Words by Lucy Hopton, Writer

Influencers: love them or hate them, you can’t ignore them if you’re interested in fashion nowadays. From James Charles attending the Met Gala to the ‘Tube Girl’ walking in London Fashion Week, online media personalities are an increasing presence on the fashion scene – but not everybody is happy about it. So, why have more brands been working with influencers? Why are people claiming this is the ‘death’ of fashion?

*Gigi Hadid at AW17 Tommy Hilfiger at NYFW (credit Peter White/Wireimage/Getty Images)*

New York was the first to establish ‘Press Week’ in 1943, which we now know as Fashion Week. This exclusive event was an opportunity for buyers to preview the new season’s clothing of various companies, conveniently taking place bi-annually over one week. Across decades, the event has changed dramatically from its small beginnings: celebrity attendance surged since the 1970s; supermodels strutted onto the scene in the 1990s; and now collections are more accessible than ever, with Burberry even streaming their SS21 collection on Twitch. At a fashion show today, you’ll find press representatives, editors, retail buyers, photographers, and a front row lined with celebrities, including influencers. While technically anyone can attend these shows, brands will often invite the big fashion players or partner with a celebrity, maintaining exclusivity.

This leads to the main issue people have with influencers at fashion shows – why do they to get an invite to a show, when hard-working fashion enthusiasts struggle to get through the door? Influencers are attacked for spending the whole event on their phones, clearly disinterested in the showcase of talent. One of these offenders is Tana Mongeau, who posted a TikTok at NYFW 2022 with the caption “us pretending to be interested at fashion shows in new york for clout rn”. This statement sadly confirmed to many what they had been thinking – that influencers are ungrateful and unknowledgeable and therefore should not be at these events.

The consensus seems to demand credentials to allow a seat at fashion weeks. Fashion-specific influencers rarely see as much hate, likely because they have ‘proven’ their passion and appreciation for the art. One of my favourite independent fashion journalists, Bliss Foster, vlogs hours of footage when he attends a fashion week, showing how exhausting it can be to fit in several shows per day. In the weeks leading up to the event, he is busy emailing brands requesting a seat at their shows. To be successful, a freelance journalist must argue their case as to why the company would benefit from their attendance.

Bliss Foster and Tana Mongeau are two polarised examples of influencers, and in the middle of them may fall people like YouTuber Emma Chamberlain. She came to fame through clothing hauls and ‘style’ videos and is a regular attendee at New York and Paris Fashion Week. Emma recently wore LOEWE to Paris Fashion Week, has been photographed by the prestigious Maison Margiela, and represented Miu Miu and Cartier at the 2023 MET Gala. In fact, she even hosted the Gala in 2023 as an interviewer for Vogue. These types of influencers have larger platforms than online fashion journalists, but still show a clear appreciation and understanding of clothing. To me, this is the perfect balance for companies wanting to attract millions of viewers whilst maintaining respect for the designers.

*Emma Chamberlain in Loewe at Paris Fashion Week SS23*

Influencers aren’t only infiltrating the audience, though. This year’s NYFW saw sportswear brand BOSSI partner with Creators Inc. to send influencers down the runway, most memorably Paige Niemann. Paige, an Ariana Grande lookalike, fell victim to a whirlwind of abuse after her horrifically clumsy walk. Again, critics were outraged over her lack of experience in the fashion world, questioning why she was there to begin with.

On the other end of the scale, TikTok ‘it-girl’, Sabrina Bahsoon, referred to as ‘Tube Girl’, strutted down the runway in London and Paris and collaborated with Boss in Milan to create some of their most popular content to date. Within mere weeks she went from filming herself lip syncing to songs on the London Underground to hanging out with celebrities at some of the biggest luxury fashion shows in the world. Conversely, Sabrina has been applauded for her fabulous walk and congratulated for beginning her modelling career. The fact that she is a TikToker is being treated as a launch pad rather than a hindrance.

*Sabrina Bahsoon walking at London Fashion Week AW24*

Both cases are successful examples of why brands want influencers in the first place: publicity. In search for a viral moment, BOSSI’s stunt succeeded in encouraging people to talk about their brand, even if the focus was on the models not the clothes. Having influencers represent your brand exposes a whole new audience to your clothes, and most importantly increases the ‘Media Impact Value’ [MIV]. This is a new way of measuring publicity, as an algorithm assigns monetary value to every social media post and article about a company. Analysis website Launch Metrics calculated that Instagram interactions about Paris Fashion Week this October is valued at $269.1M MIV, 208% higher than conventional online articles. Additionally, TikTok saw a 172% increase in MIV on videos about Paris compared to last year. Clearly, social media is extremely important for fashion companies of all sizes, so why not use internet celebrities? Whilst some brands employ creators (for example Emma Chamberlain interviewing for Vogue), it is easier for companies to style an influencer and let them publicise it themselves, or even simply invite them to the show.

So, should we be annoyed at the influencers or the brands? Should we even be annoyed in the first place? Whilst there is something odd about seeing influencers completely unrelated to fashion in the audience, how different is it to the famous actors or musicians who are equally as unknowledgeable about fashion? I think the distinction is that oftentimes we follow influencers for their relatability, but this is lost when they begin to showcase their gifts from Louis Vuitton.

Content creators represent a new way of marketing and journalism, as well as being a new genre of celebrity for young people. It is therefore unsurprising that change in this traditional industry is faced with resistance. The internet has done so much to democratise fashion, and seeing influencers at fashion events is part of this. To an extent, accusations that influencers are ‘ruining’ the glamour of such events is valid. Seeing the mysterious Anna Wintour sat at the same event as a ‘cancelled’ YouTuber is a jarring sight for something so exclusive. Furthermore, it’s plainly disrespectful to be on your phone throughout a runway show, and it does feel undeserving when fans could only dream to be in that room. Finally, knowing that by talking about these creators either positively or negatively is falling for the publicity trap is a frustrating feeling, and ultimately takes away from the actual art: the clothes.

Overall, I don’t think there is much that we can do to stop influencers from attending these events, since requiring a degree of interest in fashion is just unrealistic. Instead, more support could be given to smaller online fashion vloggers, while brands can focus more on working with influencers who have a passion for fashion. Generally, they are an opportunity for more accessibility in fashion and many admittedly have worked hard to get there. Still, it’s early days for this phenomenon, and there is no doubt that these influencers will be part of the industry for a long time.

Tana Mongeau’s controversial TikTok: <Tana Mongeau at NYFW | TikTok>

Bliss Foster, fashion journalist: <https://www.youtube.com/@BlissFoster>

Paige Niemann: <Paige Niemann for BOSSI | TikTok>

Tube Girl: <Sabrina Bahsoon (@sabrinabahsoon) Official | TikTok>

Access to statistics of MIV at Paris Fashion Week: <Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall-winter 2021-2022 (launchmetrics.com)>

Influencers at Fashion Week: Improvements or Imposters?