Johannesburg – New York City in the US is ranked as the most fashionable city of 2023, with the highest number of fashion shows and fashion brands, new research has found.

The study by Lilac St., a global eyelash company, also found that Dubai in the UAE leads in the amount of fashion-focused Instagram hashtags, with a total of 6 million.

Meanwhile, Milan in Italy takes the lead in fashion education with 22 fashion schools.

In order to compile the research, the experts at Lilac St. analysed various cities to identify the most fashionable ones for 2023. They evaluated key metrics, such as the number of annual fashion shows, fashion brands, schools and city-specific fashion hashtags on Instagram. A score was then assigned to each city for each factor and this was summed up to determine the final ranking.

And with The Big Apple taking the top spot as the most fashionable city in 2023, the research found that it held more than 680 fashion events every year, including New York Fashion Week (NYFW), which is also one of the most attended fashion events in the world.

London in the UK took the second spot in the ranking as the most fashionable city of 2023. “It secures its top position with 500 annual fashion shows and 4.3 million fashion-related hashtags such as #LondonFashionWeek and #Londonfashion,” the researchers explained.

Meanwhile, Paris in France came in due to the amount of fashion brands worldwide, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and many more.

“Moreover, the hashtag #ParisFashionWeek was used over 3 million times, which is 75% of overall hashtags for fashion in Paris,” the Lilac St. researchers explained.

Milan ranked fourth as it stood out with the highest number of fashion institutions and schools, including 22 fashion schools that significantly contribute to its ranking.

“Milan also secures its position with hashtags like #Milanfashion and #MilanFashionWeek on Instagram,” the researchers said.

Dubai rounded off the top five, having the highest number of fashion-related Instagram hashtags. “Hashtag #Dubaifashion single-handedly was used more than 5 million times when the overall hashtag count is 6 million,” the researchers said.

A model displays a creation from Dubai-based designers Janis D’souza and Soni Sajnani’s Spring-Summer 2008 collection during Dubai International Fashion Week in Dubai on October 24, 2007. Souza and Sanjani were one of the four ‘Emerging Talent’ winners for Spring-Summer 2008. REUTERS/Jumana El Heloueh (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES)

Sydney in Australia was ranked as the sixth most fashionable city of 2023.

“It owes its position to a range of fashion institutions, including the University of Sydney, which takes a spot in the World University Rankings 2023,” the researchers said.

Seoul in South Korea was ranked in the seventh position of the most fashionable cities of the year. “The number of fashion schools along with fashion brands significantly contributed to its ranking and even though Seoul’s fashion hashtags are way lower than the previous cities’, it is still impressive with 800k hashtag engagements on Instagram,” the researchers said.

In addition, Rome claimed the eight spot due to the number of fashion schools including one of the most famous Roman universities, the Higher Institute for Artistic Industries, where famous designer Stefano Gabbana studied.

The Lilac St. research ranked Los Angeles in the US as the ninth most fashionable city. It claimed the rank with the third-highest number of fashion shows annually, from which the most-attended one is the Los Angeles Fashion Week.

Tokyo rounded out the top ten with the number of fashion schools and brands.

“There are also 760k mentions on Instagram for the hashtags #Tokyofashion and #TokyoFashionWeek contributes to its ranking.”

The Saturday Star

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