Gucci has held onto first position as the “hottest brand” for the third quarter in a row, according to a report that ranks the most popular brands and products, compiled by global fashion shopping platform Lyst.
CONSUMERS
Gucci Extends Its Dominance As Fashion’s Hottest Brand, Yet Again
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Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Gucci has held onto first position as the “hottest brand” for the third quarter in a row, according to a report that ranks the most popular brands and products, compiled by global fashion shopping platform Lyst.
The Italian fashion house, which has ranked in the top three 15 times since the Lyst Index began in 2017, was helped by strong demand from online shoppers, collaborations with brands like North Face as well as interest in the upcoming movie House of Gucci.
The report also offered a hopeful glimpse into the year ahead, with signs of consumer optimism on the rise and demand for wardrobe items beyond loungewear. Searches for items such as high heels and dresses were up 163 percent and 222 percent quarter-on-quarter.
“E-commerce continues to be a bright spot for the fashion industry, and this quarter we saw shoppers start to act on pent-up demand for going-out wear. It seems peak sweatpant has passed, with searches for dresses and high heels rising sharply,” said Peter Henderson, who oversees the Lyst Index programme. “Lyst now has 150 million shoppers a year, and we believe recent e-commerce-converts will remain, even as the physical world opens up.”
The trend for pre-owned items like Hermès bags also increased, up by 430 percent, particularly the brand’s famous Kelly model, as well as pre-owned watches, up 47 percent in the quarter, indicating demand for pre-owned luxury continues to be strong.
Nike was named the second hottest brand, followed by Dior, which entered The Lyst Index for the first time. Previously excluded from the list due to its distribution model, demand for pre-owned Dior – combined with external data like social media and Google searches – helped push the French fashion house into the top three positions.
Balenciaga, Moncler, Prada, Louis Vuitton (another first entry into the index), Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent and Off-White made up the rest of the top 10 hottest brands in the first quarter of the year.
The top 20 hottest brands in Q1 2021 according to the Lyst Index.Credit: Courtesy of Lyst.
The findings come from the latest Lyst Index, a quarterly reported compiled by global fashion shopping platform Lyst, which analyses the online shopping behaviour of more than 150 million shoppers a year, searching, browsing and buying fashion across 12,000 designers and stores online.
The report also takes Google search data and rich social media metrics into account, which looks at account brand follower growth and multi-platform mentions of products, as well as engagement statistics worldwide and related keywords over a three month period.
The beginning of the year also signalled the importance of brands needing to create “moments” that resonate with digital audiences, as seen with Nike and the launch of its first hands-free shoes, as well as reports that the sportswear giant is suing Brooklyn art collective MSCHF over their “Satan Shoes” – 666 pairs of modified Nike Air Max 97s that contain a drop of human blood in the soles priced at $1,018.
“The Lyst Index’s hottest brands have consistently put digital at the centre of their universe,” said Henderson. “They’re just as able to spark excitement through a smartphone screen as they are through a physical experience or event.”
“A mixture of planned and unplanned brand moments boosted Q1’s hottest brands,” he added. “For Gucci, there was significant digital buzz around The North Face collaboration, but also around the upcoming, unaffiliated House of Gucci movie featuring Lady Gaga. In Nike’s case, an unofficial remix of its sneakers by rapper Lil Nas X generated countless headlines, affirming how deeply some luxury and sportswear brands are engrained in culture.”
For the full findings from The Lyst Index, please click here.
Welcome to Data Digest, our breakdown of the latest data releases and reports focused on the luxury industry.
Senior Editor, Luxury Society
Limei Hoang is a senior editor at Luxury Society, based in Geneva. She was formerly an associate editor at the Business of Fashion in London. Previously, Limei spent six years at Reuters as a journalist, and she has also written for the BBC, The Independent, and New Statesman.
