WGSN

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Create Tomorrow podcast.

I'm your host, Cassandra Napoli, head of consumer forecasting at WGSN.

Every two weeks, I will take you on a journey to examine how trends translate into aesthetics, products, and culture.

In this episode, Omo Yemi and I explore Lagos' booming fashion scene and the wider forces shaping its future, from Nigeria's youthful population to its growing cultural influence.

So some of the local brands that are showing at Lagos Fashion Week, where are they finding trends? Where are they finding inspiration? From a forecasting perspective, we've written quite a bit about how globally we're starting to see different regions kind of turn inwards and look to more local influence.

Is that happening within Lagos? And Also, how are the brands building their communities and trying to kind of lure in that youth population that's so big and opportune?

So we don't like using the word trend, but I understand WGSN.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, I've discussed that earlier with people like WGSN or fashion forecasting.

Someone somewhere knows what's going on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And if there's a group of people that, you know, who are upstream that are managing it.

Or for example, you know, we can see the evidence of WGSN doing what I've said.

Right.

We're going to battle misinformation before attacking us with an unprecedented propaganda attack.

We know that through 2020 that, well, we know in 2018, fashion forecasting brands like WGSN that are part of the Guardian newspaper group, which is a large scale propaganda group, were forecasting PPE colors.

In 2018, they were forecasting purist blue.

and neo-green, as in neo-Nazi, and purist as in, you know, you don't want to be infected.

Purist blue is exactly the face mask colour.

Neo-green was exactly the PPE green colour.

In 2020, WGSN were also forecasting Yellow and blue for 2022.

So what I'm saying in 2018, they were forecasting that color.

So it's a connection to nature and innovation.

According to the Baton and WGSN, color of earthy natural tones such as sage green and angora and cocoa powders will dominate the season.

So guys, we all got to start shopping because this is what it's going to be giving this season.

Exciting acts and colors are also emerging.

We also do, we're pretty active about that too.

We subscribe to WGSN, for example, and we do lunch and learn sessions with them.

Oh,

wow.

All our interns, the moment they step into our office, they're just put into research projects.

they do, coming from some fashion backgrounds also, like even Pahar, so we would go to WGSN, we would do all those trend forecasting, we would do the researches, we would bring out materials, we would travel all over the country, all over the world, to, you know, grab these new age materials, and then we test them and see them, you know, how can we utilize them in our space.

That makes total sense.

In this whole scenario, do you ever fight with clients?

and who she is, Linda? Can do, yes, of course.

Fiona Coleman, who I've known for a very long time, ex-WGSN, expert on colour, expert on trends, you know, she's been a forecaster for a long time.

And she is currently working across the board, women, children's, men's sports, you name it.

But we know her from Pity Bimbo and she's spot on and excellent at colour.

I remember Fiona telling me about five years ago and she was saying five or six years ago, pre-COVID, she was saying, oh, I'm working on colour at the moment.

because she was head of colour for WGSN.

And she said, well, all cars are going to be white, you know.

And I was like, white? What are you talking about? You know, she said, no, no, I'm projecting all cars are going to be white.