few of the famous faces who have changed the face of fashion with their infamous statements. You can too.

The Meaning of a Fashion Statement

While fashion and style are connected, they are not the same. Fashion relates to the collective, while style is more for the individual.
<ul>
<li>Individual style: Personal style is a means of self-expression. Even if an individual is a fashion designer, how they dress themselves is their style.</li>
<li>Collective: Fashion has to do with global trends and the business of fashion. When a fashion model become an influencer, their personal style becomes iconic, and their style then becomes fashion.</li>
</ul>

There is a difference between style and fashion

Style is timeless, but fashion is current. 
<ul>
<li>A fashionable person will be aware of the latest fashion trends and wear designer clothing.</li>
<li>A stylish person may not follow the latest fashion trends. They will focus on their own aesthetic rather than absorbing trends.</li>
</ul>

Timeless style vs. trendy style

Fashion vs. Style: Key Differences Between Fashion and Style

<ul>
<li>Fashion shifted to high gear in the last twenty years when trends started cropping up faster and clothes became inexpensive.</li>
<li>Shopping used to be an occasional indulgence earlier, but due to online shopping and rising income, it has become a hobby.</li>
<li>Fast fashion is clothing that is cheap but is copied from the trendy designs taken from big fashion brands, celebrities and the catwalk runway.</li>
<li>The newest styles are brought to the market so that customers can buy them while the trend is still hot, at a fraction of the cost of the original.</li>
</ul>

Fast Fashion

Before the industrial revolution happened, fashion was slow, where we had to buy cloth material, and get it stitched. Most of the weaving and preparing of clothes was done on our own.
The sewing machine made cloth making easier and cheaper, and tailors started catering to the middle class. By the 60s and the 70s, clothes became personal expressions, and by the turn of the millennium, low-cost fashion was everywhere.

The History Of Fast Fashion

A few key factors that have the stamp of fast fashion:
<ol>
<li>Thousands of different styles, most of the latest trends.</li>
<li>Short turnaround time.</li>
<li>Outsourcing of manufacturing to cheap, low-wage countries.</li>
<li>A limited quantity of products.</li>
<li>Usage of cheap material like polyester, making the garments non-durable.</li>
</ol>

Spotting A Fast Fashion Brand

<ul>
<li>Use of toxic textile dyes, a sharp increase in water pollution.</li>
<li>The use of cheap material sheds microfibres and increases levels of plastic in the oceans.</li>
<li>Millions of litres of water wastage.</li>
<li>Erosion of soil.</li>
<li>Textile waste filling the planet.</li>
<li>The toxic dyes and plastic waste released in the water is ingested by sea life. Fake fur sold to customers who care about animals is often the real fur of cats and dogs, which is cheaper to obtain than fake/faux fur.</li>
<li>Low-wage workers, often underage, work in dangerous environments and lack basic human rights. They work with toxic chemicals which have a long-lasting impact on their bodies.</li>
</ul>

Impact Of Fast Fashion On The Planet And Workers

<ul>
<li>Fast fashion encourages consumers to shop more and throw away the cheap clothes after a few wears, reaching for the newest trend.</li>
<li>The designers cry about the illegal mass-producing of their creative designs.</li>
<li>Fast fashion creates a constant sense of updating the wardrobe and fuels dissatisfaction.</li>
<li>Millennials have not fallen for fast fashion, and understand that mindless consumerism of cheap clothing is unessential and bad for the planet.</li>
<li>A green movement is underway for sustainable fashion using recycled clothes, which is welcome by the new generation.</li>
</ul>

Impact Of Fast Fashion On Consumers

As British designer Vivienne Westwood says: Buy Less, Choose Well and Make It Last.
<ol>
<li>Buying fewer clothes, and reusing the ones you already own by styling them in creative ways is the first step.</li>
<li>Choose eco-friendly materials, and buy second-hand if possible.</li>
<li>Wear them till they wear out, repairing them when they get torn, and recycling them when discarding.</li>
</ol>

Fast Fashion: How To Help

20 years ago something changed in fashion. Clothes became cheaper, trend cycles sped up, and shopping became a hobby. Here’s the facts on fast fashion and why you should avoid it.

What Is Fast Fashion?

The fashion industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. Learn more about the way it works

Deep Dive Into The Fashion Industry

Understanding Fashion Trends: Fashion Trend Forecasting

The History of Fashion Magazines, how they operate and what has changed

History of Fashion Week

The fascinating history of the catwalk show

The Meaning of a Fashion Statement

Fashion vs. Style: Key Differences Between Fashion and Style

What Is Fast Fashion?

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