Voices
The inside scoop with Fashion Snoops 
We’re shaking things up at Playtime & Kid’s Hub New York! For the first time ever, the kid’s market expert, Nicole, from our partner Fashion Snoops will be hosting an interactive buyer briefing. Following her presentation that will decode the silhouettes, colors, prints and patterns of the SS24 trends Meander and Sunbeam, as well as explore shifts in the kid’s market in general, Nicole will open the floor to a discussion between her and the limited number of attendees. This will be the perfect moment for buyers to ask questions about the two trends, shifts in the retail environment, and how to grow your business in the ever-changing children’s market.
To help you prepare your questions, we’re flashing back to January 27, 2022 to an article where we sat down with Nicole and Ania from Fashion Snoops to ask get the inside scoop from Fashion Snoops on their forecasting process. Seating will be limited, so please reserve your spot by emailing madeline(@)iloveplaytime.com your name, company, and phone number.
Trends are such an important part of the fashion industry, but do you really understand where they come from? How are they discovered and cultivated into the incredible presentations produced by fashion forecasting companies? We sat down with Ania and Nicole from our partner Fashion Snoops to see what a typical day is like for them, so we can gain a better understanding of how trends come to be and what forecasters look for to identify them.
It’s all about possessing an innate curiosity and being immersed in the world—observing, reading, listening, touching, and asking questions. It’s not restricted to the world of fashion. It is everything. Films, technological advances, politics, novels, music, food, travel destinations. It is amazing how everything is interconnected. It is our goal to pinpoint these connections and analyze how it will impact our clients’ business.
Instagram has been our most recent new source for researching trends. In fact, we recently launched INSTALIVE on the FS platform. It allows our clients to track trends and influencers on IG based on their market and/or interests. It also allows for them to easily search mood imagery. All the searchable Instagram accounts on INSTALIVE are curated by the Fashion Snoops editors, so clients are looking at the most inspiring and innovative accounts.
Definitely not. One of the biggest shifts is moving away from seasons. Collections are becoming even more seasonless based on shoppers’ buying behavior. The pandemic has heightened this even more as people can no longer predict where they will be in two weeks. People are generally living in a day-by-day mentality.
Probably how trends can grow on you. There are some stories that are challenging to create. These often end up being our favorite, and the ones with the most longevity! This is why it is crucial as editors to remain objective and not let your personal taste dictate your work.
It’s definitely fun to see things that we were predicting coming to life at trade shows and in retail. And it makes it so much more fun to cover the shows since you want to shop for your kid. The evolution of the kidswear market has been interesting to be a part of. Shifting from the very cutesy pink for girls and blue for boys into a gender neutral, mini-me aesthetic has made it more captivating to cover.
Every season begins with Pitch Day in which all the editors get together and “pitch” whatever is speaking to them. There are no rules to what you present. From there, a small team led by our visionary director and creative director formulates four overarching cultural sentiments. These cultural sentiments encompass the overall mood and feeling of the season. It is essentially a barometer for the wider emotional climate of the culture. From there, each market translates these sentiments into an aesthetic with specific, actionable design direction in terms of color, material, silhouette and pattern and graphics.
At Fashion Snoops, our approach to forecasting is very different to some of our competitors. We’ve created a tool that really empowers brands and businesses to act on trend-driven opportunities, and create smarter. Our clients enjoy a unique point of view that stems from cultural trends and a heart-led approach to forecasting. This is then seamlessly intertwined and supported by cutting-edge, Ai-Augmented tools. We view trends as living, breathing things that we know are going to change, according to what’s happening around us in culture.
We also believe in collaboration. Over 20 years we’ve built a strong, loyal, global community who believe in engaging, sharing and supporting each other as we navigate through challenges and changes within our industry. We know there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to trends. That’s why we’re there for our clients, in person, every step of the way. This is something we really pride ourselves in; being able to offer that human touch.
It’s more a cultural shift in kidswear versus a trend, but I’m really standing behind the “humanswear” movement which speaks to offering inclusive design for all children including those who are differently-abled. It is an extension of the gender-neutral shift that has been happening for over a decade now, but this time the focus is on offering the same look, same price point and same accessibility of beautifully designed clothes to EVERY child.
Also the move of gender-neutral design away from just the monochromatic grayscale pieces that were really prevalent in the early 2010s during the nascence of this movement. I love seeing gender-neutral pieces that are in bold and bright colors with playful prints — I think Maison Tadaboum, a brand which we first met at Playtime Paris and is exhibiting at the Winter 2022 show as well, does a beautiful job of playing with gender-neutral pieces in a way that is exciting and authentic.
It’s part intuition and a deep understanding of who your customer is and part staying well-informed of what is happening in the cultural spectrum and not just in the fashion realm. At FS, we synthesize all the information out there and curate it into easily digestible pockets of information to both inspire and also inform our clients on what is best for their business.
Once again, thank you to Nicole and Ania for giving us the inside scoop from Fashion Snoops! It’s fascinating to peak behind the curtain and see how trend forecasters work. Please remember, seating will be limited at the interactive buyer briefing at Playtime & Kid’s Hub New York. Be sure to send an email to madeline(@)iloveplaytime.com with your name, company, and phone number to join us in the Restaurant on the 5th floor of the Metropolitan Pavilion Monday, July 31 at 3:30pm to be part of the conversation! Get further inside scoop from Fashion Snoops via this exclusive opportunity to ask Nicole your questions!
