Just like every year, Men’s Fashion Week kicked off the 2026 fashion circuit with stopovers in Milan and Paris. Haute Couture Week followed in the calendar. Spanning dozens of shows, presentations and showrooms, both events opened a year in fashion that, according to experts, will be defined by the market’s volatility, changing consumer preferences and the disruption of digital technologies.
The Fashion Week buzz, however, shows no signs of slowing down. According to Launchmetrics’ latest report, Milan Men’s Fashion Week, Paris Men’s Fashion Week and Couture Week respectively generated $178.5, $483.5 and $288.7 million in Media Impact Value, the data company’s proprietary machine learning algorithm that assigns monetary value to media interactions, posts and media coverage to benchmark brand activity, impact and marketing performance.
Milan Men’s Fashion Week in Media Impact Value
With the return of Ralph Lauren to the city’s programming and the buzz that Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams brought to the Dsquared2 runway, Milan Fashion Week opened on a grand note. The event also thrived on the presence of Italian heritage brands such as Prada, Giorgio Armani and Zegna.
Media, as it has been a constant in recent seasons, emerged as the lead in the Voice Mix, representing 56% of the Media Impact Value (MIV) generated within the official calendar. Celebrity voices generated 18% of the share of value, while brands’ owned media was responsible for 15%.
Similar to previous seasons, Prada topped the list of overall voices at MFW and Launchmetrics’ “Top 20 Power Players” brand ranking. The Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons-helmed brand generated $58.8 million in MIV. Prada brand ambassadors Karina and Win Metawin, meanwhile, made it to the second and fifth spots of top (overall) voices, respectively.
Karina, a member of the K-pop group aespa and a brand ambassador since 2024, authored $6.1 million in Media Impact Value. Similarly, Win Metawin, Thai actor and a Fashion Week regular since 2022, was responsible for $4.7 million, solely through his own channels—third-party echo was not detailed in the report. Fashion publication Vogue US and US clothing brand Ralph Lauren completed the top-performing voice list.
*Note: Launchmetrics’ top voice list measures the MIV directly generated by individual voices from media, celebrity and influencer realms through their own accounts. Coverage and third-party echo are not measured in this list. This season, the data company hasn’t presented separate media and celebrity voice rankings.
Ralph Lauren’s Winning Comeback
Ralph Lauren, which staged a grand and buzzy return to Milan after more than 20 years, took second place in the brand ranking. The brand racked up $28 million in Media Impact Value, an impressive figure for a US brand showing in a calendar packed with Italy-based competitors.
The brand’s owned media led the voice ranking at the show. K-pop band NCT’s social media accounts took second place, generating $2.2 million in MIV through 14 placements, thanks to the presence of band member Mark Lee. The Canadian singer, an ambassador for Ralph Lauren since 2022, was also responsible for the top-performing post related to the event (an Instagram carousel that tallied 597K). Combining his owned channels and echo from media coverage, the singer drove a total of $6.3 million in MIV.
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Dean and Dan Caten’s Dsquared2, which closed Day 1 of MFW, took third place among brands, amassing $19.5 million in total.
Responding to the global interest that the queer TV show Heated Rivalry has sparked worldwide and the excitement surrounding the Winter Olympics (conveniently taking place in Milan), the brand tapped Hudson Williams to open a winter sports-themed runway. Williams, who portrays hockey player Shane Hollander in the show, drove so much traffic to the brand’s website that the show’s livestream momentarily crashed.
According to data Launchmentrics shared with the press, Williams’s presence helped position Dsquared2 among the season’s most impactful shows and contributed 54% of the show’s total impact. A collaborative post between Williams and Dsquared2, worth $440K in MIV, emerged as the top placement related to the runway, representing almost 12 times more value than the brand’s regular content on Instagram.
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The Winners of Paris Men’s Fashion Week
The menswear season in Paris was equally successful in terms of Media Impact Value. Notably, PFW received boosts from the United States, France, Thailand and the Philippines, showcasing the event’s global reach. “Fashion Weeks are generating measurable impact beyond Europe, reinforcing the value of globally diversified brand strategies,” wrote Launchmetrics in the report.
Reflecting this regional performance, Filipina star Heart Evangelista led the overall voice ranking. After a short absence from the front rows, where she is a fixture season after season, the actor, model and philanthropist returned to the event in full force. Her various appearances at shows amassed $23.5 million in MIV.
Fashion publications Gala, Vogue France and Vogue US took the remaining spots in the voice ranking, proving that media-driven content and interactions remain essential to the Fashion Week ecosystem.
The fifth place went to Thai actor Mile Phakphum, Dior ambassador and one of the names who repeatedly emerge as top media impact drivers at PFW. The star was responsible for $8.2 million in MIV.
As for brands, Dior and Louis Vuitton dominated the power player ranking, with numbers that surpassed 150% of the top-performing brand in Milan.
French Heritage Brands Dominate Couture Week
Confirming her standing as a fashion influencer and a Media Impact Value driving force, Heart Evangelista also topped the overall voice ranking at Haute Couture Week. Dior, Vogue France, Vogue US and the Arab publication Sayidaty rounded out the ranking, once again demonstrating the importance of global media in amplifying fashion events.
Heritage couture brands Chanel, Dior and Valentino topped the Top 20 Power Player ranking per total MIV. Chanel and Dior, presenting their first couture collections since the big creative director shake-up of 2025, amassed $58,8 and $58.2 million, respectively.
Valentino’s show “Specula Mundi,” which reimagined the kaiserpanorama, a long-forgotten device regarded as a precursor to film, accrued $49.4 million in MIV. The show received media attention aplenty for its unconventional format, allowing each guest to have a private viewing of the couture creations through small windows.
Displaying the brand’s social capital, stars from around the world graced the front row. It was brand ambassadors IVE and Freen Sarocha, though, who drove the biggest impact. IVE stood out as the top voice, generating direct buzz worth $4.9 million through 29 placements. Freen, on the other hand, garnered $4.5 million in MIV with 4 placements, including the top-performing post linked to Valentino during Couture Week, (an Instagram post that shows the Thai actor departing for Paris). The actress drove additional numbers through echo, ultimately talling $10.1 million in MIV via combined direct and third-party mentions.
In addition to Chanel, Dior and Valentino, Schiaparelli, Armani Privé and Elie Saab dominated the brand power player ranking. Robert Wun’s return to the calendar after a three-year absence was another big moment from the 4-day event and placed the brand in 12th place, despite the comparatively smaller scale of the runway.
For a deeper dive into the Launchmetrics’ algorithm and data, see the full report here.
