UK fashion spent the first half of 2026 split between two platforms that reward very different things. Kolsquare ranked the top 100 fashion brands in the UK by Earned Media Value across Instagram and TikTok, covering January to June 2026 with every position compared against the same period last year.
Here is who came out in front, who owns each segment, and what separates them.
Zara takes first place with £62.8M EMV, up one place on H1 2025, earned across 5,336 creators at a 3.6% engagement rate.
ASOS slips to second with £57.3M, from the largest content output in the ranking: 31,188 posts.
Primark climbs to third with £39.4M from 4,464 creators, moving ahead of H&M on £36.7M.
All four are high-street retailers running creator bases above 4,000. On UK Instagram, reach earns the EMV, and engagement rate decides how close the chasing brands get.
Primark leads here too, up one place with £26.1M EMV from 1,595 creators and a 6.9% engagement rate, the highest on the podium.
DFYNE slips to second with £18.2M, posting more than any other brand in the ranking: 8,151 pieces of content from just 446 creators.
Gymshark climbs two places to third with £12.9M from 401 creators.
Two of the three are UK-born activewear labels working with fewer than 450 creators each, against the 4,000-plus behind every brand on the Instagram podium. TikTok rewards a very different creator model.
On Instagram, Zara leads ready-to-wear, Chanel leads luxury with £13.5M, almost twice the next brand, Nike tops sportswear with £19.3M, Coach leads shoes, bags and accessories with £6.6M, SKIMS holds lingerie and swimwear with £7.1M, and Swarovski tops jewellery and watches with £7.9M.
On TikTok, Primark leads ready-to-wear, Rabanne leads luxury with £1.6M, Adidas tops sportswear with £8.5M, EGO leads shoes, bags and accessories with £3.0M, SKIMS again holds lingerie and swimwear with £2.2M, and Cernucci tops jewellery and watches with £972K.
SKIMS is the only brand to lead the same segment on both platforms. Elsewhere, small creator bases keep producing the biggest moves: Lemonade Dolls climbs 16 places to second in Instagram lingerie from only 113 creators, and Cartier climbs 19 places in luxury from 545.
Three patterns run through the ranking.
Scale still buys the top of Instagram. The four biggest brands all run creator programmes above 4,000, and Zara leads despite the lowest engagement rate on the podium.
Activewear has a strong hold on TikTok. DFYNE and Gymshark take two of the three podium places, and on Instagram the Adidas Running and Nike Running accounts both climb into the sportswear top eight on their own.
And UK-born brands carry more weight on TikTok. The 71 UK-born fashion brands tracked earn about 36% of UK fashion EMV on TikTok, against about 30% for the 119 tracked on Instagram.
The complete reports carry the full top 100 on each platform, the top 10 for ready-to-wear, luxury, sportswear, shoes and accessories, lingerie and swimwear, and jewellery and watches, a top 20 of UK-born brands, and the Europe-wide top 100 for brands working beyond the UK. Every entry shows its creator count, content volume, engagement rate and movement on H1 2025.
Ranked by Earned Media Value using Kolsquare creator data, January to June 2026.
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