Insta-Fashion: A Love Story
Forget Facebook and all its social media glory; there’s an even more influential player in town. Instagram is far from new, but its influence continues to grow and shape the aesthetic, accessibility and celebrity of fashion culture. And with brands, designers, magazines, models, bloggers and celebrities, a significant portion of Instagram is inhabited by the fashion industry. This is where our love story begins.
Once upon a time, an #OOTD was posted, and the rest is history. Think about it: besides Pinterest, no other social media platform puts so much emphasis on the image, and with fashion, everything is about the image. The inspiration behind collections, the visuals of a runway show, the editorial shoots, the advertisements, the photos of celebrities wearing the brand – all make up the process of fashion and publicity. Instagram has radically enhanced this process by spreading these images across the world in a matter of seconds. Brands no longer have to rely on expensive print advertisements or red carpet events; they can simply post on their own account or negotiate an endorsement with an Insta-popular celebrity or blogger, all on the clean and simple Instagram stage.
This new industry of social media endorsements and career bloggers is in large part due to the success of platforms like Instagram. Not only do celebrities like Kylie Jenner become tycoons of likes, selfies and lipkits (Kylie's social media success led her to create her own booming business), but non-celebrities like Negin Mirsalehi can combine their love of fashion with the Instagram stage to rise to fame and create 21st century careers that lead to travel blogs, magazine shoots and endorsements of their own. Depending on the followings of such Insta-famous users, these endorsements can bring quite the pretty penny. Hugely famous celebs can bring hundreds of thousands of dollars per post, while smaller users who are not yet famous can range from free items in exchange for an endorsement to a few thousand dollars for a post.
The benefits of Instagram are not only financial, either. With more access to different styles, cultures, cities and people, style as a societal whole has become more creative and individual. Of course there are still trends and patterns, but they circulate much faster and are not exclusive to any one group of people. This works the same with the fashion industry, itself. Not only is the turnaround and buying availability of collections quicker, but designers now have access to styles and inspirations from around the world and from all different types of people. Designers also receive more feedback from Instagram users, allowing them to expand their creativity and grow their brand, all while accommodating the wishes of the people.
For a platform that was built off of visuals, Instagram has given so much more to society, and particularly to fashion. It’s given people a voice as to what they want to wear, what they like, and by whom they are inspired, and it gives those same people an opportunity to create inspiration, themselves. With fashion show livestreams and sneak peaks into the lives of those in the industry, Instagram has made fashion more expressive, more innovative and more accessible than ever, which is an accomplishment in itself - and they lived #HappilyEverAfter.
Want a piece of the Insta-pie? Learn how to edit your Instagram pics like blogger, Marianna Hewitt!
