FITS 335 - Fashion Forecasting and Research Trends

"Marc Jacobs, the king of downtown chic, is no stranger to public ups and downs. Plucked from New York City’s Parsons School of Design in 1984 to start his eponymous line, Jacobs found himself unceremoniously fired from Perry Ellis in 1992 after sending his infamous grunge collection down the runway. Today, he continues a reign of cool over his house label and diffusion line, and as the creative director at Louis Vuitton where he has continued to churn out covetable collections since overseeing the house’s first foray into clothing design in 1997."

"Today's teenagers have money and independence, and their lives are the object of obsessive focus by corporate America. This edition of Frontline explores the culture of today's teenagers and how they view themselves and their parents. Teenage tastes, attitudes, and aspirations are endlessly sampled by marketers to determine exactly what they want, while Hollywood and Madison Avenue tell a carefully tailored version of teenage life in movies, TV, music and advertising. With all this careful surveillance of teenage culture and money put into marketing its trends back to adolescents themselves, this video asks whether negative messages in pop-culture mirror what teenagers feel and desire or whether they are a result of the marketing itself."

This fascinating five-part series offers an insider’s view of how the fashion industry designs, manufactures, and markets its fabulous wares, as well as how tomorrow’s designers are trained.