Brief:

• Instagram almost tripled the number of Fashion Week-related interactions (likes, shares, comments) to 709 million this year from 2016, according to the Facebook-owned image-sharing application. The Fashion Week shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris were seen by 143 million Instagram users, Adweek reported, citing data from Facebook IQ.
• Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren and Marc Jacobs were the top designers for New York’s Fashion Week, while London’s shows saw the most interest in Topshop, Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger. Gucci, Versace and Fendi topped the Milan week, while Saint Laurent, Dior and Chloé were most popular in Paris.
• Models also grew their following among Instagram users, with Teddy Quinlivan, Carla Bruni, Helena Christensen, Kaia Gerber and Selena Forrest showing the biggest gains. More than 200 million Instagrammers around the world are connected to fashion accounts, Facebook told Adweek.

Insight:

Instagram has been a popular source for sharing fashion selfies since its beginning, and now Facebook wants to grow its advertiser base among professional fashion brands as the social network seeks to monetize Instagram. The photo-sharing app has grown to more than 700 million users worldwide.

The fashion week numbers underscore the significant momentum behind Instagram at the moment with influencers and users related to visually-driven topics like fashion and food. Influencers have flocked to Instagram over Snapchat because the former makes it easier for them to earn big bucks. The danger for Instagram is that if it because purely a place for broadcasting marketing brand messages or influencers hawking themselves, some users could be turned away. Snapchat, in comparison, is becoming known as a more personal visually-oriented communication channel for brands. 

Still, Instagram's growth numbers are a problem for Snapchat, particularly the popularity of Instagram Stories, which lets people upload a series of images and videos in the same post. The feature has grown to more than 250 million users since its start in August 2016, according to social influencer tracker Mediakix.

Snapchat originally created the Stories feature, which Instagram copied in its app. The popularity of Instagram Stories is having a negative effect on Snapchat Stories, with top social media influencers cutting their Snapchat usage by 33%, Mediakix found in a study. That migration of influencers means that Snapchat will need to do more to grow its audience and lure back key social media personalities.