Building A Career In Fashion Trend Forecasting

What do you know about trend forecasting? — The trend forecasting meaning and significance

To keep up with the ever-changing world, the marketing industry and targeting strategy are rapidly evolving from traditional, static, demographic-based criteria towards dynamic, mood, lifestyle and psycho graphic influences. Fashion forecasting is the prediction of mood, behaviour and buying habits of the consumer. It is no longer a question of identifying your customers by age, geography or income, but looking into how and why they buy, based on their mood, beliefs and the occasion.

Skills Required To Build A Career In Fashion Trend Forecasting

First and foremost, if you want to be a fashion forecaster you must have an interest in a wide range of subjects.

Here we have categorized the broad skillset requirements of a fashion forecaster into these 4 pointers. Pay close attention to every single skill since these make the career base if you want to be the next fashion trend forecaster:

Analytical skills

Being able to analyse trends is an important part of this role and having strong analytical skills is the best way to make sure that you’re successful in this position.

Creativity

Trend forecasting also requires a sense of creativity. This is because you’ll need to be able to think outside the box when predicting the next big thing.

Knowledge of one or more industries

Since most trend forecasters are focused on multiple industries, becoming an expert on those industries is also an important part of this role. The main way to get this info is by doing your research on a specific industry and finding out what trends are presently showing up in news coverage and on social media.

Media savvy

Media savviness is another component of any media or marketing role and it’s majorly important when it comes to this field. This is because so many trends are shaped through the use of traditional and social media, so knowing how to spot those patterns in media coverage is a critical part of staying ahead of the game.

It is one of the best ways to know and tell about what will sell in fashionPIN IT

Organisations To Aim For In The Trend Forecasting Sector

Here are a couple of organisations you can work for in the future, if you want to see yourself as a successful fashion trend forecaster:

• WGSN Group
• Design Options Inc
• TRENDcompany LLC
• Color Marketing Group
• Peclers Paris
• Carlin Groupe
• F-Trend
• Stylus
• Trendstop and more

Job Role Of A Fashion Trend Forecaster

Fashion forecasters predict which silhouettes colours, textures, fabrics, graphics, prints, footwear, accessories, etc. will be the future trends on the runway and in retail stores every season. They do this by examining and analysing new and emerging trends across all sectors, to see how they may influence future fashion trends. Of course, they’ll also take into consideration what’s happening in the world and any cultural shifts.

The Controversies That Encircled The Legacy Of Karl Lagerfeld

There are two types of fashion forecasting: short- and long-term. Short-term forecasting, known as fad forecasting, focuses on what trends will emerge across the next 1–2 years, while long-term forecasting looks much further into the future (typically 5–10 years). The latter also contributes to development of the fashion businesses’ strategies, brand image, extending products lines and securing new business.

The internet plays a big role in fashion forecasting. Forecasters will research upcoming designers and celebrity collections and new looks popular on sites like Instagram. Ultimately, a fashion forecasters’ responsibility lies in assisting designers and retailers to attract more customers and sell their brands.

Forecasters need to be analytical and detailed to excel in their forecastingPIN IT

Salary Expectations For A Fashion Trend Forecaster Job

Since trend forecasting is a fairly new field, there aren’t really any long-established strategies for getting involved in the industry. However, doing a media or marketing internship can go a long way towards helping you develop some of the key skills required for the role. Beyond that, it’s about the projects and research you pursue on your own.

Fashion forecaster salaries are among the highest in the industry, even for beginners. They earn around $50,000 on the low end and $100,000 or more on the high end. Salaries are even higher if they work for an independent firm. Independent firms can charge $150,000 or more for a single project.

Forecasting Jobs of a company like WGSN include: Trend Researcher, Financial Accountant, Consultant Director — Consumer & Culture, Sales Account Manager, Temporary Image Tagger, Head of Color, Digital Marketing Manager and more.

While smaller brands rely on information that will be received from digital media the bigger ones prepare in advance according to the information provided PIN IT

From The IKF Desk On Building A Career In Fashion Trend Forecasting

Of course, fashion forecasting skills do not just apply to those who want to become forecasters. If you want to work in fashion management, it’s important to understand the role forecasting plays in the world today and how to use the knowledge it provides in strategic planning. In the past few years, fashion has caught the limelight than ever before. The catwalk at Fashion Week is presently live-streamed, and consumers can get their hands on the latest trends straight away — no longer having to wait for weeks for retailers to ‘catch up’.The current customer goes through clothes and collections quickly and wants to be able to imitate the trends they see. Subsequently, trends come and go much quicker than ever before. Forecasting needs to give fresh ideas to designers and retailers constantly, otherwise they’ll all fall behind in this cut-throat competition.

Source: https://www.iknockfashion.com/career-in-fashion-trend-forecasting/