WGSN Forges Asia-Pacific Partnerships

WGSN, the global foresight business where Industry advisor Lauretta Roberts sits as the founder and director of the WGSN Global Fashion Awards, is establishing partnerships with Asia-Pacific countries to drive business growth in an attempt to reach further afield than its existing customer base of over 75,000 users across 6,000 global businesses.

A joint venture with China Textile Information Center (CTIC) sees the creation of WGSN China, which will serve China’s fashion and textile industry of over 200,000 companies, while a partnership with Japan's Itochu Fashion System Co.,Ltd. plans to greater support WGSN's client base and product portfolio in the region. The partnership will introduce Itochu Fashion System's daily trend information to upstream and downstream companies in Japan across multiple industries including fashion and consumer products.

WGSN CEO Jose Papa says of the Chinese joint venture, “China is a large and diverse market from its geography and culture, to its varied economic and business landscapes. It also has a unique position as both a significant supplier to international markets and a huge and rapidly growing domestic market that is leading innovation in manufacturing technologies, retail formats and logistics."

Campaign image from China's most important contemporary women's ready-to-wear designer, Ji Cheng

We recently talked about Hollywood reaching to China and its meteoric rise on the modern fashion scene here. It comes as no surprise that world's largest provider of fashion insight and analysis is looking East to align with established and emerging industry power players.

Papa continues, "It goes without saying that from a business strategy perspective, China is crucial and we plan to drive significant growth and value for the WGSN business through our focus on the market. As long-term strategic partners, and excellent local insight providers, there is no better partner to help us do this than CTIC.”