Fashion forecasting agencies have a major role to play in the Fashion industry. Trend forecasting websites provide experiences that can get expensive at times, and with digitalization taking over any other industry, Fashion Forecasting blogs come in handy for small, business owners, and young designers.
These websites have appropriate data and adequate information for anyone who’s starting designers, business owners, or anybody who desires to learn about fashion forecasting.
You can also check out Key Color Trends trends for Design and Forecasting, as we list down the ruling pieces for your ease.
Digital Lavender Pantone color of t...
What is Fashion Forecasting?
Fashion Forecasting is aFashion jobthat involves researching and analyzing upcoming trends based on consumer data and buying trends.
A fashion forecaster in simpler terms, predicts colors, fabrics, textures, materials, prints, graphics, beauty/grooming, accessories, footwear, street style, and looks that are showcased on the runways that what fashion forecasting websites do.
Fashion and trends are a regular source of inspiration for millions of professionals and thousands of industries and forecasting what a customer will buy tomorrow holds to be in responsible and analytical hands.
They look for styles that are prophetic and relatable notions to capture a customer’s mood.
Fashion trend forecasting is just not about choosing or predicting fashion trends, a lot of the research depends on physiological, cultural, and sociological shifts that play a major role in Forecasting fashion.
Top 15 Fashion Forecasting Agencies for Trend Forecasting
- WGSN
- THE DONEGER GROUP
- FASHION SNOOPS
- WE CONNECT
- TRENDSTOP
- Pantone
- Color Marketing
- Design Seeds
- Trend Council
- Who What Wear
- BoF
- Drapers
- Heuritech
- Eclectic trends
- Patternbank
1. WGSN
WGSN is one of the leading trend-forecasting companies so far. Established in 1998, WGSN was founded by brothers Julian and Marc Worth.
As it merged itself with Stylesight in 2013, WGSN became the World’s largest network of fashion forecast resources that includes WGSN Insight, WGSN Fashion,
WGSN Lifestyle & Interiors, WGSN Barometer, WGSN Instock, and WGSN Styletrial with maximum subscriptions around the world becoming the only synonym of Fashion trends forecasting.
Making informed decisions is made easier with the aid of information from reliable sources, such as current trend updates and 10-year estimates. WGSN supports innovative minds all around the world in their efforts to comprehend and produce for the future generation of consumers.
2. THE DONEGER GROUP
The Doneger Group is a global leader in merchandising and business strategies.
It provides services like Digital expression, insight applications, customer research, and social strategies with a free forecasting blog that provides every relevant information that you need.
Doneger weekly is one of the best features that you can get access to.
3. FASHION SNOOPS
Fashion Snoops is a leading Fashion forecasting agency that researches macro trends and sociocultural shifts.
It helps small designers and boutique owners to think widely and analyze cultural and market needs.
There’s full transparency of shared data. You get real recommendations of data, and analysis to evaluate with added personalized recommendations from the editors to get an open-minded opinion.
By clearly stating why a trend is important, they may guide product development from conception to completion. Fashion snoops makes trend forecasting transparent by giving you full access to their decision-making process.
The hyperconnected world of today demands more from creatives than just limitless opportunity. The comments of an editor and the opinions of industry professionals enhance their reports.
4. WE CONNECT FASHION
We connect Fashion helps fashion companies with business, networking, market research, and fashion industry insights that help them grow with add-on expert advice from editors.
Finding inspiration and trend intelligence needed for branding, fashion design, merchandising, and retail decision-making is now made easier with We Connect Fashion.
5. TRENDSTOP
Trendstop helps the fashion and lifestyle industry more sustainable, profitable future with industry reports and market analysis.
They have been in the game since 2002 and giving us insights on fashion market trends that we love.
They also run an additional blog that provides us with the latest trend forecasts and actionable future insights.
Trendstop wants to create a profitable and sustainable fashion and leisure industry. They’ve been using their tried-and-true trend forecasting method and market data to keep you in front of the curve when it comes to customer demand since 2002. Spending money on something you know other people will want is simpler.
6. Pantone
Pioneer for setting the color trends, Pantone is one of the top companies that do fashion color forecasting and gives fashion professionals an insight into what the color trends will look like.
Read about what is Pantone and how it works in a detailed post that we did recently.
The Pantone Color Institute™ provides customized color standards, brand identity, product color consulting, Pantone Color of the Year, Fashion Runway Color Trend Reports, color psychology, etc.
7. Color Marketing
Color Marketing Group is an international, not-for-profit association that has provided color trend data past 50 years.
It involves forecasting color directions across all industries that involve a variety of professionals who’re in the industry.
Their members also conduct workshops like ChromaZone® Color Forecasting Workshops, Conferences as well as our annual International Summit.
8. Design Seeds
Design Seeds is a digital design blog launched in 2009, Design Seeds has flourished into an international creative community with design forecasts and business analysis.
You can check different summer, spring, autumn, and winter palettes where you can buy their color merchandise also.
9. Trend Council
Trend Council is a team of writers who bring stories about affordable design tools, design trends, and insights into what the future of design looks like.
They help young designers make sensible and affordable design decisions for their business growth.
Trendcouncil has created a compilation of the season’s most significant trend stories. Also, each topic has vector flat drawings and original art files. All genders and ages can participate in intimate, active, and swimming examinations.
Tens of thousands of runway cues are decoded with their help each season. By revealing the most fundamental trends of each season, their seasonal forecasting gives you a tool and insight for your seasonal development.
10. Who What Wear
Who What Wear is an international fashion company known created by Katherine Power and Hillary Kerr founded Who What Wear in 2006, its content sites named WhoWhatWear.com and WhoWhatWear.co.uk, and its affordable, size-inclusive, and trend-forward line of clothing and accessories.
11. BoF (Business of Fashion)
Business of Fashion hires a team of reporters, editors, analysts, engineers, designers, marketers, and brand strategists who come together to publish fashion and business news, revolutionary stories, and future trend forecasts to their audience.
BoF Professional(exclusive insight, analysis, and opinion),BoF Careers(connecting the best talent with the best job opportunities),BoF Education(fashion’s platform for online learning),
have been a few transformational sub-platforms that have been the main source of future forecasting and business discussions.
12. Drapers
One of the leading trend publications in the UK since 6 August 1887. The industry professionals have come up to provide the best industry news, insightful analysis, commentary, and key data, as well as a growing portfolio of face-to-face networking opportunities.
13. Heuritech
Heuritech is the first technology solution that thoroughly analyses the tiny details of social media images to fully comprehend your product, customers, and market.
Heuritech, a fashion technology company driven by AI, converts real-world images shared on social media into pertinent data to assist fashion companies in better predicting demand and trends, increasing sustainability, and achieving a distinct competitive advantage.
Fashion manufacturers can reduce their excess by producing the amount needed for each location and audience by foreseeing new trends rather than merely responding to them.
14. Eclectic trends
Eclectic Trends is committed to identifying and analyzing trends. They aid in your ability to identify trends, personalize them, and adapt them into fresh concepts for your clientele and business.
Each study includes a variety of projects and suggestions for additional research. You’ll feel much better about yourself and be able to start putting fresh ideas into practice.
15. Patternbank
Through their True Trend Validation, Patternbank continuously evaluates and tracks the applicability of their central forecasts and themes. They also track the growth profile of emerging trends, redesignating them as significant themes and expanding coverage as they gain traction, giving you the competitive edge in your category by being first to market.
Industry professionals that were committed to educating designers and streamlining the pattern purchasing process founded Patternbank.
On the B2B marketplace, customers may see curated designs, obtain trend inspiration to guide their purchasing decisions, and instantly buy and download digital files.
What are the Types of Fashion Forecasting?
Initially, Fashion forecasting was conducted by Fashion Researchers who traveled to various fashion cities and surveyed the leading fashion professionals to give an insight into future prospects, the industry had to offer.
Updated in trade magazines and books, these sources became a holy grail for small-scale businesses and designers as they had the apt research that would help them flourish.
With social media touching heights, trend forecasting has become more accessible to the common mass. These are the two types of Fashion trend forecasting:
- Short-term fashion forecasting
- Long-term fashion forecasting
1. Short-term fashion forecasting
Short-term forecasting, as the name suggests, refers to a shorter period. Inspired by pop culture and hot trends these trends are often termed FADs.
They’re trendy, an upgraded and eye-string of the classic version of classic styles. These fashion trends are targeted at a smaller group of audiences as compared to others.
2. Long-term fashion forecasting
Long-term trend forecasting is well-researched for a longer period, these are the styles that stay for longer and are for a broader audience.
Long-term trend forecasting lasts at least two years or more.
Demographics play an essential role in shaping long-term trend forecasting. There are marketing consultants who work with Fashion/trend forecasters for detailed research.
Short-Term Vs Long-Term Fashion Forecasting
Periodically, Short-Term fashion forecasting refers to research conducted for the coming 6 months to 2 years.
On the other hand, long-term fashion trend forecasting for at least is termed for 5 years.
Since short-term forecasting is meant for shorter periods, the research techniques are immediate, simpler research tools and online publications making it much easier than how it used to be earlier.
Long-Term fashion forecasting looks for more accurate and detailed reports of what’s yet to come.
It involves a lot of data research, effective long-term forecasting requires not just a finger on the pulse of current events but also deep knowledge of the inner workings of the fashion industry.
How trends are implemented in Brands?
Brands follow a specific set of trends in their collection. Although infusing trends isn’t an apt choice for a short-term basis but fast-fashion brands like Zara, and H&M involve heavily trendy collections to attract the younger market.
Social media platforms like Tiktok and Instagram also direct fashion trends and Fashion analysts are stepping into researching TikTok trends as a result, you’d see more brands introducing Tiktok-friendly fashion.
For Example, Tie and-dye sweatpants became really famous when the coronavirus hit due to major reasons. As the pandemic spread, more people stayed indoors due to the lockdown increasing the rising of sales of nightwear, loungewear, and sweats.
Since tie and dye sweatpants are not only colorful and vibrant, DIYing them is quite an easy deal increasing in people investing more in the tie and die sets making it a huge trend in a pandemic.
You’d see more of these collections in local designer shops to mass brands!
What are the Key Responsibilities that Fashion Trend Forecasting agencies hold?
Every retailer does a different set of techniques for the collections they want to offer to their audience depending on data research.
There are hundreds of designers who work on their collections every season that dictates the running and future trends.
The lifecycle of these trends depends on how fondly these designs have been accepted by the mass.
While trendy collections remain short-termed (6 months to a year) every brand releases a set of classic collections, key pieces that sell for years.
Merchandisers play a key role in understanding what consumers want. They coordinate with buyers to get the predicted best-selling products for the coming seasons.
With experience, the more productive and knowledgeable buyers and merchandisers bring a lot to the table, that retailers depend on.
What is the Future of Fashion Forecasting?
The key role of the fashion forecaster is to predict styles that would flourish in the future. While the duration of the predictions could be short or long-termed, Forecasters, researchers, buyers, and merchandisers play a key role in forming what the mass would prefer to choose, the running trends, and a lot more.
Finding out what will be “the next big thing” isn’t easy!
Not only do retailers provide them with various data and feedback information, but a researcher must also dive deep into creative arts for finding stories that would reach and relate to their customers and of course, appropriate science and technology!
Combined with statistical market research and observation of socio-economic shifts, the data sources provide what the next emerging trend may be and show the direction and potential reaction of consumer culture.
Every product goes through its own fashion cycle that is traced from the moment it’s been bought in the market to analyze the performances of articles and styles. With the increasing pace of fashion trends.
Conclusion
Observation is not the only key. A trend researcher must have enough references to a product cycle so as to predict what may come.
Fashion Forecasting agencies are also called the “archaeologists of the future” says Li Edelkoort, the owner of Trend Tablet (a Fashion Forecasting agency).
These agencies act as a medium that forecasts upcoming trends that helps designers and retailers predict upcoming trends that helps retailers sell more.
