Sally Brockway
12 March, 2025
Shopping

The influencers behind London Fashion Week's headlines

Slashed clothing, suits of armour and models eating KFC burgers were a few of the surprises served up by London Fashion Week this year (February 20 - 24) and while there was an absence of A-listers the social media buzz didn’t disappoint - Burberry’s closing catwalk at Tate Britain generated 3.26m Instagram engagements.

Influencers were the magic behind London Fashion Week 2025

According to Kolsquare, the leading influencer marketing platform, long-term collaborations, celebrity content and carousels ruled for London Fashion Week 2025.

Brands that successfully capitalised on influencer marketing were:

Burberry

Burberry dominated the conversation with celebrity influencers like South Korean rapper WoonWoo, who posted a carousel worth £1.06M and Mert Ramazan Demir with another worth £625K. Gareth Bale and grime artist Skepta also tagged Burberry on social media.

The brand achieved an impressive EMV (Earned Media Value) of £42.78m on Instagram between February 6th and March 4th after finishing the show with a catwalk celebrating British heritage starring Naomi Campbell, Richard E. Grant and Lila Moss.

Richard Quinn

Richard Quinn opted for influencers rather than celebrities. His guests included -

Leonie Hanne (@leoniehanne, 4.5m followers, Instagram): The German fashion influencer shared six Stories and one post, generating £115,442 in EMV. ​

Eve Lily (@evelily, 637,000, Instagram): British maximalist fashion influencer, Eve Lily, contributed £58,192 in EMV through three Stories, two posts, and two Reels.​

Maja Malnar (@majamalnar, 1.4m followers, Instagram): The Slovenian-born fashion content creator generated £67,104 EMV from one post, one Reel, and 18 Stories.​

Grece Ghanem (@greceghanem, 1.9m followers, Instagram): Mature fashion influencer, Greece Ghanem shared seven Stories, one Reel, and one post, amounting to £102,684 in EMV. ​

Di Petsa

Di Petsa chose high-profile personalities as models resulting in an EMV of £3.31m. Mia Khalifa’s content which showcased her catwalk appearance, generated £496,810 and Eva Gutowski, generated £215,297.

By getting influencers to model on the catwalk, Di Petsa clocked up 1.59m engagements on Instagram.

Social media performance 

A total of 1,120 influencers tagged London Fashion Week, a modest decrease from 1,180 in 2024, however, post mentions decreased by 150 and Reels by 75 resulting in a dip in engagement from 2.04m to 1.5m.

The number of Stories shared rose by 140 and EMV grew from £4.47m to £5.27m reflecting the increasing commercial value of social media buzz.

Key trends

Quiet luxury - a high-fashion trend that celebrates timelessness over glitz. There were fewer high gloss influencer campaigns this year and more straightforward content highlighting catwalk moments and fashion looks.

Brand over event - influencers and celebrities tagged brands rather than the event itself suggesting a shift in influencer/brand relationships where fashion houses invest in long-term collaborations rather than promoting the event as a whole.

Success for non-fashion brands - non-fashion brands like Jellycat, made themselves part of the conversation. They posted Bartholomew Bear trying on different outfits. Aldi, meanwhile, promoted bin bag couture with Ethan Leyland designing avant-garde black dresses out of Aldi bin bags. 

Key takeaways 

What worked best this season were -

Mega-influencers driving EMV. They made up 67% of posts tagging @londonfashionweekLive shopping - Completedworks ran a performance-driven sales event where audiences could buy in real-timeSustainability - brands integrated sustainable design into their core messaging. Wolf & Badger kicked off London Fashion Week with a part that championed ethical, independent brands