Top 5 fastest growing brands on social in fashion week

Nowadays, the only metric to determine the success or failure of a show is EMV, which stands for Earned Media Value, a measure quantifying the monetary value of organic exposure generated by social content such as influencer posts and positive mentions in both digital and print media. Essentially, EMV is a measure of visibility or, if you will, the value of advertising that a brand earns – the beauty, however, is that this earning can stem from a certain investment, such as having Bella Hadid walk the runway, or from the virality of a certain content and thus is not directly correlated with the budget of a show. This value, or rather its growth, was calculated in the report co-signed by Karla Otto and Lefty summarizing the social data of the fashion month which indicated the brands whose EMV had grown most rapidly this season – all more or less independent (we'll see shortly) but above all unexpected.

1. Molly Goddard

If the collection presented by the designer in London, at the English Folk Dance and Song Society, was a high point of her career, what caught the commentators' attention was the presence of Goddard's newborn daughter, just eleven weeks old, practically born in conjunction with the development of the collection. Goddard experienced the most spectacular EMV growth of all: the brand generated an EMV of $758,000 this season, which compared to the $23,000 EMV of FW23 represents a growth of 3111%.

2. Willy Chavarria

Chavarria is now a great classic of New York Fashion Week, as well as one of the independent designers with the clearest and most distinct vision operating today. Calvin Klein's Vice President of Design and Menswear Designer of the Year at the 2023 CFDA, Chavarria presented perhaps one of his most beautiful collections this past fashion month. Chavarria's tailoring is dramatic, with heavy '70s inflections, incredibly fluid in blending inspirations derived as much from menswear history as from American iconography and Chicano culture. For this season, Chavarria introduced the collection with a short film and set up a large table illuminated by candles and votive candles with religious icons reminiscent of the Last Supper on the runway. The show enamored the entire press, marking a growth in the brand's EMV of +678% to $964,000 compared to the $124,000 generated last Fall/Winter season.

3. Courrèges

We've already explained in the past why the reboot of Courrèges by Belgian Nicolas Di Felice is one of our favorites on today's scene: a wonderfully icy blend of archive codes from the past and a boiling modern sensibility. For the brand's latest show, Di Felice placed a sheet in the center of the runway that lifted and lowered simulating human breath – on the runway, models walked with their hands sunk into a front pocket just below the navel, whose amusing mischievousness increased the brand's EMV by +642%, corresponding to $9.73 million compared to the $1.3 million generated last year. It should be noted, however, that Courrèges is not strictly an independent brand as it is owned by the Artemis Group, which is none other than the holding company of the Pinault family, which also owns 40.9% of Kering along with minority stakes in Giambattista Valli and Puma.

4. Batsheva

New Yorker Batsheva Hay didn't hold back this year. Her show was opened by a string quintet on whose notes Lori Belilove danced and by teen cinema icon Molly Ringwald who opened a runway of mature models whose casting (almost all non-professional models, contacted by the designer herself) was one of the most appreciated of last month. An item that garnered particular interest was an ironic sweater with the word "Hag" on it while her collaboration with Keds was very positively received by critics. The brand's EMV grew by +419% or $172,000 (last winter's runway EMV was only $33,000) thanks to the show – and we're ready to bet it will grow even more in the coming seasons.

5. Onitsuka Tiger

Becoming increasingly a channel of expression and experimentation for Italian Andrea Pompilio, Onitsuka Tiger continues to define itself more and more distinctly season after season. The latest show, presented at Milan Fashion Week, saw a leap in EMV of +334% (amounting to $7.5 million compared to the $1.7 million generated last year) and was opened by a choreographed performance by the Avantgardey crew and featured a series of very understated silhouettes enlivened by workings on the fabric that reproduced the rain streaks that appear on the clothes of Tokyo passersby when an explosive rain erupts. Another highlight of the collection were tailored pinstripe garments made from technical fabrics and, of course, the creeper shoes that are expected to make a comeback this season as many predict.