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Fashion Trends Prove Tough to SpotFashion forecasters predict that New York's fashion week will bring everything from a return to conservative dressing to a taste for Latin American-styled clothes in the months ahead.
But pressed on how they know or why so many designers pick a single trend season after season, they're far less specific.
"Divine inspiration," suggested one.
"It's sort of in the air all over," said another.
In fact, forecasters look at everything from art exhibits to zodiac signs to determine what is inspiring the minds of designers and occupying the minds of consumers.
"It isn't purely about fashion. It's about life trends," said Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail Consultants. She said forecasters "stick their noses in people's lives."
"We pay a lot of attention to listening to people wherever we happen to be, whether it's in malls or subways or theaters or in line at the supermarket," she said. "We listen to the way they are talking about their lives."
That's only the beginning, she cautioned. It's knowing what to do with that information that's key.
"If we know that 64 percent of people stand on their head on Thursdays, what does that mean for the fashion industry? How to translate that is our practical expertise," she said.
Forecasters say they take cues from what's new in art, politics, economics,
more: edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe... (138)
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