Global fashion search platform Lyst has shared its Year in Fashion report. The dossier looks back over a most unusual 12 months, charting the biggest trends, brands, viral products, collaborations, and more.
If you told someone this time last year that an Off-White™ face mask would wind up being one of 2020s most in-demand fashion items, they'd have laughed. But it was, with searches increasing by 502 percent year-on-year (the logo face mask was the hottest item with a 496 percent increase in searches January to March). COVID-19 had a predictably profound effect on the world's most wanted category: home-office friendly Arizona Birks, Nike sweats, and UGG slippers scooped second, fourth, and ninth, respectively.
Marine Serre was named the world's number one breakout brand thanks to co-signs from the likes of Dua Lipa and Kylie Jenner, as well as appearing in Beyoncé's "Black Is King" video. Telfar — buoyed by its shopping bags — ranked second, while a gamut of blue-chip collaborations helped propel 1017 ALYX 9SM into third. Fear of God, Pyer Moss, Casablanca, and Martine Rose all cracked the top 10.
The pandemic is the defining global health crisis over our time, but 2020 will also be remembered for Black Lives Matter and the call to action against institutionalized racism. Fashion as activism was stronger than ever as consumers made a conscious effort to shop black-owned businesses. In the US, searches for terms including “vote” rose fast — 29 percent week-on-week in October — and T-shirts became the most wanted political fashion statements.
Despite all this, Hollywood continues to exert a huge influence in the fashion sphere. Newly minted Vogue cover star Harry Styles headed up the list of celebrities whose style choices drove the biggest spikes in searches, sales, news coverage, and social media mentions. Beyoncé, Kim Namjoon of BTS, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, and Travis Scott were some of the other names to feature.
It's often said that Kim Jones is the king of homage and collaborations, so fittingly, Dior's tie-ups with Air Jordan (first) and Rimowa (fourth) were two of the year's biggest. Gucci x Disney (second), Casablanca x New Balance (third), and Proenza Schouler x Birkenstock (fifth) topped up the section.
Other notable takeaways are the year's hottest sneaker, the Air Jordan 13 Retro Flint, and the logo of the year, Marine Serre's moon print.
Lyst arrived at its results by crunching the data of over 100,000,000 users' searches, views and sales metrics. As you'd imagine, there's a ton to unpack and the above only scratches the surface. Find the full report here.
