What is a Fashion Trend Report - and does your brand actually need one?

Trend has always been a driving force behind forward thinking fashion, trends are the starting point of our process at Studio Nu in order to build brands and design collections. It’s where our creative flow starts and grows, where the ideas come through in a transcendent state. 

Colour inspiration from one of our many Pinterest boards

The fashion trend sector has always been surrounded by a little bit of mystery and illusion. As an industry there is less visibility on its processes, career opportunities and a dubious outlook as to whether you can actually build a career within the field, or is it just one of those aspirational jobs you see in the movies? Many leaders at the more commercial end of the fashion and retail industry would disregard trend as a luxury service, which would be removed at the first budget cut.

Studio Nu argues that trend is fundamental to fashion businesses who want to stand apart from their competition, and remain ahead of the consumers needs and wants, it can be the magic behind your brand if it is utilised in the right way.

I first encountered the trend industry in the most romantic way possible, I was a student of the Fashion Marketing course at Northumbria University in the UK and through their connections I managed to secure a place as an intern or “stagiaire”, as the French call it, at a trend agency called Carlin Trend Bureau in Paris.

I was only 20 years old, and left the north of England for four months to live and work in the beautiful city, I definitely lucked out. I worked in the Lingerie and Beauty department, assisting with tasks that helped support the trend team there. These were the days where most our images were self created or came from magazine tears, which there were boxes of categorised pages. This seems archaic now, but we interestingly see signs of this way of working returning as the nostalgia for fashion magazines comes back in an age of digital fatigue.

After my months at Carlin, my biggest take away was how many sectors the team trawled to land on their findings and key messages that were presented to their clients or went into their trend book publications. It wasn’t just about fashion, it was critical to observe homewares, food, politics, societal shifts, travel, health and fitness, history, music, film…essentially, everything.

Now under the umbrella of ‘trend’ I want to establish the difference between fashion trend forecasting and fashion trend reporting.

Comp shopping in Madrid

Fashion Forecasting for Brands

Trend forecasting for fashion brands is to look ahead, and to learn and establish what is coming and what the consumer will want, before they know themselves. 

This sounds great, but almost impossible right? How can you look into the future and predict what your customer will want in two years, or even one year?

Well as you can imagine, trend forecasting is based on being aware and observing 24/7, it’s never a 9 - 5 job. It is about acknowledging what you see that feels new, and questioning what does this mean, and what will come after this? It requires an endless curiosity and hunger.

There are quite a few techniques trend forecasters use, and through my experience in industry and training within trend, below

are some of the ways of working adopted at Studio Nu:

• Open mind - good fashion trend forecasting means you need to remain open, empathic, aware and alert to the wider shifts in culture. Drop any bias and remember you don’t know what you are looking for…yet.

• Weak signal identification - the seeds of things to come, these can be anything, it’s the what feels new, what’s next and what is undocumented. Your list may feel random as you record these weak signals but as you sit down to look at them collectively you may see stories appear, and the mish-mash list on your phone notes feels less surreal.

• Cross Cultural Analysis - scanning various sectors to determine if a trend that has developed in one industry will start to emerge in another. An example of this could be the focus on mushrooms and their medicinal properties as a superfood in the food industry, could we expect the fashion industry to adopt their hues for new colour palettes, or their texture for fashion prints or even enhance fabrics with medicinal properties themselves?

This brings me to a great quote from Henry Mason, a trend driven innovation expert and keynote speaker:

“People tend to be narrowcast, they look at ideas and innovations from their own industries and from their own competitors, when really as our clients know, the trick is to look across industries, where you soon see that innovations in one sector influence customer expectations in another - which, given that no two industries are aligned in terms of speed to market, is a very powerful way in itself to ‘see’ into the future.”

• The world is a runway - it is important to look at the catwalks, and all of them. These designers are some of the world’s most visionary creatives and work with some of the finest craftsmanship globally, this is a platform which will diffuse down to your consumer at some point. Interestingly, despite designing women’s intimates and performance-wear, I have just been extremely inspired by the Men’s SS27 shows, there’s a new femininity coming through that hasn’t been seen before. This only confirms my latter point of how important it is to look outside your product category when fashion forecasting for brands. On the flip side, I also want to highlight how important it is to look at what people are wearing on the street, this is your second runway. Street fashion is influencing clothing trends much more than it has in recent years, due to the fluctuation of indie brands, explosion of social media and the growth of second hand fashion, the people now have more power in defining what is coming next.

• Trade shows and travel - this is something we take very seriously at Studio Nu, we always remain globally connected. It is important to see what is happening in cultures that are not your own. We combine this often with travelling to international fashion and fabric trade shows. For our specialism of lingerie, bodywear, swimwear, sleepwear, loungewear and activewear, we often travel to Paris for Interfiliere, Munich for Performance Days, Milan for Milano Unica and Brussels for Future Fabrics Expo, and we are always on the look out for new and upcoming shows. At fashion industry trade shows, you will hear trend talks from industry leaders, attend innovation forums, meet with raw material suppliers who are pushing boundaries, these trips are invaluable.

PREVIEW Interfiliere Trade Show, Paris

Trend Reports Fashion Brands

Fashion Trend Reports differ from Fashion Trend Forecasts because they tell you what is happening in the here and now. This is important because you need to know your market and what your competitors are up to. Studio Nu produces intimates and performance-wear based trend reports organically because it is so integrated with our processes, again it is a way of working that we live and breathe. We construct them as an on demand downloadable service, or we do also accept tailored briefs for reports that give you exactly what your fashion business needs.

We offer various styles of trend reports, falling into the below categories:

• Shopping city guides - nobody has an excessive, categorised google maps database for fashion shopping like we do! This is something we pride ourselves on, we have you covered for every fashion city you may want to shop in.

• Catwalk reports - we look at the shows in detail and compile reports highlighting the key messages from the shows with a key focus on lingerie, bodywear, swimwear, sleepwear, loungewear and athleisure. From years of experience and observing these fashion shows, we know what feels new when we see it.

• Comp shops and market research reports - Competitor shopping in person and online is essential knowledge, again important to do slightly out of your direct market. Studio Nu is constantly executing this around the globe, then compiling reports with our key findings. We’ve recently just done a few very exciting comp shops in Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid and Paris, and feeling very inspired and super clear on the market and what is happening.

• Fashion trade show reports - Industry relevant trade shows are great for seeing the innovation drivers in a context of fashion forecasting, but they are also great for just seeing what commercial sourcing options are out there. Studio Nu reports on this highlighting affordable fabrics, laces, trims or new developments for your brand. We connect with manufacturers, fabric vendors, and various suppliers that are showing at these events which can offer new raw materials and trims for your brand.

• Trend Watch reports - We have our eyes on the industry all the time, and if we notice a certain commercial shift or movement, we will report on it straight away. Newness can sometimes be more of a commercial context, with a shorter lifespan and Studio Nu will react to this highlighting and concluding the market shift.

Inspiration from the streets of Lisbon and the catwalks

How to use Trend Reports and Trend Forecasts

Like with most objectives, it is key to understand exactly what you want to gain, and I think the first step when you think about how to use the intel is, do you need a fashion trend forecast or a fashion trend report? A forecast will summarise where the market is going, and the report will tell you what’s important now.

Let's imagine you're a start up lingerie brand in the UK, you are wanting to launch in a years time with a collection that really stands out in the market. You want a unique design handwriting, but you also want to remain relevant to the market in order to enhance sales. You also are considering launching not only in the UK, but in some European countries too.

You need support on what key shapes will be appropriate to launch at that time, what colours will be in trend in that season, and also information on what kind of laces and fabrics to use.

This is where I would recommend a Tailored Fashion Trend Forecast from our services.

The reasons for this is that the forecast will allow your first collection launch to be relevant to what is happening in a years time, build a unique design style through Studio Nu’s forecast direction, have global visibility and be fully confident when you enter the lingerie market as a new player.

Swimwear department at Printemps, Paris

Now, let's imagine you’re a Sleepwear brand who has already launched a few seasons and sales are going well, you’re running a little low on stock and figured it would be a good idea to get some quick reaction pieces in with the funds you have put aside from the good sales in an upcoming season.

You need speed and want some trend direction that is clear and relevant to your customer.

This is where I would recommend a Fashion Trend Report.

Here, you could simply take an analysis from the catwalks, pick up on the key messages that are relevant to your consumer and brand, add in some fast track garments to the intended season, or it could be inspiration from one of Studio Nu’s international comp shop reports where you pick up on a key message from an overseas market.

When the desired outcome is orientated around a retail calendar, a range plan and quick reactions, a trend report makes sense. In a very simplified way, you take the findings and apply them to your brand in a way that feels good for your business.

Fashion trend direction, whether it’s a forecast or a report can provide the information and actions for your fashion brand that gives it the edge in the market and make your collections superior to your competitors. Trend is a fresh view point which can’t come from anywhere other than an obsession and curiosity to all things that effect fashion.

Click here for more information on our Tailored Trend Services

Click here for our On Demand Trend Reports