My academic background is sociology. But after college, I was a model for awhile. That was in the mid-'70s and I had been a big fat kid, almost three hundred pounds, and I'd just lost like a hundred of them and somebody spotted me and I started modeling. It was big jump for me psychologically, and it wasn't such a great experience. But from being in the fashion industry, I discovered that there were organizations that work in trends and that really appealed to me. I remember seeing an ad in Women's Wear Daily sometime around 1988 that described something called a trend service. And I applied and I got the job. I worked in toys first and I spread out from there. I joined this firm around eight years ago.

My background in sociology comes up all the time. For companies like a Wal-Mart, sociology is so important to their business. I mean all they want to talk about is like, "Why are women shopping like they do?" And that's sociology and I think it's good to take into account the women's movement. You know what I mean? For years, the fashion industry believed women were puppets and you could dictate to them. But if you look at political and social climates, this is not the case anymore. Right now, we are seeing a gradual change, more clothes cater to a larger-sized woman, not Barbie or a heroin-chic waif. And this has to do with a change in women, an assertion of what women's bodies really look like. Or take Sears--the idea of Sears launching a line called Mosaic that's specifically targeted to the African-American woman. Well, that's just pure sociology. (Laughs.) They're probably already studying that somewhere.

My firm works on special projects for a wide range of companies. Mostly we are helping on repositioning image or launching new product lines. It's primarily sales and marketing. We attract clients through referrals. I haven't made a cold phone call in years. The common thread linking my clients is that they are high-profile and they can afford to pay to sit and discourse.

In a meeting with a client, I will supply information. They apply it as they see fit. I do whatever I can to make it an interactive experience. I listen a lot. I try to be humorous and gregarious and upbeat--being upbeat is very important. I try to communicate my information in an understandable way. Not in a simple way. Never condescending.

This past Monday I met with a leading bed and bath company to develop new issues for Fall 1998. We tossed around three or four major back-to-school themes, looking at pictures, colors. We discussed a possible bohemian theme. And within that, we talked about the idea of a flea market, fabrics like a gypsy quilt. We also discussed trying an active streetwear message, the idea of adapting the high tech active thing to bedding, incorporating racing stripes into bath products.

Usually, things begin with color. Color is the most pronounced way we express ourselves. There's been so much talk in the last while about trends in texture and fabric, but I don't know if the average Joe and Mary has grasped that stuff. I think the first thing people look for is color.

There really is no such thing as one hot color. Not in our lifetime. Some years ago, they'd talk about the one hot color. We now ask questions: What's happening to reds? What's happening to greens? Are greens getting bluer? Getting more yellow? Are browns up-trending? That's industry speak--it means have browns reached their peak? Or are they down-trending? Or have they reached the point where they're such a classic that they're never going to change?

To answer these questions, you have to look at everything. You can't just look at the designer collections. You can't just look at what's going on in the streets, or in the clubs, or the offices. You have to look at everything together. We get some information from organizations that supply market data. But that information is available to anyone--it's printed in the media. You don't need to hire me to get it. So I wouldn't make a dime if I just spewed out hard-core market data. I have to connect the dots, do an analysis, and say there's a story here, a trend, a theme, make those connections. Like, for a while, I have been thinking about Coney Island, predicting the resurgence of vintage entertainment feeling--a look like after the performance and backstage, with a faded aspect to it. And now, I'm seeing images of Coney Island all the time--they're in Spike Lee's new movie, they're even doing fashion shoots out there. I see that insight as a success in that I named it and it is now playing itself out.

My trend predictions have materialized fairly often. The best example was I had a meeting with a manufacturing company about backpacks. I did this whole huge thing on back packs. Basically, the advice was "Plastic, plaid and terrycloth." This was a few years ago, when these fabrics hadn't been used for backpacks yet. Anyway, the client had no faith in trend forecasting whatsoever, but he went with my information and it worked for him. He made a fortune. And I'm doing pretty well money-wise too (laughs).

My social and professional life blur boundaries. My friends are corporate types, artists and media types. I've developed personal relationships with some of the people at Ford Motors and Disney. They are clients of ours. And there are some very cool people working for those companies, wonderful, brilliant, well-spoken people. A lot of openly gay people. And I use the information I get from hanging out with them. But then again, I use everything. Even trying to buy a Pinocchio doll for my lover and realizing they don't sell this wood doll anymore but they sold it everywhere four years ago. I can use that. Why? It's information.

People tend to ask me what to wear and what's cool and I answer the same thing: "Whatever you want." You should try to please yourself for yourself. I have a problem with people who are victims of dictation, people who will wear or do things even though it's absolutely preposterous for them and looks ridiculous, rather than wear something that looks great on them and fits their body. That's how you can tell if someone's a fake. So I tell people to wear what they want, wear what makes you feel good. Besides, trends have a life span--nobody knows how long a trend is gonna last. Things also overlap. A lot of trends recently have been about decade celebration, or "revivalism," as they call it sarcastically. But whether you are talking about the '50s or '70s or '90s--aspects of it will continue, aspects will die off, they'll be overlapping, mixing decades, whether one realizes it or not. It can get very comical and I am always asking myself, "Why the hell is that continuing?"

You know how people talk about trends always having counter-trends? Well, I'm pretty left-leaning politically, so I always read conservative stuff to know what the opposition's doing. I find The Wall Street Journal fascinating and useful. I find ads useful, like the knife in the Smith and Wollensky ad that's selling red meat as pleasure. I find that telling. Things like that I think are sort of pointing to the comeback of fur. Yes, fur is coming back. And then there's sure to be a counter-counter-trend.

I've been around for a while. Luckily. So I've done things. I'm very grateful I was around for trends the first time they happened. I feel like I have a good perspective on stuff. Believe me, I slept in Studio 54, I actually auditioned for Saturday Night Fever! Which was ironic because I was so anti- that whole world. That whole Brooklyn version of disco was an abomination. And I should know, I grew up in Brooklyn. I come from a Sicilian family, I have that perspective. And I got out of Brooklyn as quickly as I possibly could. I went away to a Quaker college in Ohio. And after I came back, you couldn't drag me to Brooklyn. I've lived in Manhattan for like twenty years. I am forty-two years old, which is so bizarre, but I went through things the first time they happened. I used to have a mohawk and wear earrings. I continued to wear earrings until about four years ago. And then I saw every fucking dickhead think they were cool 'cuz they pierced their nose. I thought, no, no, no, that's it, no more jewelry.

The thing about the revivals is that they are such a joke on the original. And there's something very heartless about them. All this discarding. The relentless progress model. It's interesting, but it's also sad. I've always had mixed feelings about progress. I mean, why is it progress if kids want to be regurgitating old shit? And when things are revived, why are they always reviving the garbage? When the '70s stuff was getting revived, why was it the Brady Bunch shit and all that--the pop stuff, the garbage, the AM radio stuff? Why weren't they reviving the stuff we were dancing to at the after-hours clubs? The good stuff. I mean, please, the Village People? Abba? I mean--come on--we never danced to the that stuff in the 70's. All that kitschy stuff. Why is bad taste revived now? I really don't know.

There are some new trend forecasting companies coming up, some very young people getting into the business, but that doesn't worry me at all. I am secure. Some of these kids just use photos and video shows and clubs to produce pure data and they offer no point of view. They just chronicle. And those people are going to fizzle out. One already has. I consider myself an artist of a kind. You have to be aware, and have an open eye and a sense of history to be good at what I do. Just the other minute, I saw the oddest thing, these two women--they were not twins--wearing the same exact blue and white skin-tight dress. They obviously went out and bought that dress together. And they looked great. But what does that mean? Is something going on? (Laughs.) Hers and hers? Maybe. I don't want to go there right now. I should probably think about it for a while.

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