He had been the longtime trend analyst, based in New York, for Fallon Worldwide, part of the Publicis Groupe.

"Shoppers quite reasonably expect 32 inches to mean just that," said Richard Cope, chief trend analyst at Mintel.

Or - to use the kind of brand-name analogy his characters favor - as a trend analyst, he's a Porsche; Faith Popcorn eats his dust in that department.

"When you put a model, a fantasy and fashion all together, it can get to be too overpowering," said Tom Julian, a trend analyst for Fallon McElligott's New York office.

But the final word was given to Faith Popcorn, who was described only as a trend analyst.

Stephen Paschalides, a 30-year-old trend analyst, took a moment to reflect on the largely downtown crowd that had taken over the quintessentially uptown institution.

Some developers, such as Continental Properties, are building smaller projects, a trend analysts said is being driven by a demand for more intimate communities and the county's and the state's shrinking supply of huge sites.

John Alexander: PhD public speaker, cultural consultant, trend analyst and writer.

"She has created a name for herself," Tom Julian, a trend analyst for Fallon Worldwide, an advertising agency, said about the Dylan's brand.

But as the practice gets under way, some marketers, advertising executives and trend analysts caution that generalizations about this age group overlook significant differences within it.