What CARLIN INTERNATIONAL does

Carlin International is a Paris-headquartered creative consulting and trend forecasting firm, founded in 1947 and recognized as the world's first bureau dedicated to consumer trend anticipation. The company employs approximately 40 collaborators and operates from a registered office in Clichy-la-Garenne and a creative agency space on rue la Fayette in Paris. Its core offer consists of a portfolio of approximately 10 annual Trendbook publications (Colour, Impulse, Beauty, Lingerie, Nuances, Active, Beachwear, Patterns and others), delivered primarily on a subscription basis, covering color, material, and sociocultural trend intelligence at 12–24 month horizons for fashion, luxury, cosmetics, lingerie, sports, and home goods clients.

Underpinning the trendbooks is Trendthinking®, a proprietary registered methodology that fuses brand DNA analysis with trend data to derive product, design, and communication strategies. The methodology is delivered through structured 5-step, 6-week consulting engagements spanning branding, design, and communication advisory. Supporting the product surface are the Colorissimo color/CMF expertise service, the digital Planète Carlin platform for online access and customization of trend content, the InMouv sports-trend subsidiary (acquired 2008), and a free trend newsletter. Strategic color partnerships with Lechler and Archroma provide industrial-grade color chemistry backing for the Colorissimo line.

The business is a privately held SAS (Groupe Carlin International) with €220,000 of registered share capital and no disclosed parent, PE sponsor, or external investment. It generates revenue through three streams: recurring Trendbook subscriptions, project-based professional services consulting (approximately 100 projects delivered annually), and a freemium newsletter used as a top-of-funnel marketing channel. GTM is direct enterprise field sales to category-leading brands in 25 countries — including LVMH, Louis Vuitton, Kering, L'Oréal, Hennessy, Shiseido, Decathlon, Kiko, Pyrenex, Amazon, Samsung, Toyota, SNCF, and Leroy Merlin — with no intermediary distribution.

Name

CARLIN INTERNATIONAL

Legal name

Groupe Carlin International

Website

https://carlin.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

1947

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Carlin International is a Paris-based trend forecasting and creative consulting firm, founded in 1947 as the world's first trend bureau, serving enterprise clients in fashion, luxury, cosmetics, sports, hospitality, and home goods with subscription trendbooks and proprietary Trendthinking® consulting.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Trend Forecasting & Creative Consulting

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Newspaper, Periodical, Book, and Directory Publishers (5131)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310), Services-Advertising Agencies (7311), Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Market, Shopper & Category Insights / Research Services (CRAOAOAI)

Keywords

• Trend forecasting services
• Consumer behavior analysis
• Color trend consulting
• Brand strategy consulting
• Fashion market intelligence

Headquarters

HQ city

Clichy-la-Garenne

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Trendbooks: Subscription-based publication of seasonal trend books. Carlin publishes 10 trend books per year covering color, impulse (sociocultural analysis), beauty, lingerie, activewear, beachwear, patterns, and nuances. Each book provides strategic market intelligence and creative tools for design teams at 12-24 month horizons.
2. Consulting Services: Custom advisory engagements using Trendthinking® methodology. Services include branding strategy, design consulting, and communication services delivered through a 5-step process over 6 weeks (kick-off, co-creation workshop, creation, final presentation, appropriation).
3. Newsletter: Free newsletter delivering hot trend news, trend confirmations, exclusive content, and interviews to subscribers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Carlin is a trend forecasting bureau and creative consulting agency that publishes 10 subscription-based Trendbooks per year and delivers bespoke Trendthinking® consulting engagements. It helps enterprise brands in fashion, luxury, cosmetics, lingerie, sports, hospitality, retail, technology, and transport anticipate consumer behavior and design brand, product, and communication strategies at 12-24 month horizons. The agency also operates a digital platform (Planète Carlin) and a dedicated color expertise line (Colorissimo).

Product overview

Carlin International operates as a trend forecasting and creative consulting agency offering a portfolio of products centered around its core Trendbooks publications (Colour, Impulse, Beauty, Lingerie, Nuances, Active, Beachwear, Patterns) and consulting services built on its proprietary Trendthinking® methodology. The company provides branding, design, and communication consulting services, delivered through a digital platform called Planète Carlin for accessing and customizing trend content. Additional offerings include color expertise through Colorissimo and a free trend newsletter. Founded in 1947 as the world's first trend agency, Carlin serves clients across fashion, luxury, cosmetics, home living, lingerie, technology, transport, and events sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Trendbooks subscription portfolio Recurring subscription-based trendbooks covering color, sociocultural, beauty, lingerie, color cycles, activewear, beachwear, and patterns, designed to provide brand and design teams with actionable trend intelligence over 12-24 month horizons.
• Trendthinking® Consulting Engagements Bespoke consulting engagements built on the proprietary Trendthinking® methodology, delivered as a 5-step, 6-week process spanning branding, design, and communication strategy, designed to confront brand DNA with trend analyses to derive optimal strategies.
• Planète Carlin digital platform Online platform enabling subscribers to access Carlin's trendbooks remotely, share them with internal teams, and download, edit, and customize exclusive colors and creations.
• Colorissimo color expertise service Carlin's dedicated color analysis and CMF (Colour-Materials-Finishing) decision-support service line, treating color as Carlin's DNA and supplying palette, material, and finishing strategy across industries, with technology partnerships through Lechler and Archroma.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100 exciting projects per year delivered to clients
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers36 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• LechlercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerColor technology partnership. Lechler's new concept links chemical development to the evolution of color language. Color is seen as an evolving language essential to Color Design, determining quality of domestic environments, architectural building characteristics, and commercial product success.
• ArchromacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerColor solutions partnership. Colors are formulated with dyes compliant with major international ecological standards (bluesign, Oeko-Tex, and ZDHC). Color Atlas colors are aligned with trends and color influencers.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves14 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• NellyRodi Agency: NellyRodi is a Paris-based trend forecasting and consulting agency publishing trendbooks and delivering strategic advisory across fashion, beauty, and home. It competes with Carlin for French and European luxury and retail clients using a similar publication-plus-consulting model.
• Promostyl: Promostyl is a Paris-based trend forecasting agency with comparable offerings across fashion, cosmetics, and lifestyle verticals. Like Carlin, it combines seasonal trend publications with bespoke brand consulting and serves enterprise clients in the French and global luxury ecosystem.
• WGSN: WGSN is the largest direct competitor to Carlin in trend forecasting, offering subscription-based trend intelligence across fashion, beauty, food, and consumer goods to enterprise brands worldwide. Both firms sell recurring trendbook-style products and bespoke consulting, and compete head-to-head for the same enterprise design and merchandising teams.
• Peclers Paris: Peclers Paris is a French trend forecasting and consumer insights bureau producing seasonal publications and bespoke consulting for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands. Its business model, geography, and customer base closely mirror Carlin's, making it one of the most direct peer comparables.

Emerging players

• Edited: Edited is a retail analytics platform providing real-time pricing, assortment, and product data for fashion and apparel brands. While more focused on merchandising analytics than sociocultural trend forecasting, it competes for the same enterprise fashion buyer and merchandiser budget pools as Carlin's trendbooks.
• Trendalytics: Trendalytics provides AI-powered trend forecasting and consumer analytics for fashion and beauty brands, focusing on social, search, and e-commerce signals. It overlaps with Carlin on trend intelligence for fashion and beauty clients but competes on speed, data scale, and price point.
• Launchmetrics: Launchmetrics offers brand performance, influencer, and marketing analytics to fashion, luxury, and beauty brands. It overlaps with Carlin in serving the same enterprise marketing and brand teams, although its focus is on performance measurement and earned media rather than sociocultural trend forecasting.
• Heuritech: Heuritech is an AI-native fashion trend forecasting platform using computer vision on social media images to predict trends and quantify demand for brands. It represents the emerging technology-driven alternative to traditional bureaus like Carlin, serving overlapping fashion and luxury clients with data-led insights.

Broad incumbents

• Mintel: Mintel is a global market research firm publishing consumer trend reports and category insights across beauty, fashion, food, and lifestyle. While much broader and data-led than Carlin, it overlaps with the consumer trend intelligence portion of Carlin's offering for some enterprise clients.
• Kantar: Kantar is a global consumer insights and market research incumbent serving many of the same enterprise clients as Carlin (e.g., LVMH, L'Oréal, Samsung). It does not specialize in fashion/luxury trend forecasting but competes for portions of the consumer insights budget that funds Carlin's consulting engagements.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCxU618DkerZjAUb7-efZ3Cw
• Facebookfr-fr.facebook.com/carlin.creative.bureau
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/carlin-international
• Instagraminstagram.com/carlin.creative
• Pinterestpinterest.fr/carlin_creative

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CARLIN INTERNATIONAL