WGSN was founded in 1998 in
West London by brothers Julian and
Marc Worth. In October 2005, it was purchased by Emap (now
Ascential), a
business-to-business publisher and exhibitions company, for £140m. In 2013, the firm merged with its biggest competitor, Stylesight. Like WGSN, Stylesight had a vast library of
fashion forecasting, trend information, archival photos, and even sketches and patterns for
designers to use. Keeping the WGSN name, the new product has been designed around the technology developed by Stylesight and launched in 2014. In November 2017, the company bought Use Fashion (now
Start by WGSN), a regional competitor in
Brazil, launching its secondary business focused on fashion entrepreneurs. In 2024, WGSN announced an agreement between Apax Partners, a global private equity advisory firm, and Ascential for the acquisition of WGSN for £700m. The transaction was completed in February of the same year. == Products ==