High street department stores replaced high end designers in the top 20 coolest brands © RexLuxury fashion designers including Alexander McQueen, Chanel and Vivienne Westwood are ‘no longer’ some of the coolest brands in Britain, according to the annual CoolBrands list released today.
Affordable brands have taken their place, as YouTube, Twitter, Google, BBC iPlayer and Skype, which are all free, made up a quarter of the top 20, compiled by experts and the general public.
It was bad news for high fashion stalwarts as Rolex, Alexander McQueen, Ray-Ban, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Agent Provocateur all dropped from the top 20 coolest brands in Britain.
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However, Liberty, Selfridges and fashion publication Vogue featured in the top 20 for the first time.
"I am thrilled that a brand which is 125 years old is able to qualify as a CoolBrand," Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman told Vogue.com.
"It is an acknowledgement of the fact that Vogue's reputation has not only weathered the amount of competition in the fashion arena, but has increased as the general public become more discerning about their fashion and style information.”
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Also, despite not featuring in this year’s overall top 20, Alexander McQueen retained its coolest clothing category title, while Agent Provocateur was named coolest lingerie brand and Christian Louboutin - which recently won a court case preventing other brands replicating its red soles - was named coolest footwear brand.
It was a different case with beauty, however, as expensive beauty brands dominated the CoolBrands list.
MAC scooped the coolest cosmetics category, Bumble & Bumble topped the haircare category and Crème de la Mer came first in the skincare category.
“It comes as no surprise to me that this year's list of finalists encompasses more mass and masstige brands than ever before,” said panel member Millie Kendall.
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“Beauty is often on the rise during a recession and although the [winning] brands are considered high-end brands, each are individually worthy of being a cool brand because they offer luxury but at somewhat of an affordable price.”
Tech brand Apple was named coolest brand in the UK, followed closely by YouTube and Aston Martin.
The annual CoolBrands list is drawn from 10,000 brands which are then shortlisted to 1,200.
It’s decided by a panel of experts, which this year included fashion stylist Grace Woodward, TV presenter Zara Martin and actress Sadie Frost, and 3,000 members of the public.
What’s your coolest brand?
