Introducing the 'swimfluencers' of 2018: Lyst

The summer is here, and the fashion world's attention is focused on the important issue of swimwear. But which celebrities are behind 2018's bikini trends?

According to global fashion search platform Lyst, five powerful women are driving online swimsuit searches this year. The brand monitored the spikes in demand created by 30 superstars, analyzed search and sales responses across 12,000 online stores and took stock of the stars' hottest swimwear moments over the last three years to compile a list of five top "swimfluencers" for 2018.

In first position is reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian West, who sparked a 109% increase week on week in searches for pink bikinis back in April, after she snapped a photo of herself on vacation in an electric pink version. The same month also saw her posing on a sunlounger wearing Chanel bottoms, leading to more than 17,000 searches for bikinis by the luxury brand.

Plus-size supermodel Ashley Graham knows good swimsuits; the US beauty recently shot an unretouched campaign for her latest Swimsuits for All Summer 2018 collection, leading to more than 1,000 searches for "Ashley's swimsuit" within 24 hours of the image being uploaded to Instagram. A photo of her in a "powersuit" tripled views of laced white bathing suits.

Rapper Nicki Minaj set pulses racing last year with a red studded Norma Kamali bathing suit that saw searches for "studded swimsuits" increase by 205% the next week. She remains the most referenced celebrity in swimwear searches this year to date.

US model Bella Hadid loves to take risks with her swimwear, and a photo of her in a nude, barely-there bikini that was published in May has seen beige bikinis featured in Lyst's top 5 most wanted products over the last month. This year, she has also flown the flag for white frilly bottoms, sending searches soaring by 103% week on week.

Model and swimwear designer Emily Ratajkowski sent searches for ‘off the shoulder' bikini tops skyrocketing by 105% week on week when she posted a picture of her favorite green number last month. A polka dot bikini she donned in April saw sales increase by 39% the following week.