Have fashion Instagrammers had their day?

[D20]

I can’t remember the last time I bought something because I’d seen it on Instagram but I do look on Instagram for different ways to wear something like the platform Dr Marten’s the other day so I wouldn’t want them to disappear completely.

Maybe they do better with different demographics or maybe the stuff in the shops at the minute aren’t right for me in the first place?

Not sure if it’s the financial climate too and lots of sniping about freebies and too many adverts.

Or have I missed the next new thing where people are getting fashion inspiration from?

Having been previously very easily “influenced” by instagrammers I decided last year to not buy anything new and so their offering is less interesting to me now. I guess I’m not atypical in this given the financial situation. I do still follow some women but only because I like what they have to say other than about clothes or I generally like the cut of their gib. The ones that do endless high street try ons are just not my bag anymore

I think he because they get free clothes and st Thursday when they're not and people are getting wise to it.

I've cut back on a load of instagrammers I used to follow. I wanted some inspiration on how to style myself a bit differently and now I've got that I'm unfollowing. I just don't want to listen to endless posts about your son's rugby practise or that you're meeting a friend for coffee later. I can barely summon interest in what my own family are doing, much less some rando on the internet, even if I do like her shoes. There's a particular woman who is probably perfectly nice but who is now trying to flog her own sub-Matalan " live laugh love" style prints and she's had to go in the bin.

There's new people coming along all the time for who this content is new, though.

Never really found one that I consistently liked the style of. I'm not exactly "out there" with fashion but equally I'm not particularly fashionable and I seem to have a weird shape and too small a budget for them!

Also found the way they gushed over (presumably free) certain peices of clothing annoying.

Yeah. Now that we understand they promote certain brands because they get paid. And items for free. I'm less interested.
More tat.

I'd be interested in influencers who just go shopping, find nice bits that fit them well and are good quality. I quite like Trinny. She rewears stuff quite a bit and just styles it differently. And a lot of the clothes she wears are years old. She also does Zara etc which I like anyway.

I dream of the day that they along with beauty "influencers" become irrelevant.

I follow quite a few influencers but have never thought to actually buy what they are wearing, have clearly misunderstood!! I just love style and fashion.

There are a few that talk about style, styling and have some actual content in posts and these I continue to follow, including Trinny. The rest, who are basically flogging uniforms / clothing that frankly varies little from poster to poster, yep, they've been dumped!

You might like Ticketyboo0 on Insta, she wears almost exclusively thrifted, eBay etc items. I really enjoy watching the way she puts outfits together.

I only follow Kat Farmer for fashion, and Nadine Baggott and Sali Hughes for skincare.
I used to follow other "over 40" women but they seemed to all fall into one of three categories: dress your age and spend thousands, dress like a 20 year old, or here's what I'm not really wearing but getting paid to promote.
I know KF does paid promotions but she makes me laugh and seems very normal.

Maybe they do better with different demographics

Definitely this! I’m 24 and use instagram for outfit inspiration, reels are really popular and TikTok of course. Influencers are still able to make a living from social media.

Same here! I've never bought the actual items they wear, I just like getting inspiration on how to wear and combine what I already have. Sometimes they'll inspire a purchase but only in the sense of "oh I'll keep a look out in the charity shops for an oversized denim jacket" for example.

Yes! That's part of the issue - most look identikit! If half tucked in jumpers and ankle boots are your thing, then you're spoilt for choice but if you're not then they are all a bit boring.

Plus, I'd prefer them to restyle the things they have in different ways rather than having a rotation of brand new items.

I literally never buy new clothes. It's an expense I can't afford especially during the cost of living crisis and I already have enough clothes.

Yes, the ones that get a massive delivery are unfollowed.

I like Trinny - I like the way she twins in the same outfit but different body shapes as it’s very much in the same vein as Trinny and Suzanna. She doesn’t seem to be overly loyal to one shop or jumping on the bandwagon and flogging stuff all of the time.

No I don’t think they’re all like that but I often see ‘shop my link’ type layouts that get a kickback. I prefer to use more for inspiration.

Oh, I see these accounts as being the worst ones for it 😆. It obviously brings them money - I’m guessing we’re the same demographic though if you were following over 40s style but I just don’t find them genuine anymore.

I much prefer those kind of accounts (hers is a little too dress heavy for me though) but they don’t get promoted because they don’t have the big brands pushing them to the top of the pile. Sigh. It’s good when you do find something good and Instagram recommends you more of the same though.

I get the sense that Nadine Baggott actually gives the stuff she reviews a run for it's money whereas it seems Sali Hughes shills for anyone that pays her these days - I cant take seriously all the "I've used this for years..." bollocks. You've only got one face, love. It's impossible to have tried all of these products, use them all enough to find out whether they work and then keep on using them.

Beauty influencers have been utterly shafted by the move to affordable, ingredient- led skincare in the last few years as it's becoming less tenable to promote all the high end stuff ( although Caroline Hirons is still ploughing on, I see)

Actually I have to admit to the fact that I trial for Picky (so mostly k-beauty) and post about beauty products on my Instagram in exchange for free products but it truly is an honest opinion and I can see from the tags who else has reviewed them (very often regular accounts rather than purely beauty) and they are all fair and honest reviews so I prefer those kind of reviews to the advert type of accounts so I might be biased.

I've never used instagram but I really hope there will be an end to influencers.
Only because, and this happened a few times, I find a really nice dress online only for it to be sold out instantly because some influencer posted about it before it hit the shops.
Clearly a very nice dress otherwise I wouldn't notice it.
But that's before I even do my usual 'let's see what's new on a certain shop's website' - sold out! Then you can buy the said dress for 4 times the price on eBay. So annoying! I understand the problem lays with the retailer as a first step. But still.
And what's worse, I would think before buying the dress and keep and wear it for a long time. The influencer gets it sent to them, they wear it for 10 minutes to take pictures and wouldn't appreciate it.
Trinny's YouTube videos were quite interesting where she dresses up real women. I haven't watched it in ages. She's probably moved completely to Instagram by now.
Unfortunately my perception is that Instagram is 99% advertising and , mostly, not genuine. That's why I resisted. Probably missed out on a lot now that I think about it!

I do tune out when I see that something is #gifted or #ad or #affiliate. I'm very glad that legally it has to be declared because it does save me a fair bit of time in being able to dismiss peoples opinions almost completely wholesale.

Logically I understand that you're either going to love or hate an eye cream -but as soon as I know it's a freebie, the odds that the reviewer is going to gush about it being amazing go up tenfold.

I do respect people giving their 'honest opinions' but those freebies are going to dry up quicker than an open tube of mascara if there's too many bad reviews. So the system is already skewed to favour positive reviews. And the lower down the influencer ladder you are the more likely you are to get dropped if the favourable reviews arent forthcoming.

At least with fashion influencers I can actually see the clothes on a real person.

Beauty reviews are so much more difficult to decode, as trying to review and describe something accurately that I might use totally differently ( eg foundations when caked on and a filter is used on the video) is impossible.

Here Here!!

I meant 'hear, hear "😀