Straight to the point, the LYST list is one of the most helpful things for industry professionals but also a bit of a counterintuitive report for the rest of us.
This sentiment is also aimed at the category of industry report that is celebrated in the consumer circle. Allow me to explain.
Why is it helpful?
The LYST list, like many other industry reports, is heavily data-driven. It is a peek into the shadow, the not-communicated side of the business that gives industry workers an idea, a one-sided perspective (it’s from one company, always do research with multiple sources) into what is trending and perhaps why they are trending.
I wrote about LOEWE’s Q2 success because the LYST Q2 report inspired me, inspiring me to look into why people loved talking about LOEWE so much from April to the end of June. My conclusion was that Jonathan Anderson did so much more than his viral Minecraft-core ‘pixelated’ hoodie, it was the brand’s curated effort, social media marketing strategy, and visual consistency (seen throughout Q3 still) that created such a solid image for LOEWE.
Looking at the Q3 report, I find it similarly helpful. I never paid attention to it before, but I’ve recently started incorporating it into my routine checks. It’s an extra bit of data that is uniquely LYST’s after all.
I guess the helpfulness of such reports to industry professionals is prominent, you can’t miss it, and I won’t waste time explaining any further. It is analytical, data-driven, factual, and can be deemed as an important perspective.
Why is it counterintuitive?
Before we venture deeper into the paragraph, I have a few questions. Your answers are crucial for this part of the newsletter to work:
Without looking at the list, what did you think were the top 10 most searched or talked about items from April 1st to June 30th?
According to conversations around you, what do you see that’s talked about the most?
Would your view on what’s trendy would be different without social media?
Finally, when did social media last make you doubt your taste?
I was scrolling through TikTok, and many content creators discussed the list. Great stuff, it is their effort to dissect the list and tell people perhaps why these were trending, which specific moments caused the surge, what product put the brand on the map, who wore what and created a shockwave through the industry, etc. Seeing different people’s perspectives and how they draw connections is always fun.
The list was dissected into three main parts, “Q3 2023 Hottest Brands,” “It’s Miu Miu’s Moment,” “Breakout Brands,” and “Hottest Products.”
Getting to the final portion, the “Hottest Products” section got me thinking: is this info-hazard?
As with any objective insights into what’s hot right now, is this information potentially hindering our perception of what’s fashionable? If we are not doing anything substantial with the numbers and analytics, reading the report on what’s the hottest according to consumer behaviour, namely what the mass culture is currently into, what are the effects of these analytical results on how we perceive “what’s hot?”
This is just a reminder that we are forever overthinking, overanalyzing, and always trying to deep dive into everything in this newsletter. While obviously trying our best to stay on a solid path of validity.
Now, I want you to look back at the answers to those four questions I asked, and now I’d like to reveal the “Hottest Products.”
Are you ready?
How many items did you list for the first question that appeared here? Why do you think it is similar or different?
Most importantly, are you questioning your reality a bit, wondering why some of these are even the most popular items on LYST when you’ve not seen many talked about them, let alone the most searched?
For those who have a less developed style foundation, would this list negatively feed into their fashion FOMO?
If you treat this as a fun indicator, it obviously isn’t that deep. But it is an entirely different story when it is what everyone is talking about, at least from my perspective, people seem to flock to it and start discussing its importance. Even treating it like lottery results.
I would say I am CHRONICALLY ONLINE when it comes to fashion, how the hell have I not seen that many people talking about the Prada Bouquet heels besides when it first came out? They are gorgeous, but they weren’t ‘top 10’ popular.
If I’m being honest, according to my surroundings, 7 out of 10 items in my ten most popular list would be from Diesel or Bode.
One more question
Digging an extra layer into the significance of such reports reveals a different question: to what extent do these reports affect consumer behaviors in the next quarter? So, using the LYST quarterly index as an example, to what extent will these top 10 products continue to see a rise in popularity, JUST BECAUSE people are now made aware of them?
It is interesting to look into because trends can be artificially induced, so what makes these quarterly numbers so organic? Does Q2 influence any of these Q3 numbers? Did any in Q2 from Q1? WILL any in the upcoming Q4 see remnants from this Q3?
Be mindful of what effect these statistics have on you. But once again, I’m just overthinking.
Loved this! Always so thought-provoking Ryan.
Agree no-one should rely on one data source, no matter how big the data set is. I think this kind of info is good for the discourse for prob 2 reasons.
1. it provokes/feeds deeper thought, which we need more of right now.
These lists inspire/fuel critical thinkers to look back on the season and analyse why they think these items provoked so much interest. I love watching/reading it. Looking back (even just a bit, across the season just ended) is a good thing I think for an industry/fashion culture that's more often looking forward, to the next. And seeing informed brains express surprise about something being on the list - and hearing why - is really interesting. For me this stuff sometimes just backs up a hunch or maybe legitimises something I've been wondering about all season.
2. it reminds us we all live in a filter bubble
Honestly, seeing this kind of data always makes me think about my algo + reminds me big time that the more I know, also the less I actually know (fashion x Dunning Kruger effect maybe + our own feeds/tastes/cog bias don't align with everyone else's. Being reminded of that has to be good for the discourse. Like you said, questioning your reality. That's critical for critical thinking. And getting harder to achieve maybe!
Is it info hazard? Maybe. This stuff could well be self-fulfilling. Maybe seeing it could homogenise taste and make fashion less interesting and varied. It could (likely does) spur cascades of copycat products from those who read this data cold ('this is what people want...let's give them more things that look like these things'...maybe without thinking about why this is what a lot of people seem to want right now). So maybe it could hinder new things breaking through next season. That's the hazard of the info, I guess, as you say.