Ranjan Kumar Saha

Associate professor
NIFT-Mumbai
ranjan777in@yahoo.com
(For classroom Presentation)
 Colour Forecast
COLOR FORECAST

Colour forecasting of a particular season for fashion

industry starts 18 to 24 months before that season
starts.
Lifestyles, culture and attitudes acceptance or rejection of collective
color directions. Indirectly mass media also helps integrate and translate
individual and cultural tendencies, differences between segments remain
Color Services
Color projection services include the ICA-International Color Authority
(British); Essential Colours and Colorace (German); Orizzonti (Italian);
L.A.Colours (Dutch); The Color Box, The Color Marketing Group;
Concepts in Color; Colorplay; D3 (Donegar); Huepoint, etc.

Fashion and textile industry professionals meet at least twice a year to

pool their knowledge of color cycles and preferences to project color
trends for the future.
Forecast, including yarn colors or swatches, are sent out by the color
services in time for designers and merchandisers to plan their color
stories and purchase fabrics. Some fiber companies also supply color
forecasts for their customers.
Color systems are another type of color resource. These companies such
as SCOTDIC (Standard Color of Textile Dictionaire Internationale de la
Couteur) and Pantone, keep a permanent library of dyed colors in color
families. They distribute color cards to their customers who use the
samples as standards for choosing colors for merchandise and dyeing
fabrics. SCOTDIC has a library of 6000 colors and Pantones package
has 1701 colors.
Analysis of current trends : Newspapers, magazines, television and
other sources to identify trends
Analysis of current colors: Analyze fashion across womens & mens
apparel, interior design and automobiles; identify colors and create
swatches of current colors
Image Analysis: Collect pictures of current images across womens &
mens apparel, interior design, automobiles ( package design,
corporate images and environmental design) and create categories of
soft/hard, grayish /clear, warm/ cool to detect pattern
Analysis of current and Emerging Lifestyle: Develop hypothesis based
on the above about directional lifestyles and consumer tastes
Analysis of color preferences by consumers: Using questionnaires and
color projection techniques to explore the psychology of color and
consumer preferences.
Design Concepts and Style Directions

Interpret meanings by creating visual core concepts (Semiotics

Science of analyzing signs and symptoms ).
For this a forecaster must be conversant with the visual sources and the
symbolic meanings of fashion.
Concepts Referencing for the past
Concepts Referencing Ethnic Sources
Concepts Referencing Sports
Avant garde

Forecast: Create the forecast using images, themes and colors.

 Filo Yarn show (Milan)
Texworld (Paris).
Europian Preview (USA)
Tissue Premier fabric Show (Lille)
Pitti Immagine filati yarn show (Florence)
(Mainly for Knits).
 Based on the colour forecasting, some
forecasters Such as WGSN prepare colour
Palette available for clients much ahead of
the season.
WGSN prepare swatch board for fabric and
yarns.
 Continuing the sequence, specialist product
trade shows are held after the fabric shows
are segmented according to broad sector,
such as mens or womens wear, and by the
specialist product category, including
sportswear or lingerie.
 Magic show in Las Vegas (USA).
Bread and Butter in Barcelona & Berlin.
Pitti Immagine Uomo (Florence).
 Basedon the Fashion Trend forecasting
Designer create their new collection.
 The final fashion look for a season comes
out to be the result of the combine views of
forecasters, textile shows, product trade
shows, designers, buyers, RTW shows.
Like a collage the final picture emerges after
the various layers comes together.
 RTW shows have a very little impact on some
last minute high street and fast fashion
ranges, there major impact is mainly on
directing final views of trends close to or
within a season.
 The extensive coverage of the RTW show by
the fashion media provides the consumer the
first hand information about the new
seasons look and the fashion trend.
Celebrities participate in fashion shows.
Press & Television journalist report headline
stories emerging from the RTW shows on
daily basis.
Influential fashion magazine report in details
about the RTW show some months later.
 Significantand structured Trend coverage of
the RTW shows is catered to the consumers
through monthly women's magazines
including vogue, Elle, Marie Claire,
Cosmopolitan, Grazia and many more.
These monthly magazines work on 3 months
lead time.
 The earliest practical coverage of the September
/October shows is in December/January issue.
This issue is focused on Christmas and the
completion of current year to address next
seasons trend.
Advertisers want to keep SS images close to the
relevent selling period.
Fashion Editors tend to wait for the first sign of
SS sample, generally arriving in November,
before producing significant features.
The photo of press sample are couriered ahead
of the rest of the production to enable the
fashion retailers to promote their range for the
current season.
 Many fashion Brand holds Press Days during
which fashion journalists and editors preview
the forth coming ranges.
In UK it occurs in July for Christmas and
November for SS.
This exposure provides magazines with
relevent materials to shoot for their fashion
features and benefits fashion brands by
giving them crucial publicity.
 Finallythe interpretation by the fashion
editors of what the major colours and styling
features are for a season has an impact on
consumers beliefs of what is fashionable and
fashion trend.
Which ultimately reflects on the consumers
buying trend of fashion product.
 Forecasting is done few months in advance to almost two
years ahead of the selling season
Color forecasting is done up to 2 yrs ahead of the
selling season
Fiber /yarn forecasting happens simultaneously with
the color forecasting almost 18 months in advance
Fabric forecasting is done 12 months ahead of the
selling season
Finished goods/apparel forecasting is done 6-12
months ahead of the selling season.

Trend forecasting is an ongoing process.

Focused on the target market Product developers may
offer anywhere from two to six seasonal collections
per year.