Day in the Life: as a Trend Forecaster

Whether you’re at the helm of a fashion brand or as producing parties attended by the who’s who of industry folk, a lot of job roles in the creative industry are often overly glamorised. While plenty of positions do have their perks – including classifying as ‘a cool job’ – daily admin, logistical work and other unspoken aspects are what make up the majority of these roles. FMR’s Day in the Life series is here to give you insight into what a regular day could look like, starting with trend forecaster Angela Baidoo. 

With over a decades worth of experience, Angela started her career as a Menswear Product Developer at Burberry after graduating from the London College of Fashion. “Despite being adamant that I wanted to be a womenswear designer, I knew that working for Burberry would open doors for me in the future – which it did.” she explains, which led her to getting a position at Tesco’s fashion brand F+F where she was first introduced to trend forecasting. “In my first year, I had the opportunity to attend a Trend Union (global trend agency) presentation led by world renowned forecaster Li Edelkoort, where I was heavily influenced by the way she was able to connect opposing ideas; such as the texture of handmade paper and a close-up of the surface of the moon. This led me to start my own forecasting journey.” After a short stint at Debenhams, Angela went freelance in 2020. “My main job is to anticipate, track, and analyse change to help the brands that I work with better understand the consumer now and in the future,” she says about her current role. “Alongside this I forecast what products they will want to buy into, based on lifestyle, socio, and economic shifts.”

What does Angela think it takes to be a trend forecaster? “It’s important to have a curious spirit, as throughout my work I am constantly absorbing information to connect the dots, whether that’s linking the rise in Grunge to Nirvanas ‘Nevermind’ album anniversary to how the ripples effects of Paris hosting the Olympics in 2024 are already being felt with the V&A museum hosting a major Chanel exhibition in 2023.” As well as subscribing to as many resources as you can – “this will allow you to track and identify emerging trends from a socio, economic, design, and fashion perspective, as well as broadening your views from a global standpoint” – her tip for becoming a great trend forecaster is to be able to pivot between roles. “It’s my experience across development, design, and editorial that has enabled me to be such a well-rounded trend forecaster,” she explains. Read her breakdown of a shoot day down below.

8am: As a freelance consultant, I have the flexibility to work from anywhere, so I will pick a co-working space within central London or choose to work at the offices of one of the brands I am working with. 

9am: Review what’s happening globally both inside and outside of fashion via the New York Times, the Business of Fashion newsletter, The Cut, The Impression, Washington Post, Vogue, SHOWStudio etc, and I bookmark any key stories or write down any ideas that I want to investigate further – whether that’s a #core fashion trend or a sustainability innovation.

10am: My first meeting of the day will be with a Design Manager (emerging fashion brand), where I’ll present my strategy covering what the opportunities are in the current market, who they should target, and how the purchasing behaviours of those consumers have shifted post pandemic.

11am-1pm: I will then work on 2/3 season specific trends, starting with primary research (as an alumnus, I can visit the library at my old university that has the best book curation and magazine archive), and secondary research such as social media, for example @livingindetail has a great feed for mood images.

1-2pm: During my lunch I check my LinkedIn messages (as this has been a major resource for securing the majority of my consultancy work) and follow up with/book in meetings with brands who want to work on a specific project or take me on for an extended period as part of their forecasting teams.

2-2.30pm: I then head into another meeting with a Head of Fashion (established brand) to discuss working on a Spring Summer 2023 Key Items freelance project.

2.30-3.30pm: Next up will be a meeting with my Editor (as part of my many roles I also write for a number of online fashion platforms), where I will pitch the articles I want to work on for the next month, ensuring they are timely, for example if fashion week is coming up, I may want to cover the benefits of a presentation over a runway show for emerging designers.

3.30-4pm: I normally check my emails first thing and follow-up after lunch, where I will also send out interview or quote requests from industry insiders for an article that I’m working on.

4-4.30pm: If I have a talk or workshop (I am part of my university’s Professional Mentoring Programme) coming up, I will work on writing the script for that, as well as putting together a deck on how to get into trend forecasting, for example.

4.30-6pm: I will then dedicate the rest of the day to researching, which will involve looking at what is happening globally from a climate perspective and how this will effect urban planning (socio), what new sports are Gen Z obsessed with in East Africa (youth), what is Selfridges latest Corner Shop pop-up and what does that say about the future of the store (retail), and how will consumers shift their spend during the impending recession (economy). This enables me to keep updated, not just with what is happening now, but also in the future.