Most read articles from 2013

Fashion

With 2014 just beginning, the FashionUnited team have gone through the archives to see what the most popular stories of 2013 were – with luxury fashion houses, social media, couture, and the Chinese market featuring heavily in FashionUnited’s Top 10 most read articles

of last year.

Taking top spot was Burberry, after the British heritage label posted a total sales increase of 9 percent in its third quarter back in January. Burberry topped forecasts for revenue growth thanks to strong sales in its own stores, and sales were particular driven by the label’s coats, scarves, men’s tailoring and accessories. The Q3 boost helped the British brand’s stock top the FTSE 100.

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followed by the news that French fashion house Louis Vuitton was to go logo free in China, with adverts in the region featuring Chinese actress Fan Bingbing drinking a cup of tea, seated with a pastel-coloured bag without logos. This was the luxury label’s reaction to the economic slowdown in the region and its attempt to voice an aspirational lifestyle message, rather than just a screaming product.

Taking third spot was the shortlist announcement for the annual WGSN Global Fashion Awards, which took place in London, that announced that designers Raf Simons for Dior, Philip Lim, Erdem, Guillaume Henry for Carven, and Isabel Marant were all been nominated for Womenswear Designer of the Year. The coveted prize went to Erdem at an award ceremony at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

Social media once again continued to make news in 2013, with a study in August by NetBase finding that while Facebook inspires fashion decisions, Twitter wasn’t even in the top five influencers. The “Social Channels of Influence in the Fashion Industry: A Consumer Study”, which came in at fifth spot, found that as well as Facebook, consumers were turning to fashion blogs, Pinterest and Instagram when it came influencing fashion purchases, showing the pull of visual marketing.

Financial results for both Fossil and Brunello Cucinelli made the top ten, with Fossil enjoying a strong third quarter and posting a 17 percent profit, while Italian cashmere specialist Brunello Cucinelli reassured its aim to deliver double-digit full-year growth after it posted a 16.5 percent rise in preliminary first-half revenue.

The Chinese market made the cut twice, first regarding Louis Vuitton and in April FashionUnited explored the untapped potential of the Chinese online market, after experts announced that the online market will triple by 2016. However, only 41 percent of all luxury brands in China are active online, and with the internet generating a turnover of 39 billion euros in 2012, those brands not reaching online consumers will be missing out.

The news that the Couture Fair was seeking talented designers for an exclusive high-end emerging fashion showcase attracted attention, taking the seventh spot, while an analysis of Australian apparel retailers fighting the gloom, took ninth place in the most read chart.

Also making the top 10 was a report that Alexander McQueen had been forced to apologise for an advert for a long-term unpaid internship that was issued by mistake. The British designer label, was forced to issue an apology after Shelly Asquith, president of the University of the Arts London Student Union, wrote to the company pointing out that a twill-woven jacket from McQueen's latest collection costs 8,930 pounds, which nearly equals the university fees a fashion student pays each year. The fashion house stated that the intern advert was issued by mistake, but the error did spark a debate on the abuse of interns in the fashion industry.

Top 10 best read articles of 2013: