Vinted & Damson Madder climb UK fashion rankings

Vinted and Damson Madder have climbed UK fashion influence rankings tracked by Kolsquare, as the latest data points to stronger Instagram visibility for second-hand and independent brands.

Vinted rose 16 places to 17th in the UK Instagram ranking, generating £12.04 million in Earned Media Value, or EMV. The marketplace's total came from 8,758 pieces of content produced by 2,779 creators, with an engagement rate of 4.1%.

Damson Madder climbed 15 places to 50th, generating £5.87 million in EMV from 3,784 pieces of content by 921 creators. It also rose eight places to 19th among UK-born brands and posted a 5% engagement rate.

The rankings measure brand visibility through creator mentions rather than consumer purchasing behaviour. They show which labels are attracting attention on social platforms, but do not indicate whether shoppers are moving away from fast fashion.

Kolsquare tracks more than 1,600 fashion brands on Instagram and more than 550 on TikTok in the UK. Its reports cover the first half of 2026 and focus on mentions by creators with more than 5,000 followers. EMV is used as an estimate of the monetary value of engagement such as likes, comments and shares.

TikTok challengers

On TikTok, In Print We Trust ranked 12th with £5.02 million in EMV from 542 pieces of content produced by 52 creators. The graphic T-shirt label ranked ahead of NEXT in 13th, PrettyLittleThing in 15th and River Island in 24th.

Those larger retailers relied on far broader creator bases. NEXT drew on 722 creators, PrettyLittleThing on 691 and River Island on 414, compared with just 52 for In Print We Trust.

Engagement rates also varied. In Print We Trust recorded 6.7%, compared with 4.3% for NEXT, 2.6% for PrettyLittleThing and 2.1% for River Island.

The TikTok results suggest a specialist brand can compete with better-known retailers without matching them on creator numbers. The contrast highlights how platform dynamics can favour concentrated communities as well as scale.

Fast fashion leads

Fast fashion groups still dominate the top of the rankings. Zara led Instagram with £62.84 million in EMV, followed by ASOS with £57.28 million and Primark with £39.41 million.

Zara's total came from 23,170 pieces of content by 5,336 creators. ASOS generated more content, at 31,188 pieces, and recorded a higher engagement rate of 5.1%, compared with Zara's 3.6%, but remained second on EMV.

Primark led TikTok with £26.09 million in EMV from 5,798 pieces of content by 1,595 creators. Its 6.9% engagement rate was the highest among the platform's top three brands, ahead of activewear labels DFYNE and Gymshark, which ranked second and third with £18.22 million and £12.90 million respectively.

DFYNE generated 8,151 pieces of content from 446 creators, while Gymshark's total came from 3,143 pieces by 401 creators. Performance also varied sharply between platforms: Zara led on Instagram but ranked eighth on TikTok with £6.85 million in EMV, while ASOS ranked fifth there with £9.27 million.

Vinted's rise was also uneven across platforms. While it gained ground on Instagram, it fell five places to 25th on TikTok, with £2.08 million in EMV.

Big movers

Elsewhere in the Instagram Top 100, Gudrun Sjödén recorded the biggest rise, climbing 1,254 places to 69th. Lemonade Dolls rose 646 places to 71st, while Urban Outfitters' European account moved up 135 places to 23rd.

Several brands moved down the table. boohooMAN dropped 28 places to 49th, Arket fell 35 places to 73rd and Vanquish Fitness slipped 57 places to 80th.

On TikTok, Desigual posted the biggest climb in the UK Top 100, rising 348 places to 81st. Salomon fell 40 places to 94th, Pandora dropped 63 places to 98th and Weekday slipped 69 places to 93rd.

Quentin Bordage, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Kolsquare, said: "Vinted and Damson Madder's Instagram gains show that resale and independent labels with responsible-fashion ambitions are earning significant influencer attention. On TikTok, In Print We Trust demonstrates how a niche brand can compete with established retailers. These results give alternative fashion businesses a story to tell, even while fast fashion remains dominant. They are encouraging signs of visibility."