Every year the fashion industry opens another report pretending to be ready for its heart-wrenching graphs. What comes next is pretty much the annual mini breakdown about who’s thriving and who’s hanging on by a thread, no offence. Think of it like high-school, like that popularity chart nobody admits they loose sleep over, who’s hot and who’s not. The 2025 Business of Fashion Brand Pulse Index is basically that moment, less bullying, more numbers, and backed by data we really trust. It ranks the world’s biggest luxury names, not by heritage or prestige, but something way scarier. How much people actually care. I know, terrifying. Let’s just say there are enough surprises to make a Fashion Week seating chart look peaceful.
Alright fashion nerds, here’s the rundown. The BoF Brand Pulse Index is like an apple watch for luxury labels, but instead of steps it tracks how alive they are in our minds. It judges brands across 5 dimensions, Value (is it worth sacrificing our rent?), Connection (do we ever shed a tear over it in the DMs?), Discoverability (is it haunting our feeds yet?), Identity (can we ID it faster than a knockoff?), and Love (is there love and loyalty or just brand delusion?).
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In the Value x Connection chart Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Hermès and Chanel are sitting pretty top-right with wallets and feels fully stocked. Meanwhile, Dolce&Gabbana flirts with high Connection but less Value, Brioni and Valentino have that value but can’t make us care, and Balenciaga and Moncler are fighting for attention, bless them. Then there’s the Pulse table, where Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta are basically the rulebook for Identity. I mean duh, I could spot those triple Ss and woven Jodies from London to Milan. Chanel gets all the Love points, because some brands just make us obsess over a $50 lipstick the same we do over a $200k gown, while Louis Vuitton is casually topping Value, Connection, Discoverability and Love, what a win. This is your map to who matters in luxury right now.
In the end, the report literally nobody asked for but everyone clicked on the minute it dropped, just exposes who’s climbing and who’s just recycling the archives for the 700th time. It turns the industry’s chaos into a neat little chart, which is honestly kind of messy but also extremely useful. Consider it fashion’s way of telling the truth when your favorite brands won’t.
