There’s a limit to what data can tell one about their own taste – personal style can and should be nuanced – but at the very least, it’s a starting point for understanding what’s out there. Lapuerta herself doesn’t base her buying decisions around her findings, but she does incorporate the facts into her understanding of what’s happening in fashion. “It’s not the end-all be-all,” she says of her analysis. “Just because something is trending doesn’t mean everyone should like it or wear it.
Lapuerta has tapped into a rare, not yet oversaturated category of fashion content: the objective kind. “People are really interested in the way fashion and larger societal sentiment are intertwined,” the data analyst reports. “When I post about the hemline index, which states that hemlines get longer as the economy falls, people get really excited.
In addition to backing up fashion theories, @databutmakeitfashion is also in the business of debunking. “There are always hypotheses and guesses about what’s in, and that’s interesting, but it’s not always right,” she says. One of Lapuerta’s top-performing posts of 2023 has been aon more than a thousand looks from 2023 runway collections to track trends pertaining to quiet luxury, Lapuerta was surprised to find that logos, the antithesis of quiet luxury, were trending.