Media impact of Paris menswear, Haute Couture weeks skyrockets

The Paris womenswear week is no longer the only fashion event that lights up the French capital. Besides Paris’s leading fashion extravaganza, the menswear fashion week and the Haute Couture week are increasingly attracting the rapt attention of a globalised audience. The media impact of the June menswear shows in Paris jumped up by 97% over the previous year, while that of the July Haute Couture week rose by nearly 58%, according to Launchmetrics data.

The Media Impact Value (MIV) of the Paris menswear week increased from $83 million in June 2022 to $163.5 million this year, while the number of labels featured on the show calendar remained the same. “The event’s growing strength together with the cultural dimension of digitalisation are the reasons behind this meteoric rise,” said Pascal Morand, executive president of the French Fashion and Haute Couture Federation.

The MIV’s geographical distribution was even more surprising: Asia-Pacific accounted for a 27% MIV share for the Paris menswear week, whose shows went back to a physical format in June. A country like Thailand generated a MIV that was almost eight times higher than in 2022, rising from 11th to 4th place in the Launchmetrics country ranking. The figures chiefly escalated thanks to the contribution of a plethora of Asian celebrities, chosen as brand ambassadors by luxury houses, with K-Pop stars top of the billing.

Another notable new feature was the booming influence of social media, whose impact soared by 129%, with a MIV value that was double that of last year. Social media’s exponential MIV growth could be chiefly attributed to Instagram, which accounted for 57% of the increase, but TikTok made a remarkable breakthrough, ranking among the top three most followed social media during Paris Fashion Week Men. “TikTok has overtaken YouTube as the leading video content platform for the menswear fashion week,” said Launchmetrics.

The influence of fashion labels’ social media channels skyrocketed, growing by 268% for the Spring/Summer 2024 fashion shows. Labels have understood the benefits of boosting their events’ audience by means of their own channels, which allow them to control brand image and content, while targeting more accurately both regions and audiences.

Compared to the recent past, the shares of the various social media clusters were completely reversed. Celebrities came top, accounting for 18.5% of the total MIV result for the latest Paris menswear week (compared to 7.1% last year), followed by the labels’ own social media channels with a 17.8% share, well up from 9.2% a year ago. The latter even overtook influencers, whose share fell to 8.1%, down from 12.7% in June 2022. The labels’ other partners accounted for 2.4% of MIV compared to 5% a year earlier, while traditional media still had the lion’s share with 53.2%, although their MIV share was lower than last summer’s, when it hit 66%.

Celebrities have become the media influencers most sought-after by labels, which need to ensure the former are on board for their shows to be a success, given the huge audience boost that celebrities are able to provide. Not to mention the visibility afforded through the celebrities’ own channels, which can increase the labels’ audience tenfold. Louis Vuitton’s show for example, orchestrated by singer-designer Pharrell Williams, beat all visibility records. Also because Williams made sure that a posse of star footballers were front-row at the show – top athletes are the latest celebrities fashion labels are keen to snap up.

Celebrities and influencers flocked in even greater numbers at Paris Haute Couture Week. They played a big part in the event’s resounding media success, as its MIV grew from $118.8 million in July 2022 to $187.2 million in July 2023. More specifically, the importance of celebrities as MIV generators for the event tripled during this year’s couture week, and their MIV share increased to 9.2%, compared to 4.5% last year. Yet, the celebrities’ MIV impact was lower than that of the labels’ social media channels – which climbed from third to second in the ranking with a 13.8% share – and of influencers, whose share was 13.3%.

“Lightning-fast growth” occurred also in terms of the Haute Couture week’s regional media performance, according to Launchmetrics. Especially in Asia, where the event was hugely popular on Chinese platforms like Weibo, whose MIV was 2.5 times greater than in 2022, up by 258%. India’s MIV growth was 320%, while Thailand’s MIV exploded, increasing from $480,000 to $4 million in one year.

“The main primary lesson we can learn from these statistics is that the impact generated by celebrities has greatly increased, offsetting that of fashion influencers. Perhaps the general public is really looking for people to inspire them, and for something more, artistic talent for example, than posts with mere images of everyday life,” concluded Michael Jais, CEO of Launchmetrics.