X has shared some new data on the evolving fashion discussion in the app, though the data provided to support this is pretty questionable, and also a little unclear at points.
As, unfortunately, has been the case with many of X’s communications.
X starts out its fashion overview by presenting its contention that its platform is now at the center of emerging fashion discussion.
As per X:
“Luxury is no longer confined to exclusive boutiques and high-end runways – it’s happening in real-time, where culture is shaped, trends are born, and digital influence drives desirability. X has become the epicenter for luxury conversations, where fashion, sports, AI, and technology intersect to define the future of high-end experiences.”
Sounds intriguing, I wonder what data they have to back this up.
As you can see in this chart, “Fashion” was the 9th most popular topic of discussion on X in 2024, driving 200 billion impressions in total.
Though as with most of X’s stats, the lack of context around what that actually means reduces the impact of the data.
Impressions, as defined by X, are the number of times that a post appears on a users’ screen, so it has nothing to do with interactions or engagement. If impressions are the focus, and X controls the algorithm that defines what people see in the app, then it could make whatever it wants into a trend, but that wouldn’t say anything about overall user interest.
A more valuable stat, then, would be total engagement, and you would also need comparative data for this to be relevant. Which, I guess, X has sort of provided here, in showcasing how fashion has performed against other topics, in regards to total impressions.
Though, strangely, according to previous data reported by X, all of these topics except fashion saw the exact same total impression stats in 2023:
It looks like X has just tacked on an extra 50 billion arbitrarily to the “Fashion” numbers, because there’s no way that all of these other topics saw the exact same impression stats year-over-year.
I mean, I would expect the engagement rates to be somewhat similar, but the exact same?
As noted, this has become a consistent theme with X, that it seems to just make up numbers and data points, or publish isolated figures that provide no real, valuable insight into actual user interest or engagement.
It’s either a vague stat like “200b impressions” with no further context, or a slip-up like this, publishing the same data from last year, with a very slight change. And once one data point contradicts a previously reported stat, that puts all of its other claims in question, and makes you wonder if all of it is just made up.
We don’t have any insight into X’s actual numbers, so we have to go on what they report, and when its own figures are in conflict, it immediately raises questions.
Really, it’s been a consistent stream of self-owns in this respect since Elon Musk took over, which probably wouldn’t happen if X had an actual communications and/or PR team.
But here we are, and this is what X is giving us to work with.
Speaking of other data points, X has also shared this chart:
Do you know what this means? I don’t. What does that 60% represent?
X further notes that:
“Luxury brands are tapping into the sports ecosystem on X by leveraging high-profile athlete partnerships, runway collaborations, and premium sports event sponsorships. The intersection of sportswear and high-end fashion has given rise to sporty elegance, a key trend shaping the luxury industry in 2025.”
Which also doesn’t explain what the 60% stat is, but you know, there’s something there.
X also explains that:
“The luxury conversation on X is fueled by a global community of tastemakers, from industry insiders to digital creators who shape the future of fashion. X is the ultimate space where fashion conversations reach mass audiences instantly.”
It then goes on to display two posts from people with fewer than 10k followers each. So I don’t know who these “tastemakers” are, but I’m guessing it’s not them.
X has also shared this overview of luxury fashion conversations, and enduring trends year-over-year.
Though again, my trust in X’s capacity for data analysis is not very high at this stage, so I don’t know that I’d put too much stock into this, though the highlighted crossover trends do match up with what Google reported as its top holiday product trends in November last year.
Overall, the data here doesn’t really say much at all about X’s true influence and value for fashion marketers, and it spends the last part of the report talking about how you can use its Grok AI chatbot to uncover emerging trends, or its Radar analytics trend tool to find the same.
And Radar does look like a good tool, providing insight into real-time trends, based on X data.
Though it is only available to Premium+ subscribers, so you’ll have to pay to get it.
So, what does this all mean? Well, some people are talking about fashion-related topics on X, and seemingly a lot, based on overall impressions. But without real context, or insight into the topics under the “Fashion” umbrella, it’s hard to really say, and X doesn’t do much explaining in this report.
But if you’re a fashion brand, and you’re considering where you should spend your marketing dollars, maybe give X’s report a read for yourself and try to make sense of it.
You can check out X’s fashion trends report here.
