Major Key Alert: Spring/Summer 2018 Forecast

In the midst of the icy, gloomy days of winter, it's important to look forward to brighter days. Within the industry, those days are over a year in advance.

The fashion industry is always working at least 16 months ahead of time before merchandise hits the selling floor. In order to do so, predicting what will be in trend, or "fashion forecasting", is key to the product development process.

For the past few seasons, muted neutrals have dominated the scene. Heavy influence from the Kardashians and Instagram influencers alike have stimulated this trend and leveraged defining palettes of this time frame.

However, a resurgence of neon is on the uprise. On a recent visit to Free People, I noticed lots of color. For a brand known for it's bohemian style and soft spoken hues, this vibrancy was almost shocking and reminded me heavily of American Eagle.

Upon looking on Trend Council, I noticed lots of bright colors in upcoming trend theme predictions. Bright pinks, oranges, and blues flow through various trend reports. Additionally, Fashion Snoops included a color story based around vibrant, iridescent colors.

Based on these colors and based on these forecasting websites this key item for Spring/Summer '18 would have to be something fun and unique.

Funky sleeves have been on the come up for some time. Bloggers have been posting large, rounded sleeves and they've appeared in multiple runway shows. Regardless, they've yet to make their way to the mass market.

Just as the Forever21 "fun pants" trend came and lingered, the fun sleeve is soon to make it's debut in the peak stage of the fashion life cycle.

Off-the-shoulder tops dominated runway and mass market Spring/Summer '16 and Spring/Summer '17. This influence will carry over to Spring/Summer '18, and evolve with the funky sleeves and fun, new colors.