Innovation in the Headlines

Innovation can either disrupt or reaffirm established trends. The popularity of fashion brands blends the idea of tradition and innovation: staying true to the origins while embracing progress. While tradition represents the brand heritage, grounded in timeless characteristics that make it recognisable and constant, innovation ensures to remain modern, within the flow of the demand. 

Digital advancements have introduced new ways to experiment with fashion and opened up opportunities for immersive brand experiences. As fashion continuously evolves, it presupposes a common bond with innovative digital trends that shape consumer expectations and drive brand popularity.

Lens on Global Trends: A Fashion Discovery

The global digital interest in the apparel sector is reflected by examining the search interest in fashion and clothing. The online search behavior may indicate a shift in how people look for fashion-related content online. This way, the relatively stable popularity level of clothing may reflect a consistent interest in basic apparel needs, being less influenced by trends. However, the declining trend for fashion may suggest more specific searches, such as inquiries for particular brands or trends, and even the growing relevance of alternative platforms like social media for fashion discovery.

Both terms exhibit seasonality, with periodic spikes aligning with consistent times of the year when interest rises. For example, the major fashion weeks are marked as critical events on every fashion calendar.

Staying with the idea of trends these days, the popularity of innovative digital approaches in fashion, such as digital fashion, virtual try-on (VTO) technology, and smart clothing, shows a stable and growing interest. This is especially evident in the case of VTO, which provides an immersive experience using AR, AI, and CGI, allowing users to virtually try on fashion or makeup products. Many brands are integrating digital fashion experiences into their strategies—Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Dior, Zara, just to name a few. It's not just a ‘try before you buy’ experience; it is also an engaging element of online shopping as an integrated application, available, case-dependent, on either mobile or web versions, or both.

Digital fashion is also an interesting topic when it comes to virtual fashion presence. Adidas for example, known for its innovative approach to branding and digital influence, was featured with virtual influencer Noonoouri, who wore Adidas digital fashion garments in their social media content.

Adidas in the Discussion for 2024: Analysing Digital Popularity and Brand Name Search Volume‍

Over the past two decades, apparel brands have shown a steady long-term growth trend, with an average yearly increase of 3.31%. In 2024 Adidas became the most popular brand in digital, making a strong rebound after a significant decline that affected the years between 2017 and 2022.

In fact, around 2022, several brands experienced a similar pattern, beginning with a decline, likely due to a post-pandemic shift in consumer behaviour, followed by a rebound. This recovery can be attributed to the adaptation to accelerated digital transformation, including the aforementioned integration of digital advancements in retail. Additionally, the generational shift, with digital-native Gen Z becoming a significant part of the fashion market, contributed to this growth.

Among analysed apparel brands, Zara holds the highest search volume on a brand name, with around 37 million, followed by the sports love brands Nike and Adidas, surpassing luxury brands.