The fashion industry is worth around £1.2 trillion and is estimated to employ around 430 million people globally. But what does power in fashion mean now? Fashion is a followers’ game but the real influence happens on the high street and in your wardrobe. The (mostly male) billionaires might be holding the purse strings, but we’re wearing the merch. We’ve looked at the industry and its tributaries from every which way — is a footballer more powerful than an industry favourite designer if everyone’s copying their style? Are the traditional titans of publishing holding their own over the stars of social media? And what of the Kardashian Klan?
The Standard Fashion Power 100 list is, in reality, a work in progress. Over the next 12 months these names will fall in and out of favour; one viral campaign image can propel a person to the top of everyone’s feed and one spurious post can get them momentarily cancelled. But for 2023, looking at revenue, followers, old-fashioned clout — and, most crucially, total cut through — we’ve compiled the 100 names which we think are directing the most critical element of all — what we’re all actually wearing.
