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Paper short abstract:

This ethnography analyzes the impact of contemporary issues such as sustainability on a Parisian trend forecasting agency that anticipates societal trends. Their foresight surveys are hindered today by their own working conditions as the uncertainty of the future pushes them into economic precarity.

Paper long abstract:

In view of the social and environmental crisis that fashion industry has faced in the past few years, the sustainability shift appears inevitable. Pushed by the digital revolution, this transition upsets the foundations of market capitalism and leads to a readjustment of the value chain and a redefinition of its industry's jobs.

My research deals with the impact of the shift towards a sustainable fashion industry on a Parisian Trend forecasting agency whose work is to anticipate major societal trends. Its employees, who are as much foresight analysts as strategic planners and stylists, transmit their socio-cultural analyses, two years in advance, to their client companies in the form of a "trend book" or by providing consulting services. These tools shape "socio-aesthetic" concepts likely to meet the needs of consumers.

In this paper I analyse how this transition forces employees to rethink fashion according to the dilemma opposing the desirable and the sustainable in the process of trends creation. Then, given the current capitalist logic which imposes "tight flow" conditions and high profitability in the short term, I show the difficulties they have in envisaging their profession and their own company in the long run. The ethnography highlights the cognitive dissonance between the sustainable discourse of their trend books and the economic reality they are facing such as salary, management, organization and gender inequalities.

However, they are considered to be inspirational actors for their ability to propose optimistic scenarios to their clients, but this image actually differs from their economical reality.