Everything you need to know about fashion forecasting

A career in fashion designing lets you explore your creativity and your designing talents in a more contemporary manner. The field entices you with the idea of creating a unique piece of art in the form of clothing, footwear or accessories and in the process, make a name for yourself. Hence, you opted for a fashion designing course such as B.Des in Fashion Designing to learn about this field as a whole.

After graduation, the popular career options in front of you is of being a fashion designer, graphic designer, retail manager, or retail buyer. While these jobs pay well and are beneficial to your career, there is also a niche career option in fashion designing, which offers the same perks as the ones mentioned above. It’s that of a career in fashion forecasting. This article will talk about the various aspects of fashion forecasting.

1. What is fashion forecasting?

Fashion forecasting is a discipline in fashion designing that focuses on identifying trends. The identification is made based on factors such as colours, fabrics, textures, accessories, footwear, etc. As a fashion forecaster, you will use these factors to pick out the contemporary style trends that align with the on-going season. Based on your information, stores and runways will display products that go with the modern trend. Fashion forecasting also extends to industries such as automobiles, medicine, food and beverages, literature, and home furnishings.

Apart from identifying trends, you will also be responsible for attracting customers to retail businesses and designers. It will not only help them sell their products but also establish their unique brand identity. Therefore, you can create a strategy for the same by understanding their business vision and creating a target profile for the same. The latter is done by collecting information about available merchandise, their compatibility with modern trends and thus, selecting the appropriate ones for a business and its target customers.

2. What are the types of fashion forecasting?

Fashion forecasting is of two types: short-term and long-term forecasting.  

Short-term forecasting focuses on identifying trends based on current global and domestic events, such as pop culture, sports, art, technology, etc. Designers can use these trends to communicate in the form of fashion apparel. An example of this would be Nike recently releasing limited non-cotton apparels to raise awareness about global warming.

Long-term forecasting is the process of analyzing and evaluating market trends over an extended period. This form of forecasting scans the market on factors such as urban and suburban demographics, cultural & environmental changes, changing market trends, varying customer expectations and new developments in various fields. By relaying this information to brands and retail businesses, you can help them understand customer needs and suggest manufacturing products that will stand the test of time.

3. What are the career prospects?

As a fashion forecaster, you will use your knowledge and analytical skills to predict trends in the fashion industry. By providing this information to fashion retailers, designers, fashion buyers, and other forms of design firms, you can be their fashion consultant.

For your invaluable service, you can expect a starting salary in the range of Rs 3-5 lakhs per annum. By accumulating more experience, you can expect your salary to grow exponentially.

Now that you have everything you need to know about fashion forecasting, you can use this information to make an informed decision. If pursuing a career in this discipline interests you, enrol in one of the fashion designing colleges in Pune India, where you will learn about fashion forecasting in detail. All the best!