Hannah Edyvean

This chapter discusses trend analysis methods relevant for making fashion lifestyle predictions in the medium to long term. Alongside traditional techniques for trend forecasting, a structured market analysis can be useful for better understanding the external factors that direct an industry landscape, ensuring a business can leverage its strengths and counter its weaknesses to maintain a competitive advantage. The PESTLE framework provides the 'climate' element for a traditional situational analysis of the market environment by exploring six key factors: political, environmental, social, technological, legal and economic. This chapter explores how the PESTLE framework can help students and professionals identify the context of a business environment and the prevailing consumer zeitgeist to aid in the formulation of macrotrend predictions. Technological advancements are also central to the understanding of lifestyle forecasting in the medium to long term, and emerging technologies have created an environment of trust and information transparency between companies and consumers, facilitating cross-dimensional organisational impact. This chapter will explore emerging technological methods in macrotrend and fashion lifestyle forecasting, such as the use of big data.