Garmento: Inside Trend Forecasting

Though the term 'trend forecasting' may evoke images of crystal balls and tarot cards, in the fashion world it is a booming industry that has more influence than you might think. The Direction Textile Design Show in Penn Plaza is a bi-annual must for mainstream fashion designers, so the Garmento team attended seminars and visited booths at this trade-only event to get a deeper look into trend forecasting as an enterprise.

Direction’s format is similar to the two biggest names in the game, Premiere Vision (Paris) and Pitti Filati (Florence), in that it quick-connects designers and textile manufacturers and provides them with insight into trends up to 24 months in advance. As part of a textile design show, Direction exhibitors sell their unique artwork and forecasts to large corporations (Macy’s, Dillards) and small ateliers alike. The seminars went a step further, and ranged from predictions of seasonal colors and silhouettes to future-thinking instructionals on sustainability and local production.


After absorbing a presentation on Ladies, Men’s, and Denim Trends for Spring/Summer 2009, we caught up with Melissa Moylan, Managing Editor of Fashion Snoops. Though her new offices in Paris reveal a vastly different stylescape than the Garment District, Moylan said the needs of the fashion professional remain the same. Designers can’t be everywhere, and Fashion Snoops and their competitors offer up-to-the minute resources including international runway coverage, window shopping, trend analysis, even original artwork, flat sketches and more! All this work by hundreds of forecasters is meant to be initial inspiration for fashion creatives; a jump-off point from which they can develop distinctive styles each season.


With so much more information available to the fashion industry than ever before, why does every season, every store and every brand look increasingly the same? Independent publication PSFK brought up the idea of the biggest forecasting agencies strangling creativity back in 2007, but the truth is there is no one corporation to blame. The only way to ensure that fashion design remains a dynamic and evolving conversation is for you, the consumer, to demonstrate with your shopping dollars a preference for ground-breaking and independent designers.


Video by Justin Perkinson

About Garmento: Garmento is a weekly feature on Coutorture devoted to giving you an inside look at the real fashion industry. Before the runway reviews and the photo shoots, before the ad campaigns and the Vogue editorials, an enormous network of fashion professionals are involved in the creation of every garment. Check us out every week for a new perspective on each step, from trend forecasting and design to manufacturing and sales. With every new profile, you’ll see that whether your fav outfit is from H&M or Hermes, the process is the same. Don’t become a fashion victim- inform yourself weekly with Garmento, and unleash the smart and savvy shopper within.


About Bob Bland:Bob Bland is a freelance writer and professional menswear designer with experience at Triple Five Soul, Rugby by Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Banana Republic. She is also the designer and founder of Brooklyn Royalty, a Williamsburg-based line of men’s and ladies’ apparel. Founded in 2006, the line combines timeless design principles, premium materials and hand-printed graphics for indispensible garments that are meant to look and wear better over time. For more on Bob Bland and Brooklyn Royalty, check out www.brooklynroyalty.com.