Dec 19, 2014 01:34 AM EST By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Big data is set to become a huge asset to the fashion industry, according to a recent study.

By analyzing relevant words and phrases from fashion reviews, researchers from Penn State University were able to identify a network of influence among major designers and track how those style trends moved through the industry.

"Data analytics, which is the idea that large amounts of data are becoming more available for finding patterns, establishing correlations and identifying emerging trends, is very hot these days and it is being applied to many industries and fields -- from health care to politics -- but what we wanted to see is if data analytics could be used in the fashion industry," Heng Xu, associate professor of information sciences and technology, said in a statement. "We were drawn to the question of whether or not we could really trace a hidden network of influence in fashion design."

For the study, researchers analyzed 6,629 runway reviews of 816 designers from Style.com, formerly the online site for Vogue, one of the most influential fashion magazines. The reviews covered 30 fashion seasons from 2000 to 2014.

Xu said her team extracted keywords and phrases from these reviews that described silhouettes, colors, fabrics and other details from each designer's collections and added them to the dataset. The researchers then created an approach to rank the designers and map influences within the group.

While professionals in many industries are welcoming data analytics, this type of analysis may meet some skepticism from fashion designers, who view their work as a form of art and more difficult to quantify, said Yilu Zhou, associate professor of information systems, Fordham University, who worked with Xu.

"But, what we are finding from the data is that we can find footprints -- there are clues -- that can be traced back to individual designers," said Zhou.

The researchers said the technology could one day help industry professionals to better predict fashion trends and identify up-and-coming designers.

"We all know the big designers now, but could we use this type of technology to find out who will be the next big fashion designer, the next Jason Wu, for example, and what the next big design trend is going to be?" said Zhou.

Xu said that the technology may also help consumers by helping them create wardrobes that are in their budget and are also in style.

The findings were presented on Dec. 18 at the Workshop of Information Technology and Systems in Australia.

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