Off-White is hottest global brand says Lyst, Dior Saddle Bag also riding high

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 24, 2018

The latest edition of the Lyst Index has shown that “Off-White is now the hottest fashion brand on the planet” with  global fashion search platform Lyst saying searches for it soared in recent months.

Lyst said that “over the last year, the cult streetwear label has risen 33 places in the Index, now surpassing Gucci and Balenciaga at the top of the table for the first time.”

That’s some achievement (especially given news this week of soaring sales at both Gucci and Balenciaga) and searches for Off-White across Lyst’s partner retailers are up 14% quarter-on-quarter. The label is responsible for three out of 20 products in the hottest products lists.

Meanwhile, Nike has moved up five spots in the brand index to take fourth place and its Off-White link has clearly helped it. But alongside the continuing collaboration with that brand, Nike’s doing just fine on its own. The recent headline-grabbing Just Do It campaign starring Colin Kaepernick helped boost total search traffic to its related pages by 13% quarter-on-quarter. Four out of the 20 hottest fashion products in the Index this quarter are by Nike.

Prada, which is battling back to centre stage after several years of sluggish results, moved up five places, as did Yeezy, which re-entered the Index after a quarter out of the top 10. It’s benefited as viral social moments have translated into demand for it and many other brands on the list. The Yeezy #likebutter launch campaign certainly made an impact, as did Balenciaga’s seven layer coat and Jennifer Lopez’s Versace ‘joots’.

TOP PRODUCTS

The hottest women’s product for the quarter was the Dior Saddle Bag with Lyst saying that when 100 global influencers posted an image modelling the bag on Instagram on July 19, searches spiked 957% in 48 hours. Consumers searched for both pre-owned vintage Saddles and the new Dior designs. 

And with that vintage inspiration in mind, it seems that an early 2000s nostalgia trend is running through women’s fashion and accessories, with Jonathan Simkhai’s lace-up jeans and Birkenstock’s Madrid sandals also making the top 10.

But we can’t ignore the Ugly Sneaker trend. The Nike M2K Tekno replaced the Fila Disruptor as the most wanted affordable take on the look that had been pioneered by the Balenciaga Triple S (which remains in the men’s hottest products list for a second quarter.) The Nike shoe is the first product to appear in both the men’s and women’s hottest products lists at the same time.

Contemporary brands Staud and Ganni also entered the hottest women’s products list for the first time with their accessible luxury price points scoring strongly.

The World Cup meant that the men’s list contained a football shirt for the first time. Searches for the 2018 England football shirt spiked 300% in the week leading up to the semi-finals, selling out across all sizes, and across multiple online retailers. The Nigerian, Belgian and Croatian shirts all did well too, but England’s was the world’s most wanted replica kit in terms of searches, sales and social combined.

The fifth hottest men’s product was a pair of basketball shorts, thanks to the appeal of basketball megastar LeBron James. Page views for Just Don’s $500 luxury basketball shorts spiked 210% when James wore them for his first public appearance since signing with the Los Angeles Lakers. 

So what were the complete top 10s? In order, the top women’s products were that Dior bag, followed by the Off-White logo belt, the Birkenstock Madrid, the Jonathan Simkhai jeans, Nike’s M2K Teknos, Off-White’s denim jacket, the Staud Shirley bag, Gucci’s Flashtrek sneakers, Ganni’s Dainty Georgette wrap skirt, and Saint Laurent’s Loulou sunglasses.

For men, the Off-White x Nike The 10: Air Presto sneakers were top, ahead of the Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Butter sneakers, Balenciaga Triple S sneakers, the Nike England football shirt, those Just Don shorts, Gucci’s black cat tee, Prada’s logo slides, Nike’s M2K Teknos, Gucci’s Web striped slides and the Adidas Original Trefoil sweatshirt.