Italy and Paris host most influential menswear fashion weeks as co-ed shows cast shadow over events’ future

By

Robin Driver

Published
Jan 9, 2019

As the dust settles after another London Fashion Week Men’s, a new study from Launchmetrics demonstrates how the influence of the event in the British capital is lagging behind that of  its European counterparts and asks if there’s a future for menswear fashion weeks in general.

 
The report, entitled “The State of Menswear 2019: A Data Analysis of Men’s Fashion Weeks”, uses Launchmetrics’ propriety Media Impact Value (MIV) algorithm to measure the impact of media placements across all channels during the Spring/Summer 2019 Fashion Week season, analyzing more than 150 menswear brands, as well as the top 30 womenswear labels, at fashion weeks in London, New York, Paris and Italy.
 
While Milan’s Milano Moda Uomo and Florence’s Pitti Uomo collectively generated an MIV of 57.8 million euros and Paris Fashion Week also managed an impressive 49.4 million euros, London and New York dragged behind with relatively paltry MIVs of 5.8 million and 2.1 million euros, respectively.

Identifying five distinct categories of voice driving MIV – namely influencers, owned media, media, celebrities and partners – the report goes on to dissect the share that each of these occupied in the conversation surrounding each of the analyzed fashion weeks.
 
Interestingly, in both London and New York, media and influencers dominated the conversation, with media accounting for 51.2% of the share of voice and influencers 48.8% in New York. In London, media accounted for 54.4% of the conversation and influencers 36.9%, while celebrities and owned media came in at 4.7% and 4%, respectively.
 
In Italy, influencers gained the upper hand, controlling 48.6% of the share of voice, followed by owned media at 27.6% and media at 20.8%. Celebrities accounted for 2.9% of the conversation, while partners were also seen to play a larger role than in London and NYC, despite only managing a share of voice of 0.1%.

Paris proved to be something of a unique situation, with owned media leading the conversation, accounting for 46.5% of total voice, followed by media at 30.5% and influencers at 21.8%.
 
Overall, comparing men’s and womenswear fashion weeks, influencers were found to be leading the conversation in both cases, controlling 53.2% of the share of voice at womenswear events and 36.5% at their menswear equivalents.

However, while celebrities and mega-influencers (those with between 500,000 and 2 million followers) were found to be the most impactful influencers operating at womenswear fashion weeks, mid-tier (100,000 to 500,000 followers) and micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000 followers) led the conversation at menswear fashion weeks.
 
As for specific brands, Launchmetrics found that, in terms of MIV, the top ten shows presented during menswear fashion weeks were all hosted in either Paris or Milan. Virgil Abloh’s debut runway presentation at Louis Vuitton in Paris came in first place with an MIV of 18.2 million euros, followed by Kim Jones’ first Dior show (9.7 million euros), also presented in the French capital, and Versace (5 million euros), the top-ranking Milan runway. Prada and Valentino rounded out the top five.
 
As brands look to maximize the impact of their presentations, many are opting for co-ed shows and the data in Launchmetrics’ report suggests that this is the right move. However, during the Spring/Summer 2019 Fashion Week season, the co-ed strategy proved to be significantly more effective when applied during womenswear fashion weeks.
 
The top runway in terms of MIV across both men’s and womenswear fashion weeks was Ralph Lauren’s co-ed extravaganza presented during New York’s womenswear Fashion Week, which achieved an MIV of 38 million euros, followed by Coach with 37 million euros and Gucci with 21.6 million. Furthermore, the only shows presented during menswear fashion weeks that managed to make it into the top ten were Louis Vuitton, in fifth place, and Dior, ranking ninth.
 
“This report serves as a wake up call on the challenges each market and region is facing and by presenting data-driven analyses on the state of menswear today, we hope to provide brands with a strategic roadmap on how to move forward and adjust to the new digital landscape,” said Launchmetrics Chief Marketing Officer Alison Bringé in a release.
 
The complete “The State of Menswear 2019: A Data Analysis of Men’s Fashion Weeks” report is available for download on the Launchmetrics website.