A fashion trend is a style or a dress style that is most favored by the public. Fashion trends cannot be separated from the basics of fashion design education, and the important factor of the sensitivity and knowledge that is combined to read the trending fashion on the public. So that people can accept the changing style from time to time. Factors that influence fashion trends are social media, entertainment industry, internet media, business economy, music industry, lifestyle and community character. According to Afif Ghurub Bestari, M.Pd and Kusminarko Warno, M.Pd in an independent study conducted online and offline at the Faculty of Engineering UNY, Thursday (3/3).

According to Afif, in the fashion industry, a person who can predict trends for the future is called a Fashion Forecaster, which is a person who can predict future trends based on instinct and supported by analysis of daily life. "Usually, a fashion forecaster reads fashion trends by doing market research on a fashion that has been issued in previous years," he said. In addition, fashion forecasters also collect a lot of information related to all aspects of life not only about fashion design but also about interiors, the environment, favorite spots, actual news, technology, seasons and others. Kusminarko Warno added that after collecting enough information, a fashion forecaster will analyze it to make an estimate of future trends. This stage is the most important stage because it requires high sensitivity and concentration in order to produce imagination about future trends. Trend predictions in the form of a book or a website are useful to help the fashion industry such as retailers, garments, designers and others. "They need this trend prediction to determine future production steps so that it can be accepted by the wider community," said Kusminarko.

This independent study activity is a collaboration between UNY and the Export School. According to Yosep Efendi, who is responsible for the activity, independent study activities with Export School have been going on since 2022 where the Faculty of Engineering provides a place and human resources to assist Export School teams in organizing independent studies. These human resources include technical teams and team-teaching lecturers. “There are 4 lecturers from the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Vocational Studies who became speakers and collaborate with the Export School team for the independent study activities,” said a lecturer from the Faculty of Engineering. Export School is a partner of the Kampus Merdeka program which conducted off-campus export learning with the theme “Digital Export 2020”. Prof. Siswanto who is a Vice Rector for academic and Student Affairs of UNY said that the collaboration of the Export School in fashion products is a breakthrough to change the mindset of students. This collaboration can be further intensified, especially in the field of trade and utilization of research results to reach export. Upgrading this kind of knowledge will be a powerful support for the implementation of research results. Prof. Siswantoyo invited UNY students to take this extraordinary opportunity to change and make a move. (Author : Dedy, Editor : Sudaryono, Translator : Karina)