Angela Baidoo: Fashion Forecaster - WGSN

Baidoo considers herself an industry insider who acts as a creative for change. She leads forecasting teams to identify data-backed fashion, consumer and social trends. Her current position at WGSN has her deliver macro trend presentations that set new creative directions for each season; she collaborates with the Fashion Division Design Directors to help implement breakthrough ideas using ‘Test Vs Invest’ strategies.

What do forecasters do?

Baidoo says her job as a trend forecaster means she has to be curious about everything and work on putting the dots together. She works using the Stepic method, which means she reviews changes across-

  • Society

  • Technology

  • Economy or Environmental

  • Political

  • Industry

  • Culture

She then looks at how all these intercept. For example, Brexit is a political concern; however, we will see changes in aspects such as Industry, where brands will begin to push “British Made” campaigns and products. When reviewing these concepts, Baidoo believes it is important to look at them from a Global perspective to push the boundaries and bring in information from everywhere you look. Only then can you begin to build patterns and find links that may be overlooked and this is where trend forecasting comes into its own.

As a trend forecaster Baidoo says it is your role to:

  • Research and gather data

  • Analyse the market

  • Look at socio and consumer shifts

  • Gather visual imagery

    • *Top Tip always make sure it is elevated

Where to find inspiration?

Baidoo get inspiration from everything around her but she finds the follow as key resources for inspiration:

 

  • Pantone

  • Colour Curation

  • Data Analyst

  • Tactile Technology

  • Dynamic Concepts

  • Art and Design History

  • Store Visual Merchandising and Displays

  • Socio and Consumer Shifts

  • Future Influencers

 

Journey of a trend

In our meeting, Baidoo shared how she develops her research for a trend from building primary sources to final presentation.

To build her trend, she looks at:

  • Initial Primary Research

    • Instagram

    • Museums

    • Libraries

  • Inspirational Travel

    • This doesn’t have to mean travelling miles

    • Go to exhibitions

    • Events such as Hyeres Festival

  • Trade shows

    • Premier Vision

  • Fabric, Colour and Images Sourcing

    • Selfridges Independant Magazine Area

After this, she begins to identify macro and micro trends present within her findings. One example she gave when building macro and micro trends was:

Sustainability is a core concept at the moment; a macro trend for this would be “Being in Nature” and “Optimistic” coming off these, you would have microtrends such as “Joyful Colour”, “Hyper-texturised” and “Rave Culture”.

*Another top tip Baidoo gave was to be constantly building a digital database just for you.

Her team usually send about 2-3 weeks collating this research before meeting and brainstorming together and linking everything they have found together, creating trend mood boards. Different brands will want different styles of boards examples she gave were Peacocks, who will look for my fashion lead boards with clear indications of shapes, colours and patterns; however, Selfridges would much prefer a board that is more based on feelings and emotions building the why of a trend over the what.

Fashion Calander

 

To help keep herself organised and on top of key events, Baidoo follows a fashion calendar which highlights all the best opportunities for inspiration and research.

She also tracks the release of new trend books. In particular, she monitors the release of Trend Union books but she also stated that Scout and Christine Boland are excellent resources.

 

Current Work

Baidoo is currently looking at “The Future Consumer”. She has found that they are very loud and are using their voices to get companies to cater to them and the services and experiences they want.

A trend she is reviewing under this umbrella is:

The Five Year Trend - Currently, younger consumers are making trends move very quickly without time to build to macro trends; however, not all consumer bases want this kind of fast-paced experience. Current trends such as Minimalism and Utility are beginning to pass the 10/20 year mark and are still evolving, so how can brands that cater to an older demographic continue with these?

Examples like this show how important it is for forecasters to make room for everything and have a good understanding of all markets, not just the market they fit into.