With more than 1.4 billion users in 2023, Instagram has attracted a vast variety of content creators who are using hashtags, Stories, Reels, and other features to reach like-minded audiences. Hashtags bring together social media users with similar interests in specific niches, like fashion. Here are some of the top fashion hashtags on Instagram to include in captions and why they can benefit creators and brands.
The purpose of hashtags:
Social media influencers, brands and users benefit from hashtags in many different ways:
- Boost in engagement.
- Open the door to new eyes on content.
- Establish an influencer’s niche in terms of the algorithm.
End users also benefit from hashtags as well:
- They search for specific hashtags.
- They select to follow specific hashtags.
- They block content that uses a hashtag, so they won’t see it.
Top fashion hashtags
Fashion creators trying to build their audiences and fashion labels looking to boost brand awareness can use fashion hashtags and keywords to improve their reach. The best tags fall into several categories:
General hashtags
Using general fashion hashtags like #fashion and #style covers all the basics of fashion and can generally describe your content to help you reach your target audience.
Outfit hashtags
Hashtags like #outfit and #OOTD are among the most popular in the fashion industry. Similar options are #whatiwore, #outfitinspiration, #outfitideas, #outfitpost, and #styleinspo.
For more specific outfit types, use hashtags for the occasion, like #workwear and #loungewear, which each have more than 3 million posts.
Instagram hashtags
Instagram-specific hashtags are popular as well. For example, #instafashionista is the most popular currently, with more than 2.1 million posts. Shortly behind are #instafashion, #instafashionstyle, #fashiongram, and #instafashionist.
Career hashtags
If you are a blogger, vlogger, or fashion influencer, these hashtags are for you. Career hashtags allow creators to categorize themselves. The top hashtags for this category are #fashionblogger, #fashionbloggersstyle, #fashionbloggers, #stylebloggers, and #styleblogger.
Designers can share their latest work using tags like #fashiondesigner, which has more than 30 million posts.
Product hashtags
Product hashtags allow influencers to highlight specific products and pieces within their content to draw their audience’s attention. These hashtags can be used for accessories or specific apparel pieces, like #shoes, #shoeaddict, #swimwear, #shoesoftheday, #purseaddict, and #handbaglover.
Gender hashtags
If you have a fashion line that targets a specific group of people, define that audience through tags. Examples: #mensfashion, #mensstyle, #mensfashionreview, #mensfashionblogger, #mensfashionpost, and #mensfashiontips.
Brand hashtags
Branded hashtags are a way to highlight specific labels and styles. Fashion creators can use them to show their authentic love of a brand, while brands can use them to compile user-generated content and interact with their biggest fans. Branded hashtags typically include a brand name.
Examples include #fashionnova, which has more than 10 million posts, and #zarawoman, which has more than 3 million posts.
Choosing hashtags
Instagram is constantly reworking its algorithm to provide the best user experience, prioritizing content it thinks users enjoy most. While this may not always benefit influencers trying to expand their reach consistently, it does encourage creators to use a wide variety of hashtags to grab the attention of more users. On Instagram, a small percentage of users will run across your posts throughout their feed directly. This means that any fashion influencers truly aiming to boost their awareness need to stay up-to-date on trending hashtags. So what are ways you, as a fashion creator, can stay current? Here are a few tips:
Use trending hashtags
Tags often go in and out of fashion. Pay attention to fashion and social media trends. For example, during the “Barbie” movie release, many fashion influencers recreated iconic Barbie looks and used hashtags such as #Barbieoutfit. Competitive research can also help you find trending hashtags.
Hashtags such as #fashiontrends show the most popular styles of the moment.
Use Instagram’s tools
The search engine within Instagram is one of the easiest and most effective ways to keep current tags in your content. Use it to find similar hashtags and see the number of times they have been used.
Don’t use too many hashtags
It is always important to not overdo your fashion hashtags and prioritize hashtags and keywords that are relevant and effective. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags, but that doesn’t mean you must use them all. Writing longer captions with relevant keywords can help just as much as hashtags.
Vary hashtags
Mixing up your fashion hashtags from post to post helps to constantly draw attention to posts and connect with a broader audience. Remember not to use the same hashtags in every single post.
Use niche hashtags
General hashtags such as #fashion are important as they’re wide-reaching. However, there’s power in nicheing down. For example, if you mainly deal in swimwear, focus more on tags relating to those products.
Consider emojis
Emojis brighten up any type of content, which is no different in the fashion industry. Using a few emojis may help your hashtags to be more eye-catching, but make sure not to use too many.
Use Short hashtags
Short, punchy hashtags are easier to remember how to spell and faster to type. Longer hashtags may distract your new viewers.
Hashtags and influencer discovery
The right hashtags are useful influencer discovery tools as they enhance an influencer’s visibility and include the chances of them reaching their target audiences. By searching for hashtags relative to your business and brand, you open the door to an abundance of influencers who share the same interest in the industry. However, searching for the right hashtags and sifting through the large variety of fashion influencers to potentially work with is a lengthy process. Skip the wait and search through the Creator Marketplace to find fashion influencers looking to work with brands they are passionate about today.
