Is there a Fashion Scam on Instagram?

Instagram plays a huge part in different people’s life from younger children to Adults. Children and Adults go on Instagram to see what their friends are doing and wearing. Showing off how one looks and keeping up with the latest fashion trends is a must. Everyone wants to be seen by setting a statement with what they wear so people either follow them or so they fit in. What’s different about Instagram is that these people do not have to be personal friends --  everyone follows celebrities to see what they are wearing so they can criticize and set the status of hot or not.  Instagram has a popular influence on fashion and what becomes a trend because it encourages increased attention on celebrities. Instagram is known for its square photo but is there for entertainment reasons and advertisement for anyone who needs it. A picture is worth a thousand words, thoughts, and emotions.

Celebrities set trends when they post their outfits on Instagram or when they go to outings to show people what they think is a good fashion “do.” Fashion did not just appear out of thin air, there needs to be some type of person or thing to help set what is a “do” and “don’t” for fashion. For example, there Kylie Jenner who made knee high boot heels a trend that was in and she used instagram to show her followers that it was okay. On instagram she posted pictures of her wearing a tan dress and tannish-green knee high heel boots. She set that trend several times with multiple post with knee high heel boots. Once she started to wear them there were many other people who started to post pictures with knee high heel boots on. If anyone was to search #KneeHighBoots on instagram it is a very popular hashtag.

In highsnobiety,  a fashion website, in their article  5 Trends That Died This Year (and 5 That Kept On Going)  they give a description on Chelsea Boots. They talk about how back then thanks to Kanye West the boots became popular by him just wearing them and the trend of wearing those boots became popular. It is shown that trends die if they fall out of style and or don’t adapt. However, now the trend is dying but is not completely dead; an exact quote being “Dying, but still dope. The fashion in-crowd was more about Gucci loafers this year, and a ton of streetwear guys were wooed by the Yeezy-approved combat boot.” From this description, it can be seen that Kanye West  going out and wearing those boots influenced males to start wearing them. Instagram is used as a tool to show off a product by using a celebrity as the face to sell that product and making it a trend. When these products are exposed to the majority, people start to wear them based off one person and that makes it a trend. It is different from a magazine because it’s free and also has a wider range for an audience. It also shows average people and their friends and others can also see people all over the world whereas in a magazine one can only see what they want to show.

Fashion designers can also be influenced in their designs by using instagram as a tool to connect with their audience because they know that their audience is there. Fashion designers are looking at what their audience is doing and how they dress and is taking that into consideration, basing their designs on that. Instagram today is changing how fashion has looked. In an article published on the website Social Media Today,  it states “Just consider the recent ZAC Zac Posen’s Spring-Summer Ready to Wear 2015 Collection; influenced by comments and suggestions from his over 640,000 Instagram followers.” From this one post on instagram came a popular fashion trend, a maxi dress, where he got inspiration from a picture of him on the beach because his audience gave him these creative ideas. Just like this one post on instagram fashion designers today go and look at one’s daily life and try to pertain to that to attract their buyer.

If Older Adults stopped to think about it, they would realize that Instagram having a popular influence on fashion is not just about and or does not just involve what people decide to wear or show off , but what those clothes could expressed to a person in need as well. They do not understand that instagram gives a lot of creativity for a artist to express their work and reach out to their audience. So, everyone need to be aware of others and clothes aren’t made to just be worn but to express a need if necessary.

Works Cited

Leach, Alec. “2016 Fashion Trends: 5 That Died and 5 That Kept Going.” Highsnobiety, Highsnobiety, 27 Dec. 2016, www.highsnobiety.com/2016/12/22/2016-fashion-trends-2015/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.

"Social Media Influences On Fashion." Social Media Today, 2017, http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-influences-fashion.

#kneehighboots • Instagram photos and videos, www.instagram.com/explore/tags/kneehighboots/?hl=en.