Once snubbed by the closed fashion world, influencers are now courted like the biggest celebrities, especially by up-and-coming talent counting on them to make a name for themselves.
They’re at London Fashion Week en masse this week.
TikTok and Instagram’s best flocked to Masha Popova’s fashion show on Sunday. The young Ukrainian designer, who graduated from the prestigious Central Saint Martins school in 2020, counted among her guests TikTok superstar Abby Roberts, followed by more than 16 million people, and her sister Charlotte Roberts, who has almost 9 million followers .
Emma Winder, content creator on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, was also in attendance. “I sat in the front row with six other influencers, so I think we did well,” she told AFP after the parade.
“Influencers will play a leading role in building the legitimacy of creatives,” Delphine Dion, professor at ESSEC Business School, tells AFP. “It is thanks to you that many creators will achieve their breakthrough.”
avant-garde
To be a major fashion influencer, you first have to have “the trust of the big names” in the industry, she explains.
Then it’s time to make your mark, discover jewels to establish yourself as an influencer, “with a highly innovative taste that will create new players in fashion”.
“It’s just like the avant-garde dynamic that we can find in art,” says Ms. Dion, “the idea of looking for a much larger niche to show that we are even more fashionable than the others.”
The phenomenon is particularly visible on stages such as London Fashion Week, which is known for the space it offers to emerging talent.
The new generation of designers such as Masha Popova, Di Petsa, Chet Lo, Feben and Yuhan Wang were worn by fashion influencers and stars such as Zendaya, Billie Eilish, Hailey Bieber and Kylie Jenner.
“Immediate response”
The dynamic is a win-win situation. It is now much “cooler” for influencers to wear clothes from young designers rather than from a luxury brand “to show that you have a lot of money,” brand consultant Elizabeth Stiles tells AFP Fashion.
And for creators, “social media makes it quicker to grow the brand because of the way it works,” she continues.
When an influencer posts content, “you get an immediate response” from their community, whereas with a press article it takes longer, Ms. Stiles adds.
Social media content creators can benefit from a good engagement rate, which measures how well their posts engage with their community. An influencer with a high engagement rate who posts a photo dressed by a young label is more likely to generate sales for the brand.
“In China, where the phenomenon of social imitation is much more developed, this is something incredible,” continues Delphine Dion.
A phenomenon that dates
The competition between specialized fashion magazines and former fashion bloggers who are now influencers on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube is nothing new.
The British journalist Susie Lau, who writes for the British magazines Pop and The Business of Fashion, among others, and is followed by around 700,000 people on Instagram, started her fashion blog “Style Bubble” in 2006.
In a 2017 article published in Grazia titled “Everyone should be welcome in fashion,” she said she regretted “the negative connotation of the role of a fashion blogger.” Or digital content creators. Or influencers.
In February 2023, in an Instagram post, she also criticized “the audacity of most print media in 2023 to mock influencers in the subtext of their criticism.”