Burberry and Beckham top fashion week social charts

Both London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week both saw an increase in social media conversations for the spring/summer 2013 season, according to separate research conducted by analytics group Precise and New

York-based social media agency Whispr Group.Burberry took the top stop in the LFW social chart put together by Precise, receiving more than 21,000 mentions on Twitter, Facebook and fashion blogs over the week. This was mostly helped by the front row appearance of Harry Styles from One Direction, who was mentioned in over a third of those mentions.

The luxury heritage label was the clear winner in terms of brand discussion gaining more than double the exposure of nearest rival Topshop, which came in second with 10,000 mentions, and claiming third spot was Vivienne Westwood with more than 3,000.

The research concluded that this LFW was the most social yet, with more than 225,000 online conversations generated in total, which is more than twice as many as last year, and of which 95 percent were deemed positive.

An increase in social media chatter was also seen during New York Fashion Week, social media conversations were up by a third from fashion week in February with 671,028 tweets, which was more than double the number of tweets sent during Fashion Week in September of last year, according to the Whispr Group.

Whereas the LFW result took into account Facebook and fashion blogs the research for NYFW concentrated on Twitter, and British fashion designer Victoria Beckham was named as the most talked about designer with 17,173 tweets.

The former Spice Girl, who showed twice during the week for her mainline Victoria Beckham collection and her diffusion line Victoria, Victoria Beckham, topped the chart ahead of Marc Jacobs, who received just 8,800 mentions.

Diane von Furstenberg who sent her models down the catwalk wearing Google glasses took third place with around 8,600 mentions, followed by Alexander Wang with 6,700 mentions, and Michael Kors took fifth spot with 6,200.

James Withey, head of brand insight at Precise, said: "The massive growth in social media buzz around this year’s event shows how important social media now is to the fashion world."

"Where once a brand could rely on having a few key editors on-side, today’s arbiters of a brand’s success or failure are the thousands of enthusiasts who follow them closely."