Role Call | Andrea Bell, Retail Editor and Trend Forecaster
Andrea Bell, a retail and consumer editor at trend forecasting agency WGSN, says that you have to be immersed in all aspects of culture to catch the next big thing.
There are few sectors of the economy that offer as wide and interesting a range of career opportunities as fashion. In a new series that coincides with the launch of BoF Careers, the global marketplace for fashion talent, we highlight some of the industry’s most interesting jobs and the talented people who do them.
LOS ANGELES, United States — Trend forecasting and analysis agencies are vital to design-led businesses, which rely on their ability to research and distill macro trends and movements down to actionable information like which textiles to purchase or where to open store locations. Andrea Bell is an editor in trend forecasting agency WGSN’s retail and consumer insights division, where she is responsible for identifying and analysing trends for a range of clients.
BoF: Please describe your current role.
AB: My main remit is Americas retail analysis and includes everything from new store openings and retail expansion strategies to identifying emerging consumer tribes and the current consumer mindset.
However, as we are a global company, the international teams are keen on feeding in inspirational materials and features to other directories whenever possible, which I think is one of the strongest selling points about the company.
For example, in December my features included a Seattle street art inspiration photo file, a new store report on Acne’s Los Angeles flagship, US holiday messaging analysis, repurposed retail spaces in the Pacific Northwest, a holiday pop-up feature on Google’s Winter Wonderlabs and I contributed beauty VM [visual merchandising] photos for our holiday VM round-up.
As cliché as it sounds, our content team truly strives to provide a global touch-pulse for our clients. While we all stick to our main remit, if we find something inspirational/valuable outside our directory, we work with the other teams to produce the feature.
BoF: What attracted you to your current role?
AB: I’ve always been fascinated with the evolution of trends within consumer groups. What are the different call-to-actions based on age, sex, location, or demographics? What is the next consumer tribe? What market is being underserved and overlooked, et cetera?
The thin line between capturing the consumer and gaining a brand loyalist or being lambasted on social media is always evolving and I have to find it.
My role is part-social anthropologist, part-researcher, and part-forecaster, with lots of travel and airport dinners involved. Despite airplane cuisine, I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel for my work.
Whether it’s covering fashion weeks in Peru or Brazil, attending conferences in San Francisco, Honolulu, Park City, and Las Vegas (seriously, I’m in Sin City quarterly), or visiting our corporate office in London – I can’t complain. (Unless I’m stuck in a security line, behind the gentlemen who refuses to throw away his water and doesn’t understand why his computer has to be removed.)
My work life sometimes resembles Indiana Jones sans the khakis and bodyguards. Most of the time, it’s just me, an iPhone, a camera and penchant for discovery.
BoF: What is the most exciting project or initiative you have worked on recently?
AB: Working with the global teams is one of my favourite parts of the job, and we recently wrapped the global retail presentation and the macro trend forecasts in London.
It’s difficult to not feel enthused when seeing what art movements are coming out of Asia, how retailers are engaging the youth market in Brazil, and the early adopter trends in America.
The teamwork is incredible and the presentations are thought-provoking. Throw in a catered lunch, plenty of tea and coffee, and celebratory cocktails, and it’s hard not to feel proud and inspired.
BoF: How is your role changing? What are the forces driving this change?
AB: I think the biggest changes in my role are speed-to-website, driven largely by digital natives and global online connectivity. These days, it seems like everyone with smart phone is a photographer, writer, and Insta-celebrity. (I once had a potential intern bring Facebook posts as her writing samples.)
While the Internet of Everything provides an immense resource pool and is an asset to my work, my lead time for stories isn’t mere minutes. The majority of my features are stat and data heavy, involving a fair amount of fact-checking and confirmations before being sent to my editor.
Our reports have to be insightful, informative, and valuable to our clients, who thankfully know the difference between analysis and snippets.
That being said, while we don’t publish at the speed of a celebrity gossip site, we have numerous features going live daily, thanks to an extremely hardworking (and exhausted) production, subbing and tagging team.
BoF: Tell us a story about a failure and how you learned from it.
AB: I once interned for a very well-known fashion editor. I was young, eager and desperate for a byline and she could sense this a mile away. I had to write a test piece to get the position, which was later published word-for-word in the magazine with her byline. I kept my mouth shut, never confronting her or informing her boss.
I learned three valuable lessons:
1. Being a doormat means you’ll always be stepped on. While I don’t recommend sending a company-wide email airing your grievances or bringing it up at the staff breakfast, speak to someone in senior management if you feel you’re being taken advantage of.
2. Interns are the next senior staff. Treat interns and entry-level employees with respect. Try a proactive rather than reactive approach to their mistakes or office snafus, suggesting how they can do things differently and/or improve on their work ethic and etiquette.
3. Like an ill-fated tweet, your reputation precedes you. The fashion industry is a tight-knit community and word travels fast. If you’re known for diva-like behavior, antics and a poor work ethic, you will have trouble moving up the ladder. The same editor who published my work had trouble getting hired at other publications, as her plagiarism was well known.
BoF: What advice do you have to offer for people who are interested in trend forecasting?
AB: I think the biggest misconception from potential forecasters is that we only look at fashion. Of course, a fashion background is a strong foundation to predict seasonal key items and long-term category (womenswear, juniors, menswear) forecasts but most trend analysts dive deeper than just silhouettes. Our juniors editor, Sarah Owen, constantly sources inspiration beyond the catwalks – she’s at gallery openings, trying new cuisine, even visiting hot NYC workout spots to get active inspiration.
My two pieces of advice are pretty simple but necessary: be aware and read.
A good trend forecaster is constantly aware of the shifts in the marketplace, rumbles in the art world, music, and fashion world. You don’t have to be a hipster to get up early and go digging for records at a flea market, but the hunt may lead you to early adopters. Truly immerse yourself in culture and you’ll find the common threads that lead to the big pictures.
And read, absorb everything you can. No matter how late I’m out or how jetlagged I may be, I always read an hour before going to bed. If that’s not an option, find the time whether it’s on the train, metro, lunch hour. If you have an hour to play Angry Birds or stalk your ex on Facebook, your schedule can be easily adjusted.
