Good Influence(r): Economics, fashion and TikTok come together for Agustina Panzoni ’18

GOOD INFLUENCE(R)

By Hayden Field

Welcome to TRENDTOK.

That’s what Agustina Panzoni ’18 (@thealgorythm) captioned her first TikTok to go viral. In the video, she outlines four trends for spring and summer 2021: otherworldly knits, sheer delights, exuberant draping and repurposed remixes. Comments ranged from “Can we slow down, I’m broke” to “I’m so thankful for actual fashion people on TikTok! Thank you for showing trends and not just pieces.”

Brooklyn-based Panzoni is an “actual fashion person” indeed. She works in community development at Depop, an online platform where 21 million (mostly Gen Z) shoppers buy, sell and trade opinions on fashion. Her previous employer, WGSN, is the world’s leading trend forecasting company. From that first viral video onward, she has been sharing deeper dives into upcoming trends and — in her most popular video so far, with 1.8 million views — explaining how trend forecasting works and her path to the industry.

“That one video made my account what it is today,” says Panzoni, whose mini trend reports and analysis have 198,000 followers.

Panzoni moved from her native Argentina to the United States in 2014 to study economics at Bentley. She had always been drawn to the fashion world, watching trends unfold in real time, but had no idea there was a career dedicated to predicting them. Her aha! moment came while she was studying abroad in Australia.

A presentation by WGSN, during Melbourne’s fashion week, showcased how analyzing the economy, politics, media, cultural touchstone moments and more could predict what we’ll wear up to two years in advance. As Panzoni listened, she felt like a light turned on in her brain: This was an entirely new use for her economics degree, one that combined both her interests in an exciting way.

From then on, she pursued her new career goal with single-minded determination, applying to WGSN many times — and getting just as many rejections.

“It’s hard to get your foot in the door, even more so when you come from a non-fashion background,” Panzoni explains. “WGSN looks at the economy, but they don’t always hire economists to do this job.”

Combing through the company’s staff on LinkedIn, she found a kindred spirit in another economics major, who believed that economists have unique skills to offer the trend-forecasting sector. That connection led to a job offer.

She learned a lot at WGSN, starting with how the fashion industry used to predict consumer and design trends. For example, catwalk analysis at fashion shows and traveling around the world to study “style tribes” (e.g., punks, goths, rave culture).

Now, it’s all done with data. Trend forecasters use small, real-time insights in health, politics, entertainment and more to predict and decide the future of fashion, in much the same way as data analysis startups use ultra-niche insights — from the prices of meat cuts to the amount of traffic in a certain area — to make “nowcasts” about economic trends.

Anything going on in society is fair game for trend forecasters. Say, a national election or a global event (think: COVID-19) along with touchstone moments in pop culture, such as the aesthetic of Taylor Swift’s next album or a popular Netflix show like Bridgerton. The latter, set in England during 1813, helped kick off the corsets trend underway now; online searches for the clothing item have increased 1,000% since the show began in December 2020, according to social shopping service Like to Know It.

But it’s important to note that trend forecasts and culture shifts in general are very much a “chicken or the egg” case: Although small cultural moments do a lot to push trends forward, there are many unseen forces that make them happen. Panzoni points to a post on TikTok by influencer Emma Chamberlain (@emmachamberlain).

“She single-handedly started the GAP hoodie trend that everyone was talking about a couple months ago. At the same time, there’s a preparation there: People study that Emma Chamberlain can start trends and just ship a product to her.”

Four months into her job at WGSN, Panzoni’s visa expired. It was during the Trump administration and a tough time to get a renewal. She felt defeated, like she wasn’t in control of her own future, and had no idea what her next move would be.

That led to another aha! moment. Why not use her insider knowledge of the trend forecasting world to make her own predictions? She didn’t have access to WGSN’s resources or software, but she did have unique experience and a platform to share her insights. In October 2020, she posted her first TikTok — and by the end of January, it had racked up 4.8 million views.

Her user name on TikTok — @thealgorythm — nods to the role of social media in dictating trends. “Algorithms of social media are always testing what we like, what we don’t like, what we’re engaging with — and showing us more of it,” she says, noting that the “For You” recommendations on TikTok have sped up the trend cycle in a brand-new way.

The ugly side of the trend cycle has become part of the conversation on TikTok and other platforms: how accelerated trends promote fast fashion, unethical labor practices, consumer waste and more. Panzoni knows the downside well.

“The fashion industry works on a schedule. For most brands, there’s a longer production time that is required for a collection to go out — so you really can’t speed up,” she says. “At the same time, you have fast-fashion brands working so fast, and doing things so unethically, that they actually can provide [for] this accelerating trend cycle.”

So, are consumers the ones dictating trends now, fueled by social media algorithms? Or is the fashion industry still calling the shots? Panzoni says we’re seeing a major divide — and as things continue to speed up, we may be headed for a time when the trend cycle implodes entirely.

Where does Panzoni go from here? She’s still figuring it out. “I usually think about my work as, ‘I’m highlighting talented designers; I’m highlighting design innovation.’ But I always get the question, ‘Where can I get this cheaper?’ or ‘I can’t wait until [fast-fashion retailer] Shein makes a dupe of this,’” she says. “It breaks my heart.”

Though passionate about charting trends and analyzing what they say about us, Panzoni knows that taking them to a large platform gives her a hand in encouraging the overconsumption she wants to fight. She can’t help but think about that in planning her next move.

“I would love to see a way to change the trend narrative, or the public narratives around trends,” says Panzoni, from an in-or-out, buy-it-or-toss-it-out approach to something more sustainable. But she knows that idea opposes the very nature of a trend — something that, by definition, has a beginning and an end.

Follow the alumna on TikTok

Nicole Karagianis ’12 and Alyssa Minchella Helms ’11 own boutique short-term rental consulting and management firm HelmsBnB. This post, featuring a reel of new property listings paired with a popular song, received nearly 11,000 views. Says Karagianis: “The virtual experience of touring the home really resonated with our audience, who loves to travel and appreciates beautiful interior design.”

GREATEST HITS

Falcon entrepreneurs share top-performing posts

Elias Sabee ’18 owns Croii Café in his native Venezuela, with 16 varieties of authentic croissants among its sweet and savory creations. Here, an employee who founded a baseball academy “pitches” a croissant. “Social media is a window to see what’s going on inside our daily operations,” he says. “People now, more than ever, are looking for values more than just a good product.”

Lucius Firmin ’23 calls his CRAV* clothing line “a movement, not a brand.” His DMs to NBA athletes resulted in sales to Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the New Orleans Pelicans and the Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving (above); both put the company’s messages of social justice and respect on a global stage. “If you can influence just one person,” says Firmin, “that’s a successful day to me.”

Alaura (Berry) Westrol ’11 specializes in artful arrangements of charcuterie and cheese. Her 16,000 Instagram followers especially love the boards she creates for holidays; this one, which took about an hour to create, prompted a reshare by Better Homes & Gardens. “Tons of people recreate their own at home and tag us as their source of inspiration,” Westrol says. “We give them the opportunity to enjoy food in a fun and beautiful way.”