The Shopping Forecast

Forecasting next season's trends can be a challenge both for designers and buyers. Many times when the latest trends are featured in WWD or style.com it seems as though it is a scenario of which came first? Did the trend come before the design process or was the trend created once collections came down the runway? In actuality, it is a little bit of both. There are great trend forecasting companies like Doneger (http://www.doneger.com/web) and WGSN (http://www.wgsn.com/) that many designers use in conjunction with pantone (http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/index.aspx) for trends in color. There are also many popular trend forecasting websites, publications and magazines listed in the link below.

Fashion.Infomat.

However, what does the consumer want? Many times buyers and retailers find out once they are already in mid season when they have run their selling analysis and review best sellers. Are the trends designers and magazines establish before collections are purchased and delivered to stores exactly what the customer wants? Many times yes because the marketing behind these trends and the focus in magazines has told the consumer to want them. But what about the vast majority of consumers outside of the fashion cities of New York, Paris, Milan, London and LA? Many times those consumers have an entirely different perspective. Their lifestyles are different, their needs and desires are different.

Recently FashionLAB received an email about a brand new site called The Shopping Forecast (http://www.theshoppingforecast.com/). The idea behind this site is to give the public an opportunity to provide feedback regarding what they would like to see in the stores they shop in. The other cool thing about this site is that once you register with this site users are provided with an opportunity to win their favorite item each month. Now that's a pretty great incentive to give feedback on what you would like to purchase once it hits retailers.

To read more about the site please visit this link http://www.theshoppingforecast.com/blog/article/12/A-New-Fashion-Democracy-Has-Begun.aspx