Okay, so lets recap what we have learned so far.
1. There has been a definite rise in the prevalance of web based fashion trend forecasting. The amount of blogs on online fashion forums is infinite.
2. The Internet has provided more ACCESS to the fashion industry, which has facilitated the “democratization of fashion“. No longer is the dictation of fashion trends left in the hands of a few fashion editors. Everyday people all over the world can participate as a result of the instant dissemination of new fashions online.
3. Numbers 1 and 2 have left us asking the question “What is the fate of traditional fashion magazines?”
4. While Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek and some other experts assume that fashion editors will soon have to give up their seats to fashion bloggers and forum creators, Jane Buckingham chooses to look at the issue from an alternate point of view.
5. Traditional fashion magazines and online blogs/forums can CO-EXIST.
Christina Roperti, the fashion assistant at Women’s Wear Daily, agrees with Mrs. Buckingham. However, her own personal experience in the fashion industry leads her to believe that co-existence will be accompanied by a shift in roles.
“Fashion magazines aren’t going to be breaking any news stories anymore. It’s all about online presence. I know at WWD, we’ve stepped up our online presence recently. We are always working on improvements to our site and we even Twitter now, as if printing daily isn’t enough! There’s much more of a demand and expectation for information now, and it is up to print media to figure out a way to satisfy that demand while still remaining relevant….I think that blogs may be the ones to break the news of a trend and magazines will be the source that interprets the trend in an artful way, as perhaps a more image-based medium since you cannot get the same effect from a photo shoot online as you can in a large magazine spread.”
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