After our first day in London seeing the sights it was exciting when we had our first London company visit the following day at WGSN. It was the first time the tour had visited WGSN and we were all very keen to learn from their fashion research practices. At WGSN head office in London we met Sandra Halliday – Managing Editor, Business Reporting and Analysis and her colleague Ruth Marshall, Think Tank/Trends Research Senior Editor. Both Sandra and Ruth gave us great insight into the history of the company and as it sits within the retail industry, having operated for 11 years being the first company to forecast trends within the retail industry. WGSN's main aim was to inspire and provide companies with relevant trend information for companies to structure their products around. This trend analysis includes ideas around colour, design and theme etc, and their target audience is the retailer especially designers and buyers. Sandra then presented us with the Top 10 trends as presented at the recent Retail World Congress. Their thought on the economic situation were also discussed at this time and the general consensus was that 2009 is the year to 'ride out' and looking forward to 2010-2011 we will definitely see recovery. These overarching themes were fascinating for the group and gave us all time to reflect on the companies we had visited so far and think of them in the context of the global economy.
Sandra and Ruth then took us around the office and we met many of the trend teams. As we walked, we learnt that WGSN conducts 3 main trend analysis pieces: 1) close season, 2) future trends and 3) forecast trends (18 months in advance). These trends are driven from micro trends identified through monitoring fashion and art around the world, which is then fed into a twice-annual thinking tank session for further analysis. From these sessions overarching themes are created that will be tracked throughout the season. From these themes each of the smaller men's, women's and kids teams then translate these themes into more actionable trends for the member organisations. WGSN hopes that this information will help member organisations develop their fashion seasons. During the season the teams are constantly scouting for confirmation of their trend analysis and update their reports accordingly. We also met with Content Director - Juliet Warkentin and she talked about the initial founding of WGSN and how it now has worldwide appeal and that their intention is to create generalised opinion for companies to use as part of their market and company strategy.
The group hearing from one of the founders of WGSN
Sandra Halliday, Managing Editor, Business Reporting & Analy
