This is Part 3 of a 4 part post on the 9 Sources of Trend Prediction. If you haven’t read part one or two of this article and you would like to, you can click here:
6 & 7: TREND PREDICTION MAGAZINES
There are 2 types of trend prediction magazine, hence the double title and one of them might surprise you.
TREND MAGAZINE [A]
The first one is an official trend magazine. I say magazine but just to be clear, these are more like a book [also see 4: TREND BOOKS, in part 2]. A really big hefty book but they can generally be found on magazine shelves among the specialist fashion [or alternative industry] magazines. Bear in mind you won’t find them in your local newsagent, dairy or general store. No, these ones are large, heavy and expensive for a ‘magazine’. Beautifully photographed and laid out covering a few hundred pages of the subject matter.
SHOULD I BUY THEM?
These are my favourite source of trend prediction. You can store them easily, all the information is there for you too flick through at any given time and the best part is that they will put trends together for their own prediction pages, but they will also provide you with other trade show reviews and trends from other large prediction companies. This gives you an overview of the information you would get from books and large prediction companies like Promostyle or Peclers (see source 4).
The other benefit to these is that you can buy both, wide coverage books which will give you overviews of your industry, or you can purchase ones that are far more concentrated and specific in their content. Knitwear and textiles, for example, are discussed purely, with a focus through magazines such as Textile View, whereas ones such as Zoom On Fashion Trends would be more general.
COST
Cost of trend magazines are anywhere between £30 to £100 per issue and are usually published either 4 or 2 times a year. If you know how to use them they save you a lot of money, but of course the flip side is that you won’t be given pages and pages of one garment shape or theme. They cover a lot of things in a relatively small amount of pages, around 300 pages. So you must understand that the information is fantastic, but super concentrated.
WHAT DO I GET
You’ll have colour palettes, descriptions of the trends and of course images and inspiration, but these reviews will be brief overviews from around 10-15 pages. But another advantage is that they also publish reviews and key trend information from other companies, such as Peclers, Promostyle, and Textile View. These are of course just overviews, but they provide information from around 10 trend companies. So if you are collating data, these are fantastic sources of information to check out first.
DRAWBACKS
The one drawback is that if you particularly like specific in-depth information, then the coverage in these magazines will never be as in-depth as if you bought a larger, more expensive trend book. They do not give you detailed, page after page illustrations, fabrics, mood images etc., but merely the essentials. An idea of shapes, fabrics, trims and of course a suggested colour palette.
The only hard part about these magazines is that there are a few to choose from and they all work the same way. They can be used to great effect if you have some basic understanding of putting trends together already and as mentioned, are a fantastic overview for an entire industry of information, but if you are looking to just be told what the trends are, you might need to open up your imagination and pull out your detective skills.
My advice would also be to find one that you like and trust, because a number of them exist.
TREND MAGAZINE [B]
The other type of trend magazine will most definitely surprise you. They are generally not discussed mainly because they are generally overlooked by so many people.
Yes I’m talking about Vogue and magazines along those lines. Now I hear you calling out from your confused desks or where ever you are reading this and asking ‘’What the hell does she mean?’’
Well yes this one is a little abstract, not for the faint hearted and certainly for those who really have an eye for trends.
‘Trial Drops’ in retail [coming up as prediction source 9,] also feature in some magazines like Vogue. They do exactly the same thing as retailers. Dropping in a trend or design idea, that seems completely unrelated and out of place compared to the rest of the magazine and seeing the reaction in terms of sales and support, before the real trend comes out later that year.
These are breadcrumbs, a little hint if you like as to what is coming. I find that magazines like Harper’s and Vogue usually do this to prepare their readers. If something unusual is coming up, or maybe a colour palette suddenly flips, the article, usually a one page item, will be popped into a magazine a few editions before it hits the big time. This comes before their main trend edition, with the huge 10 page location photoshoot, features nothing but that colour or trend. It prepares its readers for the onslaught of something unexpected further down the line like harem pants or playsuits.
WHO IS IT FOR
Now I’m not advocating everyone to go out and buy them, but it’s almost certain that if you are working in the fashion industry as a designer or brand owner, you will come across these magazines from time to time so it’s not going to hurt you to have a look through. I wouldn’t bother buying a subscription or every edition purely for prediction. No certainly not. These are more of a confirmation or additional bonus to get your mind working should you come across one of these articles.
The point of the articles is that these ‘trial drop’ items, colour or whatever, are all in there because a group of designers have already created a product. Magazines just publish what is already going on and out there, so it’s important to remember that these flash fashion articles are merely collating the data and pushing it forward. These are fast fashion. The goods have already been made, but if you‘re fast also and pick them up quickly, you could be only a few moments behind them and in front of everybody else.
So now that you know what they are you can keep an eye out for them and of course see if that ‘trial drop’ is appropriate for you.
Continued….
If you haven’t read the other parts, then click below to read on:
P.S.
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