WGSN is a trend forecasting company with offices in London, New York, Hong Kong and São Paolo. WGSN supplies global brands with consumer and product design forecasts.
WGSN forecasts are available to subscribers and students at participating universities. WGSN also provides business and marketing consultancy to clients.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | West London, UK |
| Website | wgsn |
WGSN's data and forecasts offer global trend insights across various industries, including fashion, beauty, food and drink, interiors, and consumer tech.
WGSN was founded in 1998 in West London by brothers Julian and Marc Worth.
Emap (now Ascential), a business-to-business publisher and exhibitions company, bought the company in October 2005 for £140m.[1]
In 2013, WGSN merged with its biggest competitor, Stylesight.[2] Like WGSN, Stylesight had a vast library of fashion forecasting, trend information, archival photos, and even sketches and patterns for designers to use. Keeping the WGSN name, the new product has been designed around the technology developed by Stylesight and launched in 2014[3].
In November 2017, WGSN bought Use Fashion (now Start by WGSN), a regional competitor in Brazil, launching its secondary business focused on fashion entrepreneurs.
In February 2024, WGSN announced the definitive agreement between Apax Partners LLP ("Apax"), a global private equity advisory firm, and Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL) for the acquisition of WGSN for £700m[4].
As an online service, the business derives its revenues from 9 different product subscriptions (WGSN Insight, WGSN Fashion, WGSN Interiors, WGSN Beauty, WGSN Food & Drink, WGSN Consumer Tech, WGSN Barometer, Coloro, TrendCurve+) and a custom advisory business (WGSN Mindset) .[5]