Guide to Fashion Sites for Industry Professionals

Are you an up and coming designer, a fashion buyer, boutique owner or fledgling fashion writer? Do you know where to to find the latest fashion trend forecasts, designer idea books and company reports? Read this guide to find all of this and more at the top sites for fashion professionals. There are so many tyes of fashion sites out there that it can be overwhelming; but if you're looking for more than just the latest sales and celebrity trends, these are the sites you want to refer to...

INFOMAT
http://www.infomat.com/

Infomat is a fashion industry search engine covering everything you could possibly want to know about fashion. The site is broken up into four main sections: Get Sales Leads, Access Research, Source Product and Browse Directories.

Get Sales Leads

This section is for networking; it's a chance for marketers, merchandisers, designers, writers and the like to access eachother's ever elusive contact information. If you're just starting out in the business, a site like this can be your key to success. Afterall, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Access Research

The Research section offers both free and fee based information on international textile, apparel and accessories. Here's where you can get market reports and statistics by country or by category (accessories, eveningwear, leather, etc.). Reports contain customer analysis, trend forecasts, threats and more.

Source Product

The sourcing section mostly applies to buyers, product developers and merchandisers. This is where you'll find directories for international vendors of industry services, apparel, textiles, etc.

Browse Directories

This final section is a directory of catalogs related to start-up and seasoned manufacturers and wholesalers. This section is broken down into specific categories such as: "metro muse dresses," "techno retro activewear," "vamp footwear," etc. and then those sections contain brief summaries of that trend and links to designers that fall into that category.

Site Extras

In addition to the main categories, Infomat offers several cool extras...