Asian Stars Stole the Show at Men’s and Couture Fashion Week
The 2023 fashion cycle kicked off in January with Men’s and Couture Fashion Week. The events came and went in the blink of an eye, but data is forever. The specialized software and data company Launchmetrics recently released its “FW23 Men’s Fashion Week & SS23 Haute Couture Week Insights” report, and unsurprisingly Asian stars continue to dominate the social media conversation. From Louis Vuitton’s newest ambassador, Jackson Wang, to Prada’s darlings Win Metawin and Jeong Jaehyun, as well as Dior’s Lady, Jisoo, here’s a recap of the Asian celebrities that took January by storm with their Fashion Week appearances.
Prada, the Hottest Brand at Milan Men’s Fashion Week
EnVi has long been reporting about the fashion prowess of stars from the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Aligning with the mainstream, in recent years, these celebrities have been making a lasting impact in the global luxury market and every Fashion Week is a new opportunity to witness their staggering global popularity. At Milan Men’s Fashion Week, the star power of APAC celebs was at an all-time high.
Prada — recently crowned the hottest fashion brand of 2022 Q4 — in particular, proved to rely on the popularity of Asian celebrities, focusing on celebrity voices from the region. According to Launchmetrics, Prada topped the rank of Milan Fashion Week, racking up $40.4 million in Media Impact Value™ (MIV®)*. Naturally, the stars present at the Fall Winter 2023 fashion show at Fondazione Prada generated great buzz. The K-pop group ENHYPEN “earned the brand $11.2 million in MIV® through their social channels,” where the band members regularly updated fans about their attendance at Prada’s show with several posts. On the other hand, the attendance of “Prada’s beloved Win Metawin,” gathered $3.8 million in MIV® for the brand. The star, who is already a regular at the label’s events, was appointed as a brand ambassador only days prior to the FW23 men’s show.
Other notable Asian celebrities like K-pop groups TWICE and The Boyz also contributed to leveraging Prada’s name. However, among the non-attendants to the show, Prada’s ambassador Jaehyun — who recently fronted the brand’s global SS23 campaign — was the most impactful, earning $1.2 million in MIV® with a single Instagram post made while he traveled around the world amid NCT 127’s global tour.
Gucci and Fendi
Following Prada, the Italian brands Gucci and Fendi ranked second and third in terms of MIV® at Milan Men’s Fashion Week. Gucci’s first collection after the departure of creative director Alessandro Michelle and the brand’s anticipated return to the menswear circuit attracted plenty of attention, generating $15.4 million in MIV®. According to Launchmetrics, the show saw high attendance of APAC celebrities and influencers, such as the Singaporean actor Desmond Tan, and the Japanese stars Shuhei Uesugi and Ohira Shuzo. Nevertheless, it was the presence of Gucci’s Global Ambassador and member of the global sensation EXO, Kai, that garnered almost $1M in MIV® for Gucci.
On the other hand, Fendi enjoyed strong media coverage — greatly focused on Silvia Venturini’s quirky French baguette bag — that earned them $5.9 million in MIV®. The show received particular attention from Japan due to the presence of the celebrities Dori Sakurada and Ryuji Imaichi, who respectively gathered $347K and $180K in MIV®.
Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Saint Laurent Dominated Paris Fashion Week
Generally the best-performing event in the fashion cycle, Paris is always a star-studded affair during Fashion Week. The most recent Fall Winter 2023 men’s season tallied a total of $98.2 million in MIV®, with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Saint Laurent emerging at the top of the ranking.
Guest-designed by KidSuper’s Colm Dillane, Louis Vuitton introduced a new chapter for the brand. After the presentation of its latest offerings, the French luxury house elevated its MIV® by 91% since the last season, gathering $27.2 million. According to Launchmetrics, a good part of this value came from their Owned Media. Singer Rosalía, for instance, generated “$4.3M MIV® worth of conversations” with her performance at the fashion show. The singer was also responsible for the second-highest generating MIV®, generated in a post worth $666K million. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong superstar Jackson Wang, who was appointed Louis Vuitton’s ambassador ahead of the show, “authorised the highest-valued Celebrity placement, earning the brand $704K in MIV®.”
As per Launchmetrics, Dior ranked second, “thanks to strong press coverage, achieved through their ambassador collaboration with Robert Pattinson and Gwendoline Christie.” The company reports that the mentions of Robert Pattinson at the show tallied $3.1 million in MIV® and also remarks on the presence of Noah Beck whose Instagram post earned the brand $325K in MIV®. Ranking third, Saint Laurent also benefited from the attendance of A-list celebrities at its fashion show. The list included Wednesday star Jenna Ortega, Coi Leray, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and NCT’s Ten, who not only stole the spotlight with his first showing at a Saint Laurent show but also drove high engagement from South Korea — which ended up ranking 4th in the country split for this show.
Jisoo Was the Queen of Couture Fashion Week
Spring Summer 2023 Couture Fashion Week was full of interesting and unique moments that gathered a total of $185.8 million in MIV®. But while stars like Kylie Jenner and Sadie Sink sparked conversation at shows like Schiaparelli and Chanel, Jisoo dominated social media at Dior, securing three different Instagram posts at the top of the Haute Couture Fashion Week ranking.
Although Dior ultimately ranked second as the top-performing brand, its MIV® increased to $36.8 million as compared to the $15.4 million generated last season. Launchmetrics highlights that the “sharp increase in MIV® could be attributed to the attendance of Jisoo, whose appearance on the front row earned the brand $4.2M MIV® due to the K-pop star sharing the experience on social channels. Additionally, Jisoo’s attendance was widely discussed, generating $5.3M MIV® echo.”
More To Come
While season after season celebrities from the Asia-Pacific region prove their immense influence in the fashion realm, the 2023 cycle started on a particularly high note. Several celebrities — including K-pop idols, Thai actors, Hong Kong and Japanese stars — largely contributed to positioning brand names on social media, generating great buzz and conversations around their showings at fashion shows. With Fashion Month (February) just starting, the world is very likely to continue witnessing the allure and power of Asian stars taking over the world of luxury fashion in unprecedented ways.
Want to read more fashion content? Revisit some of the most memorable moments of the Haute Couture Fashion Week here.
*Author’s Note: Media Impact Value™ (MIV®) is an algorithm proprietary of Launchmetrics’ Machine Learning. It assigns a monetary amount to every post, interaction, and article, analyzing more than 100 quantitative and qualitative attributes specific to the fashion, luxury, and beauty industry including audience engagement, industry relevance, source authority, and content quality, to create a highly accurate method of measurement. This algorithm is not to be confused with KPIs like EMV (Earned Media Value).
