The return of physical fashion shows in Paris drew huge crowds off the catwalks, and the excitement was also echoed online.
The online platform for Paris Fashion Week, which ended on March 8 and showcased womenswear collections for Fall 2022, saw a 90% increase in unique visitors to 456,000; a 72% increase in page views to 1.4 million; and a 97% increase in media impact value to $260 million, according to data released by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode and its digital partner, Launchmetrics, the architect of your website.
“Physical attractiveness has been amplified by digital resonance,” Pascal Morand, chief executive of the federation, told WWD in an interview on Tuesday. “Beyond the fact that the platform is useful, in a way it is mandatory… We are just at the beginning of the digital revolution.”
The data underscores that IRL fashion shows have been a boon to the federation’s online portal, which hosts live streams, videos of pre-recorded shows or creative films, IRL show replays, and a variety of editorial content that It is open to fashion professionals and the general public. Similary.
Morand said the six official Paris fashion weeks in 2021 – two for womenswear, menswear and haute couture – drew around 1 million unique visitors to her platform.
By comparison, the first three fashion weeks of 2022 have already attracted 706,000 unique visitors, 2.4 million page views and a media impact value of €359 million, suggesting that window displays physical and online are complementary and synergistic.
Launchmetrics’ proprietary media impact value figure counts the impact of relevant media placements across all channels (online, social, and print), including paid, owned, and earned media.
“The impact value in the media is stronger when you have physical shows,” Morand explained. “We are really in a phy-gital world with a complementarity between creative expression and communications.”
He noted that the weight of social media channels is growing in MIV, accounting for around 60 percent of the totals and reflecting the importance of influencers and celebrities.
The figures for 2022 to date cover 201 fashion shows and presentations registered in the federation’s official calendars for the three Paris fashion weeks, and reflect the gradual return of physical shows as the Omicron wave that took hold in Europe in December and January began to decline (although cases in Europe with the Ba2 variant are now on the rise again).
“There has been a progression,” Morand noted. “We see the biggest impact coming from the return of physical shows, physical presentations and physical events.”
Unique visitors to the federation’s website for the menswear shows, which took place from January 18 to 23, were up 4 percent from a year earlier to 156,000 unique visitors.
According to Morand, the dearth of physical shows weighed on the numbers. Men’s week featured 17 physical fashion shows and 29 physical presentations, while 30 brands and designers opted for exclusively digital formats.
Meanwhile, men’s week page views rose 46 percent to 205,000 views, while media impact value, or MIV, advanced 28 percent to €50.6 million.
Haute Couture Week in Paris, which took place from January 24 to 27, generated a 22 percent increase in unique visitors to 94,000, while page views increased 95 percent to 389,000. Meanwhile, MIV fell 33 percent to 48 million compared to January of the previous year.
According to Launchmetrics, the drop in MIV reflects a deliberate decision by brands to spend less on their own social media and communication channels, and smaller programs that accommodated fewer influencers, but slightly more celebrities.
The January 2022 haute couture shows in Paris included 16 physical events, about twice as many as the previous July.
The federation credits a network of streaming partners, including YouTube, CNN, TikTok and Facebook, plus a dedicated presence on Chinese networks like Tencent Video and Weibo, for expanding the reach of its content.
Launchmetrics tallies also point to Paris as the pre-eminent fashion week in terms of media shock value at $260m versus $171m for Milan, $117m for New York and $40.4m for London. .
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Source: wwd.com