Trend Bible

The Trend Bible is a trend forecasting company that works with clients to help them use future trend insights to inform decisions. They specialize in mainly interiors and kids wear. They keep a blog (http://www.trendbible.com/blog/) where they offer small previews on their trend predictions. They also post their forecasts when it comes to the actual season it's based on, even though they create them 2 or 3 years before.

They have lots of different themes for their 2013/14 A/W Home Trends - 2 of which are:

'Submerged', which is based around organic structures, looking heavily into underwater themes which includes delicate constructions, entwining roots, glossy surfaces and ariel views of waterscapes.

'Celebrate', which is based around cultural traditions and takes inspiration from Russian architecture and the Winter Olympics. This includes chunky tapestries, heavily embroidered textiles, imperfect geometrics and updated Baroque florals.

It's interesting the way that you can see these trends coming through to the interiors that we are seeing in the shops today - the turquoise colours with the natural, circular themes, alongside the more modern, bolder colours with the shiny statements. It's strange to think that by next March, these trends will be considered 'out of date' and therefore less valuable. It reminds me of how much the 'fashion' and 'trend' industry has grown over the past century; where trends are limited to each season instead of each decade.

(01)
'Submerged' Trend

(02)
'Celebrate' Trend

References:
(01) + (02) - http://www.trendbible.com/blog/home-trends/home-trends-autumn-winter-201314/

Lidewij Edelkoort

Lidewij Edelkoort is one of the world's most renowned trend forcasters. She collaborates with other stylists, designers, managers, photographers and artists to create various trend books, publications and exhibitions. She also does various seminars and has her own design studio.

One of these creations are 'Bloom' magazine. We have all the copies in our uni library, and just like everyone else on my course, I'm in love. The magazine serves as an analytical image bank that provides inspiration for all creative artists around the globe. They're excellent resources for when you're looking for a certain mood or feeling that you want to relate to your work.

You can check out some of their stunning images from previous issues here;
http://www.edelkoort.com/editions/

I've selected a few of my favourite images from catalouges below, but they're actually all incredible.

Lidewij also produces many other publications such as 'Preview', which is put together a couple of months before other trend books to give an advanced insight of the upcoming season.
'Trend Book' expresses the trends using inspirational visuals, key colour combinations, explanatory keywords and texts as well as fabrics and materials that are sampled from all over the world which are put together by their Trend Union team. This is published twice a year in a limited edition - in September for the S/S and in February for the A/W season. Unfortunately I can't provide images from any of these, as they cost hundreds (and sometimes thousands!) of £££, so therefore are not available on the internet.

If you want to have nosy at the other publications they produce, they're all here;
http://www.edelkoort.com/trend_publication/

(01)
Bloom Issue 21

(02)
Bloom Issue 20

(03)
Bloom Issue 17

References:
(01) - http://www.edelkoort.com/editions/bloom-library/gallery-bloom21-2/
(02) - http://www.edelkoort.com/editions/bloom-library/gallery-bloom20/
(03) - http://www.edelkoort.com/editions/bloom-library/gallery-bloom17/

The Trends Industry

First off, sorry that it's been a while since I've blogged - we had our studio module deadline yesterday so I was super busy last week getting everything finished for that.

Last week we looked at the trends industry and how it works. I wanted to have a quick look at the colour trends on WGSN for S/S14 (WGSN are a fashion trend forecasting company who analyse and report on global trends) - I find the whole idea of colour trend forecasting really interesting. I love how a particular mixture of colours can create a certain mood or feeling, and seeing what it has been inspired by.

(01) is labelled as 'Earth Metallics'. The key colours are sand, adobe and terracotta, interspersed with metallics of rose gold, old gold and copper.

(02) is labelled 'Lilac Blues'. The key colours here are horizon, denim, cobalt, amethyst, violet and plum.

These are 2 of many different forecasted trends, which goes to show how constantly changing trends and fashion really is.

I also find it really interesting how these trends are predicted. In our lecture last week we learnt a bit about the trend forecasters themselves, who travel across the world and see what's popular in other cultures, and pick out key features that they can then take back and present. It doesn't sound like a bad job at all - getting to travel the world and being paid to visit theatres, restaurants, museums and generally just exploring other cultures...

(01)

(02)

References:
(01) & (02) - http://www.wgsn.com/content/report/Creative_Direction/COLOUR/ss_14_update.html