Top 10 Digital Fashion Programs of 2023

Top 10 Digital Fashion Programs of the Fall 2023 Season

2023 was the year that digital and out-of-home marketing began to surpass traditional fashion marketing communications in terms of impact, execution, and reach. While economic uncertainty made even the biggest fashion houses play it safe with their traditional campaigns and not take the creative and collaborative risks we hope to see, the continued rise of Instagram reels, TikTok, and other digital channels meant brands find more relevant ways to get the word out. It was also a big year for out-of-home media, with billboards and guerilla activations during major fashion weeks taking on an extended presence as they were picked up by the social media conversation.

Burberry moved forward successfully on both fronts, bringing together contemporary talent with nostalgic aesthetics while using both social media and out-of-home activations to bring this vision to the world with great effect. The brand’s Instagram reels page, for example, is a lesson in creating campaign assets that can be further leveraged across the social media formats that are the defining marketing channels of today. Meanwhile, during London Fashion Week, Burberry took over the Bond Street tube station, one of the city’s most iconic shopping destinations, to create an IRL spectacle with huge visibility that then resonated exponentially across social media.

Gucci took a similar approach that blended OOH and digital, taking over walls and tram cars across Milan in the lead-up to Sabato De Sarno’s runway debut, and sharing the activation across social media. When the show location was changed, the billboards were repainted with the new address, a clever way to create real-time storytelling.

The launch of Phoebe Philo’s eponymous label was a lesson in leveraging clout. The marketing campaign leading up to her first collection was done entirely through an opt-in email newsletter directing fans to the launch on her website – the only place to buy the collection.

Jacquemus’ approach to social media across the year cleverly played with contemporary anxieties around artificial intelligence and digital dupes. Hyperrealistic animation blew the brand’s must-have bags up to larger-than-life size and framed these digital dupes against real locations around France, creating double-take-inducing moments of fashion disbelief.

Here are The Impression’s Top 10 Digital Fashion Programs of 2023 as selected by
Chief Impressionist Kenneth Richard.