Fashion Trend Forecasting

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Trend Forecasting

Table of contents

Content Page

Introduction 2

Fashion Trends 2

Denim 3

Kids Wear 4

Latest Trends 5

Future demands 5

Conclusion 7

List of References 8

Introduction:

The environmental protection is one of the main concerns world-wide and the textile and fashion industries also started to respond for the cause of earth through eco-friendly clothing. Eco friendly textiles include fabrics which are non-toxic, carbon-reducing, recyclable, energy saving and biodegradable. The consumers are also more concerned about the environment and there is an increase in consumption of green products but at the same time fashion and style plays a vital role in setting the trend. Eco-friendly fashion is all about making clothes that take environment into account and at the same time producing fashion goods for consumers.

The reason for forecasting the eco friendly clothing trend is that there is a rising demand in eco-safe textiles and garments. Though there is continuous development in almost all the products our focus is more on the kids wear, eco green T-Shirts and denim wears. Many big brands like Levi’s, Kuyichi and Nudie had already started their campaign on producing eco friendly denims and there is a continuous development in doing the same more fashionable and stylish ().

Fashion Trend:

The eco friendly clothing is still in the developing stage which is a “Fringe” in terms of fashion trend forecasting. As eco fashion is gaining more and more awareness among the society and people. My focus will be on Denim and Kids wear trends.

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Fashion Trend:

In general Organic cotton is used for most of the eco friendly clothing production. Based on Manmeet (2009) article about Organic clothing, there is an increase in demand for organic cotton market, which was about 3.5 billion USD in 2008, and estimated to increase to 4.5 billion USD by this year 2009 and reach 6.8 billion USD in 2010. These figures’ shows us the increasing importance in the use of organic cotton in the field of eco friendly clothing production.

Denim:

The eco-denim products are the point of focus for many denim brands and their designers and consumers who are looking for sustainable clothing and also with the blend of style and fashion (Helen, WGSN, 2008). As there are many brands going through the process it looks like a positive growth and this trend is not looking like a short term passing trend. President and designer at Earnest Sewn, Scott Morrison said: "It is my sincere hope that eco-conscience fashion is much more than a trend, but that remains to be seen for a long time” (). The main reason behind this is that people understand the importance of organic, environment friendly products and their place in consumer market.

For autumn/winter 2008/09 most denim wears goes back to 70’s styles. Levi’s Red Tab look at 70’s urban tribes also Wrangler returns to 1970s – bootcuts, high waists and flares are black. The flare becomes main collection for the men and women. The main factors here is that, the Denims in this range of collection are 100% organic certified eco-jeans dyed using natural indigo dyes (Amy, WSGN, 2008).

In Denim Dyeing process there are many eco-friendly dyed product tried in winter 2008 by Levi Strauss Europe. They have tried small range of organic cotton T-shirts with plant derived tones. Natural indigo blues obtained from several plant sources were used by European brands. This increased the demand of Blue Blood, Evisu, Kuyichi and Howies denim pants (H ROs, WGSN, 2008). There is clear evidence of the growing importance of natural dyes in the context of contemporary environmental concerns, which include biodiversity and renewable resources.

Based on the swatch report by WGSN Denim team (2008) the main trend is forecasted for coming spring/summer 2009. This is based on European trade shows and it clearly says there is a strong focus on coloured weft with natural indigo shades in denims and in the case of styles the 70s style is going to influence the denim shades continuing from the last session.

The new look for this session for denim is blends like cotton linen blends which give slubby rustic look and it is also experimented with alternative natural fibres. Then, the lighter weight denims trend up and there is a return of bonded denim jackets.

Kids Wear:

Environmentalism is the high priority and biggest concern for the parents of coming generation kids. As there is continuous change in environmental factors and hazards followed by the same, parents nowadays takes extra care over their kids in everything they do and what they wear and play with. The kids wear companies are taking extra care and effort to give the parents what they expect. Apart from apparels simply made from organic cotton, the companies use many a more substitute products and use alternative materials for supporting environment.

Danish brand Katvig has introduced sustainable bamboo and soya into the kids range: for autumn/winter 2007/08, it’s a knitwear blend of soya/cashmere and for summer 2008, it’s organic socks and printed essentials which are made of super soft bamboo/cotton/lycra mix. It is pretty clear that, bamboo is an important trend setter during the year 2008 being a newly introduced product in these kids wears range (Tess, WSGN, 2007).

During Spring/Summer 2008, Bubsquash was introduced. Bubsquash exhibited its range of organic baby wear at premier kids as a brand new thing which contains vegetable and fruit photo prints with humorous statements appearing on it. In this session there are some new additions in children's loungewear, to include sophisticated, beautiful, and functional pieces that can be worn with ease and comfort. This will include hand-printed T-shirts, wide-leg drawstring pants, tunics and pullovers (H Tess, WSGN, 2007).

Latest trends:

BBC’s “” features some of this season's hottest looks from colourful skinny jeans to eco cargo shorts, boho chic to urban and tribal prints to stripes. Proving that you don't have to be non-environmentally friendly to be chic and glamorous, the online magazine claims to bring its readers the latest in eco-fabulous style. For fashion-conscious females, wearing environmentally-friendly fashion no longer means looking hippy and it is possible to look stylish ().

Future demands:

Buyers are becoming increasingly aware of negative effects of pollution and textile related allergies. An extreme rise in acceptance of ecological products in textiles is registered at the buyer’s end. Mounting demand of “eco-friendly” products has led manufacturers to adopt eco-friendly products and this led to increase in importance of eco-labels. Oeko Tex standard 100 is one of the main institution bodies which test the textile harmful substance standards all over the world. It approves and gives eco-labels. Eco-labels which depicts the ‘eco-friendliness’ of the textiles and garments are widely amicable by the buyers, certifying that this products don’t include chemicals, which may be harmful to the wearer (Gautham, 2006).

There are many researches undertaken and observations were made on trade fairs by Oeko Tex standards to know in detail, the awareness for the consumers about the sustainability and product quality while purchasing and the demand for those products in the global market. In the Heimtextil trade fair (2009), there is an instinct view on increase in sustainability and quality demands. The research on retail market and the important issues when buying clothing and textiles (Jorg, 2008) shows us, product quality and skin-friendliness for the wearer are closely placed with fashion and social consideration. Based on this we could say that, In future the buyer will consider eco friendly materials as well as fashion and style. So there would be increasing demand for these garments in future.

Conclusion:

The emerging trends in eco friendly clothing and garments are analysed and it is found there is an increase in environmental awareness and the buying behaviour according to the global change. The trend showed us that eco fashion is not only about hippie skirts and shorts but also with more number of fashion and styles. The denim wears and kids wear trends are taken into consideration for my research on trend. Based on, Media scan on trade and fashion shows and observing the experts research in eco friendly clothing I came up with short term trend changes in denim jeans, as we know through trend forecasters website WGSN, the 70’s trends are returning to denim fashion but with the organic cotton as a material and dyed using natural indigo dyes. This trend continuous for the Spring/Summer 2009 and new look is coming in form of denim blends in this session. In case of kids wear, the usage of new fibres soya and bamboo is the recent emerging trend and at the same time it gives stylish look. Finally, this eco friendly garment is considered as more than a trend as there is continuous environmental awareness building in the consumers mind; this eco fashion would stay longer as a classic.

List of References:

Amy Leverton and Sue Barrett, 2008. “Swatch Report Autumn/Winter 2008/09” In WGSN website.
Cited from the thread for fashion by BBCs website viewed on 13rd April 2009.
Cited from the official website of Oeko Tex standards viewed on 20th April 2009.
Cited from the trend forecaster’s website viewed on 22nd April 2009.
Gautham, 2006. “Rising demands in eco-safe textiles and garments”, Published in in India.
Helen Job, 2008 “The future of organic denim” in the WGSN trend forecaster’s website, New York.
Jorg M, 2008. “Specialist retailer questionnaire: textile quality marks” for BBE Retail Experts, German Certification Centre.
Jorg M and Hansjurgen H, 2008. “European Market Research Textiles tested for harmful substances” by BBE Retail Experts.
Manmeet, 2009 “Organic clothing-Blending nature and trend”, Published in in India.
Material and denim team, 2008. “Swatch report Spring/Summer 2009” In WGSN website.
Tess H and Molly P, 2007. “Green Kids wear” from the WGSN trend forecaster’s website.