Last week I had the opportunity to chat with Jane Buckingham, the vice president of Trendera, a trend forecasting company in California. Originally from Manhattan, Buckingham attended Duke University and wrote her first book at age 17. Having spent her whole life looking at trends and watching what people were doing, she noticed the increasing prevalence of the Internet in everyday life.
Bruce Nussbaum’s assertion regarding the fate of traditional fashion magazines was still on my mind. That being the case, I was certain that it has lingered with all of the fashionistas out there, so I took it upon myself to bring Mrs. Buckingham in on the debate. She had some great insight, and for the fashion editors who are reading this (wishful thinking), it seems like you don’t have to discard your Chanel shoes yet…..
Like Booth Moore of the Los Angeles Times, whom I spoke with earlier (see previous post), Jane was keen to the changing fashion industry.
“The Internet has significantly changed things in a lot of ways. Everyone has access to runway fashion immediately, so they can start talking about things immediately. Also, the fact that everyone can comment on fashion trends is a huge deal. It used to be just editors that could comment and say what was significant, but now everyone can utilize online forums and blogs to donate their opinion.”
When I asked her about the fate of magazines, she calmly said,
“There may not be the need for as many magazines, but there will always be a few smart magazines out there. Fashion is beautiful and people will want to look at it and take it with them, in the same way that people are still reading books and not using the kindle.”
However, that does not mean that the Internet has not created implications for the fashion industry, in particular fashion editors. Buckingham believes that you can’t spite change, and more importantly you must NOT ignore it.
“The increasing presence of the Internet makes it so that editors have to be smarter. Now, they have to provide more value to their opinions.”
Ultimately, as a trend forecaster herself, Buckingham sees a world of co-existence when it comes to online forums/blogs and traditional fashion magazines.
“It is great that there are both online forums and traditional magazines. Forums provide us with a lot of information from a diverse group of people and magazines can serve as the filter.”
What a great way to look at it! Don’t you think?
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