Description
Exploring the inner workings of color and trend prediction for fashion over the past two centuries, from Europe to America to Asia, The Fashion Forecasters offers the first historical treatment of the rise and growth of the industry within the global fashion system. Including new archival research and interviews with leading contemporary forecasters like Ornella Bignami and Catroina Macnab, the book explores the origins and evolution of the industry, examining the entrepreneurs, trade associations, service companies, and consultants that have worked behind the scenes to connect fashion creators and retailers to emerging trends. Regina Lee Blaszczyk is Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society and Professor of Business History at the University of Leeds in the UK. She writes about design and innovation for the creative industries. Her books include Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning (2000); Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers (2008); The Color Revolution (2012); Bright Modernity: Color, Commerce, and Consumers (with Uwe Spiekermann, 2017); Fashionability: Abraham Moon and the Creation of British Cloth for the Global Market(2017); and European Fashion: The Creation of a Global Industry (with Vronique Pouillard, 2018). Ben Wubs is Professor of International Business History at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication in Rotterdam and an appointed Project Professor at the Graduate School of Economics at Kyoto University in Japan. In terms of research, he is engaged in projects on multinationals, business systems, transnational economic regions, Dutch-German economic relations, and the global fashion industry. His books include International Business and National War Interests: Unilever between Reich and Empire (2008) and (with Ralf Banken) The Rhine: A Transnational Economic History (2017). List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Beyond the Crystal Ball: The Rationale Behind Color and Trend Forecasting Regina Lee Blaszczyk and Ben Wubs Part I: When Paris Led and America Followed 2. The Rise of Color Forecasting in the United States and Great Britain Regina Lee Blaszczyk 3. Tob Coller Davis: A Career in Fashion Forecasting in America Vronique Pouillard and Karen J. Trivette Part II: Going International 4. From Window Dresser to Fashion Forecaster: David Wolfe of the Doneger Group Tells How He Got Started in Trends 5. What Do Baby Boomers Want? How the Swinging Sixties Became the Trending Seventies Regina Lee Blaszczyk 6. The View from Paris: Nelly Rodi and the Early Days of French Trend Forecasting 7. Fibers, Feathers, and the Future: Ornella Bignami on the Importance of Materials 8. Fashion Prediction and the Transformation of the Japanese Textile Industry: The Role of Kentaro Kawasaki, 1950-1980 Pierre-Yves Donz 9. Interstoff’s Fashion Table: The Internalization of Fashion Forecasting at the World’s Most Important Fashion Fabric Fair Ben Wubs 10. The Role of the Pitti Uomo Trade Fair in the Menswear Fashion Industry Mariangela Lavanga Part III: The Digital Imperative 11. Looking Behind the Scenes of Swedish Fashion Forecasting Ingrid Giertz-Mrtenson 12. Trending Online: Valerie Wilson Trower Discusses Stylesight in the Asia Pacific Region 13. Fast Fashion, Fast Futures: Catronia McNab on WGSN and the Global Digital World Part IV: Conclusion 14. Fashion Futures Regina Lee Blaszczyk and Ben Wubs Select Bibliography Index
