Vinted climbs the influencer charts, but Zara still wears the crown

Look at the headline and Britain’s fashion influencers appear to have found their consciences. Look at the table underneath and it’s clear the high street is still in charge.

Kolsquare, an influencer marketing firm, has published its rankings of the fashion brands generating the most attention from creators on Instagram and TikTok in the first half of 2026. The firm’s own headline is about second-hand and sustainable fashion. Vinted, the resale app, climbed from 33rd to 17th on Instagram. Damson Madder, a small British label that says more than 92 per cent of the cotton it used last year was organic or recycled, rose from 65th to 50th.

The top of the table looks familiar. Zara leads Instagram, followed by ASOS and Primark. Primark is first on TikTok. Zara’s estimated £62.84 million in “earned media value” is more than five times Vinted’s figure. That measure is the firm’s estimate of what the likes and shares would have cost to buy as advertising, not money anyone has taken.

The rankings in brief

Instagram top three: Zara (£62.84m), ASOS (£57.28m), Primark (£39.41m) TikTok top three: Primark (£26.09m), DFYNE (£18.22m), Gymshark (£12.90m) Biggest Instagram climber: Gudrun Sjödén, up 1,254 places to 69th Biggest TikTok climber: Desigual, up 348 places to 81st The underdog: In Print We Trust, a graphic T-shirt label, 12th on TikTok, ahead of NEXT, PrettyLittleThing and River Island

The two platforms behave quite differently. Zara tops Instagram but is only eighth on TikTok, where gym wear from DFYNE and Gymshark does better.

Kolsquare’s chief executive, Quentin Bordage, describes the shift towards resale as “encouraging signs of visibility”. That’s a fair way to put it. Visibility doesn’t mean sales, and an app for selling old clothes still needs a constant supply of new ones to sell.

The firm frames Vinted’s rise in terms of conscience, but value may explain it better. Buying second-hand used to be called thrift, and you don’t need to be an environmentalist to like paying £8 for a coat that cost £80 new. The British shopper has always enjoyed a bargain. Influencers seem to have caught on.