Google Goes Vogue: Company to Release Annual Fashion Report for What’s Trending

Google has announced it will release a biannual fashion trend report based on user searches to assist companies with fashion planning and forecasting.

Google’s fashion and luxury team head Lisa Green said the company has begun working with major retailers, including Calvin Klein, to help them incorporate real-time Google search data into fashion planning and forecasting. “Fast fashion” companies, for example, can take a trend identified by Google and run with it, according to the New York Times.

After analyzing six-billion fashion-related searches, the Spring 2015 report reveals tulle skirts, midi skirts, palazzo, and jogger pants are the most popular trends this year.

The company has distinguished between “sustained growth” and “seasonal growth” trends in its report, as well as styles that come back with a vengeance in every spring.

It also examined distinctions between seasonal declines, seasonal ones, and fads which are most likely over and done.

“We’re interested in being powerful digital consultants for our brands, not just somebody they can talk to about what ads they can buy online,” said Green. “They can say, ‘Google has identified this as a trend, and we have six weeks to get this out on the racks.”

Google’s entrance into the world of fashion is part of a new push to study how people search online in regards to the purchase of everyday goods and services.

The company has previously experimented with e-commerce through services like Google Shopping, which lets shoppers compare prices among different vendors, and the recently introduced Shopping Express, according to the Times, which lets users make grocery purchases from local retail stores.

Google’s product search is increasingly important in helping the company sell ads alongside search results, which includes fashion search results.

The company is by no means the first to employ user data to predict trends. IBM analyzes posts on blogs, social media and news sites to gauge “social sentiment” in a variety of brand categories, including fashion and retailing, per the Times.