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The convergence of fashion and entertainment, the power of the destination show and the rise and rise of APAC influencers: the industry’s standout moments of 2023 reveal just what drove the most conversation this year — and where fashion will go in the next.
“Brands’ narratives go more and more beyond the product. The goal for labels is to create preferences and this can be achieved through entertainment and experiences,” says Serge Carreira, director of emerging brands initiative at Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode and lecturer at Sciences Po. To be sure, destination shows offer the advantage of combining runway collections with Instagrammable experiences.
Numbers also confirm the firepower of the big brands. According to influencer marketing platform Lefty, in the top 15 shows of the year, only one is a small brand (Schiaparelli SS24) and the leading show by an emerging brand in terms of earned media value (EMV, the amount of advertising spend required to achieve the same number of impressions), is Ottolinger SS24, with $3.2 million, way behind the top 15 shows of the year by big brands (all above $30 million). Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton and Sabato de Sarno at Gucci were the top designer debuts, well ahead of debuts from Peter Do at Helmut Lang and Peter Hawkings at Tom Ford.
Fashion meets entertainment
Williams’s debut for Louis Vuitton won 2023: the star-studded show that included a performance by Jay-Z, garnered $42 million in media impact value (MIV, which assigns a monetary amount to every post, interaction and article) for the men s collection, exceeding the largest women’s fashion shows for the first time, according to tech and social media analytics provider Launchmetrics.
“Pharrell’s show was the winner because of a combination of the three key factors of success: a large amount of influencers (top three), highly engaged (top one in number of posts) and powerful (top two in average EMV per post),” says Annika Baer, Lefty’s marketing manager.
Barbiecore was another craze that dominated fashion this year. The film generated over $474 million in MIV in July alone, surpassing major fashion weeks, says Alison Bringé, chief marketing officer at Launchmetrics. Brands stood to benefit from the Barbie effect: during the month of July, when the film was released, Birkenstock garnered $34.1 million in MIV, up 28 per cent on the month prior.
From Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, to Madonna’s Celebration and Taylor Swift’s Eras, concerts became “the perfect stage for brands to capture the gaze of millions, generating unparalleled exposure and reinforcing their image in the hearts of both dedicated fans and the broader public”, according to a Launchmetrics report. Beyoncé’s Renaissance generated a total of $187 million in MIV with Tiffany, Balmain and Valentino among brands effectively leveraging the stage to increase visibility ($7.2 million, $5.6 million and $3.7 million respectively). Swift’s Eras generated $97.5 million with Versace generating $6.3 million in MIV, followed by Roberto Cavalli Couture ($4.9 million) and Zuhair Murad Couture ($2.3 million).
Expect luxury fashion to continue to become entertainment, and vice versa. “Brands managed to seamlessly integrate marketing with cultural cachet, creating an immediate emotional connection with the audience that blurs the line between communication and entertainment,” Bringé says.
Long live the destination show
After a pandemic pause, destination shows returned in full force this year and proved worth the investment. According to Lefty, five of the top 15 shows of the year (in terms of EMV) were destination shows. Gucci, Boss, Versace and Max Mara, held in Seoul, Miami, Cannes and Stockholm respectively, generated significantly higher EMV than their regular SS24 shows.
Expect brands to become even more creative when it comes to selecting host countries next year. While the destination model may not be the most efficient way to show a new collection, it guarantees eyeballs and helps brands cut through the noise of fashion month.
“Destination shows are more impactful as influencers that are invited tend to engage three times more (4.4 posts per influencer for destination shows vs 1.6 posts for fashion week shows),” says Baer. “This is probably due to the fact that these shows are one-offs and rather unique, so they are more willing to share content about them.”
To Baer’s point, influencers play a vital role in promoting the destination show, and that drew many brands to Asia, where local influencers help boost the hype. The top three destination shows of the year in terms of EMV — Louis Vuitton women’s pre-fall in Seoul, Gucci cruise in Seoul and Louis Vuitton men’s pre-fall in Hong Kong — were all hosted in Asia. Celebrities from all around the continent attended the Louis Vuitton show in Hong Kong, including local actors Chow Yun-fat and Karena Lam, K-pop star and house ambassador Felix of Stray Kids, Taiwanese actors Austin Lin and Jasper Liu, actor Dylan Wang from China and Japanese actor Sho Hirano. Dior is slated to stage its men’s pre-fall show in Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2024.
“Most of the influencers invited are local, and typical engagement rates for Asian influencers tend to be four to five times greater than their Western counterparts, which explains the greater impact of the shows,” says Baer.
Influencer power
This year, the star power of APAC influencers came into clear view. Brands doubled down on China as well as the rest of Asia; markets expected to grow 5.5 and 20 per cent in 2024, respectively, according to HSBC estimates.
K-pop still ruled in 2023. Prada’s SS24 womenswear show was the fifth most coveted of the year: the maison’s EMV surged from $25 million to $42 million between AW23 and SS24, according to Lefty. Lefty partly attributes the surge to the attendance of K-pop band Enhypen, who were announced as Prada’s brand ambassador in June. They alone brought in $11 million in EMV when they attended the SS24 show in Milan.
Another K-pop star, Felix Lee from the band Stray Kids, was a big growth driver in MIV for Louis Vuitton. Within the first two weeks of the house’s global brand ambassador announcement, conversations generated a total of $4.5 million.
This year also saw a stronger spotlight on talents from Southeast Asia. In July, Balenciaga tapped actor and singer Krit Amnuaydechkorn who attended the recent Balenciaga show in Los Angeles.
Dior turnt to Thai actors Nattawin Wattanagitiphat (Apo) and Phakphum Romsaithong (Mile) as new faces in June — and it paid off. Dior’s SS24 womenswear show was second of the year in terms of EMV, boosted notably by the attendance of Apo and Mile, plus Blackpink star Jisoo.
Looking ahead, 2024 is bound to be the year of athletes in the lead up to the Paris Olympics. Already in the SS24 men’s fashion week, there was a huge uptick in sporting talent on the front row in Paris and Milan. With the Paris Olympics taking place 26 July to 11 August 2024, just a month after Paris men’s week (18-23 June), we can expect the ties between fashion and sports to reach new peaks.
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