Trend forecast to help Indonesian SMEs
Friday, May 15, 2009 11:37 AM
The Jakarta Post
The New Year seems like yesterday, but in the fashion world time flies faster than a supersonic jet. Agencies providing trend forecasts for the fashion industry have to race to release tip offs for boutiques, designers and individual buyers.
Here is the prediction: If you don't already have a one-shoulder dress in your wardrobe, you had better buy an origami-style or pleated dress soon. This is going to be a hit next year.
David Landart from a leading trend forecasting agency, Carlin International, says fashion forecasting is crucial for both retail brands and exporters, because trends tell them in advance about best sellers and what buyers will be interested in - whether it's new fabrics, new shapes or new colors.
"For factories, this is something new because they are still more *make to order' oriented. It can help them to become more proactive instead of being only reactive.
"These days waiting for orders is waiting to die. Most factories are not price competitive with low cost countries, such China, Bangladesh and Pakistan," Landart said.
Consequently, he said, if you cannot compete with on the price side then you have to compete on the added-value side (in creativity and design) because buyers expect their suppliers to be able to, in a limited extent, complement buyers' collections with their own creations.
"Basically the trends lead the market and nowadays every single actor in design chains is interested by this kind of information. You design a product in order to sell it. Trends and trend books are a support tool, a market guideline for creativity."
Irvan Noeman from Indonesian Creative Center says trend forecasts from international agencies like Carlin could help develop the products of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia since traditionally they have been less successful captivating international markets compared to their regional peers.
"Indonesia has around 300 ethnicities. Imagine how many designs we can decode from those," he said.
Decoding, along with identification and translation, are the steps Carlin International uses to forecast trends.
The first step is identification, in which the agency recognizes emerging trends from existing things (not necessarily fashion related) and selects the most relevant new trends (at conceptual/lifestyle level). The designers at Carlin International later decode these trends in terms of design (colors, materials, shapes, graphics, textures and finishing) and translate them into terms of finished products for specific sectors (menswear, women's wear etc.)
"We work on two collections a year, for spring-summer and fall-winter. It takes us five months to complete our trend book collections on colors, prints, fabrics and style books for, among others, men's wear, women's wear, kids wear, sports wear and lingerie," Landart said.
Carlin International must work two years ahead because fabric suppliers need to know the trends eighteen months in advance, garment manufacturers one year ahead (same as trade fair), retail brands between six months and one year, and end users and fashion magazines three to six months ahead.
The agency has 27 offices worldwide (eight of them in Asia) and all of its 35 designers spend most of their time traveling overseas to develop collections for our customers. Consequently, the trends are neither French nor European but genuinely international with a French touch.
Irvan said that with the trend forecast, his organization would foster the top four small to medium enterprise industries (fashion, home-furnishing, crafts and food labeling-packaging) over the next two years.
After assessing SMEs, his organization would build SMEs' capacities through workshops, prototype-making and assisting in production.
"We will also organize international expos and promotions to expand relations between SMEs and buyers."
For more information, you can contact David Landart at david@france-design.com
For further information call me Nasir Syar'an
The Jakarta Post
The New Year seems like yesterday, but in the fashion world time flies faster than a supersonic jet. Agencies providing trend forecasts for the fashion industry have to race to release tip offs for boutiques, designers and individual buyers.
Here is the prediction: If you don't already have a one-shoulder dress in your wardrobe, you had better buy an origami-style or pleated dress soon. This is going to be a hit next year.
David Landart from a leading trend forecasting agency, Carlin International, says fashion forecasting is crucial for both retail brands and exporters, because trends tell them in advance about best sellers and what buyers will be interested in - whether it's new fabrics, new shapes or new colors.
"For factories, this is something new because they are still more *make to order' oriented. It can help them to become more proactive instead of being only reactive.
"These days waiting for orders is waiting to die. Most factories are not price competitive with low cost countries, such China, Bangladesh and Pakistan," Landart said.
Consequently, he said, if you cannot compete with on the price side then you have to compete on the added-value side (in creativity and design) because buyers expect their suppliers to be able to, in a limited extent, complement buyers' collections with their own creations.
"Basically the trends lead the market and nowadays every single actor in design chains is interested by this kind of information. You design a product in order to sell it. Trends and trend books are a support tool, a market guideline for creativity."
Irvan Noeman from Indonesian Creative Center says trend forecasts from international agencies like Carlin could help develop the products of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia since traditionally they have been less successful captivating international markets compared to their regional peers.
"Indonesia has around 300 ethnicities. Imagine how many designs we can decode from those," he said.
Decoding, along with identification and translation, are the steps Carlin International uses to forecast trends.
The first step is identification, in which the agency recognizes emerging trends from existing things (not necessarily fashion related) and selects the most relevant new trends (at conceptual/lifestyle level). The designers at Carlin International later decode these trends in terms of design (colors, materials, shapes, graphics, textures and finishing) and translate them into terms of finished products for specific sectors (menswear, women's wear etc.)
"We work on two collections a year, for spring-summer and fall-winter. It takes us five months to complete our trend book collections on colors, prints, fabrics and style books for, among others, men's wear, women's wear, kids wear, sports wear and lingerie," Landart said.
Carlin International must work two years ahead because fabric suppliers need to know the trends eighteen months in advance, garment manufacturers one year ahead (same as trade fair), retail brands between six months and one year, and end users and fashion magazines three to six months ahead.
The agency has 27 offices worldwide (eight of them in Asia) and all of its 35 designers spend most of their time traveling overseas to develop collections for our customers. Consequently, the trends are neither French nor European but genuinely international with a French touch.
Irvan said that with the trend forecast, his organization would foster the top four small to medium enterprise industries (fashion, home-furnishing, crafts and food labeling-packaging) over the next two years.
After assessing SMEs, his organization would build SMEs' capacities through workshops, prototype-making and assisting in production.
"We will also organize international expos and promotions to expand relations between SMEs and buyers."
For more information, you can contact David Landart at david@france-design.com
For further information call me Nasir Syar'an
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