This article on social media is part of our Vogue Business Membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to Member-only reporting and insights, our NFT Tracker, Beauty Trend Tracker and TikTok Trend Tracker, weekly Technology, Beauty and Sustainability Edits and exclusive event invitations, sign up for Membership here.
Do you ever feel like your social following (or lack thereof) has a bearing on your career? You’re not the only one.
One designer was told they need to be growing their personal account alongside their brand account to boost sales. One journalist — and soon-to-be author — says that their publisher considered her personal following size to determine whether or not to sign them, as well as the size of their book advance. Another writer says they lost a book deal because their social presence was “too small”. Multiple social media reps recall being asked to show their personal social media accounts in interviews. One editor simply says: “When I post, I get jobs.”
Vogue Business surveyed 101 fashion industry professionals, including designers, journalists, editors, stylists, PRs, buyers, brand consultants and social media and marketing reps, and conducted 15 interviews with fashion professionals across these fields to get a sense of the weight they place on their own and their peers’ social media accounts. Instagram followings of those surveyed range from under 1,000 to over 300,000. Fifty-eight per cent are currently employed by a company, while 42 per cent are freelance.
The consensus? The vast majority — 91.1 per cent — of respondents feel at least some pressure to have a presence on social media, citing an inextricable link between personal branding and business. More than 90 per cent feel at least some pressure to have a social media presence and 92.1 per cent feel their social media presence and profile has at least some impact on their career.
While writing, editing, styling and photography are traditionally behind-the-scenes duties in the world of fashion, Instagram and other social media platforms have given these workers the opportunity to also step into the spotlight — though it’s not something everyone feels suited to, with fears of being left at a disadvantage if they resist. It’s a phenomenon that’s been compounding for years, as industry professionals have navigated the rise of social profiles alongside their day jobs. Freelance writer Jo Rosenthal recalls being asked to create an Instagram when she started working at Nylon eight years ago. “I don’t think that would be a requirement now,” she says. It would be a given.
The pressure to post
It’s a lot of work. For those with full-time industry jobs, the need to keep up appearances online is an added weight that not everyone has the bandwidth or desire for — but seemingly can’t ignore.
“It’s a must,” says Massimiliano Di Battista, founding partner of talent agency M+A Group. “Having a presence on social media, particularly Instagram, is essential in today’s fashion and beauty industry. Only those talents who have already achieved icon status and are widely recognised within the industry can afford the luxury of not engaging on social media. Even then, such an absence can be perceived as an irrelevant act of fashion snobbery.”
“It feels like the more social ‘clout’ one has, the more assignments roll in,” one survey respondent says. The concept of relevance was recurring. “That is now our résumé whether we like it or not,” another writes. This is a common thread: interviewees and respondents alike agree that Instagram is the new CV. It’s where clients and editors tend to look first, Di Battista says, before even exploring a talent’s website.
It’s good for getting gigs. Out of all survey respondents, 60.4 per cent feel that a large following is at least somewhat important when applying for jobs. The makeup of that followership also matters, PR agency founder Sydney Schiff confirms: “I want to see who you know; I want to see your aesthetic, how you speak about yourself, how you carry yourself.” She adds, “and that’s what I think about when people are looking me up as well.” Luxury brand consultant Michal Kurtis fields requests for her consulting services from brands who have seen her TikToks. “Despite having 14 years in the business, they came to me because they watched my 30-second ‘day in the life’ clip,” she marvels. The same goes for PR: “You’re not looking someone up on Google,” Schiff says. “The first thing you’re doing is opening up someone’s Instagram or TikTok.”
The blurring of personal and professional accounts into one is recent, industry professionals agree. “I remember when posting a selfie was supposed to be embarrassing,” says fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. “Now, entire empires are built on selfies.” Fashion writer Cortne Bonilla, who has been documenting herself and her movements since her Tumblr blogging days, has felt a shift even in the last year in the number of people collecting content in the form of photos and videos at events. For stylist Britt Theodora, social strategy has been on the brain. Both Theodora’s business coach and agent at talent agency The Wall Group have been encouraging her to take social media more seriously. (She currently has 17,000 followers.) “There’s that pressure of: we can grow the business to a bigger place.”
In a move that somewhat signals this shift, stylist Julia Sarr-Jamois and agent Rhia Nottingham founded new talent agency Best Represents in June. Its premise? “Representing creatives who work both behind and in front of the camera.” To date, they’ve signed seven clients, including beauty editor Tish Weinstock, stylist Jessica Willis, photographer Diana Louise Bartlett and food stylist Imogen Kwok. (Sarr-Jamois is also signed to the agency.)
The agency stems from Sarr-Jamois’s own experience within the industry. She’s a stylist first but, through her social presence, her role has evolved to something more. “Julia is one of those people who is able to mix these worlds into each other. Still be an amazing stylist, and also be a muse, or a tastemaker,” Nottingham says. “When we started working together those opportunities that had come up for Julia weren’t able to be looked after under one agency.” The decision to expand the concept was born from the recognition that there are many creatives who now ‘do both’.
It’s still niche, the founders flag; talent that truly straddles both worlds isn’t ubiquitous. But the majority of fashion professionals are moving in this direction. They may not all be doing brand deals, but they’re curating and maintaining a social presence with their careers in mind. So what happens when everyone has to double up?
The early days
Having a large social presence may be par for the course for industry professionals in 2024, but even five years ago, it wasn’t part of the job. When fashion people first began showing more of themselves online, the content wasn’t met with open arms (or wallets).
“The fashion industry is very snobby,” Sarr-Jamois says. In the early days, she didn’t want to ‘do it all’, rejecting modelling jobs and dodging photographers outside of shows. “I wanted to prove myself as a stylist. I didn’t think the industry would take me seriously if I was this ‘half stylist’.”
Karefa-Johnson rejected this industry attitude. “I remember how the fashion establishment and editors really looked down upon influencers and content creators,” she says. “It’s all part of that elitist approach to fashion that I have never subscribed to. You can be a serious artist and enjoy sharing your life with an online community.” This reticence has softened, she says, as brands have cottoned onto the social and monetary capital of ‘influence’ — not including just traditional influencers, but industry darlings they can utilise beyond a magazine placement.
This shift happened in conjunction with the rise of the fashion commentator, when influence broke out beyond the prerogative of the traditional influencer. Vogue writer José Criales-Unzueta (who also has a Vogue Business column) pegs the fashion commentator boom to the pandemic: late 2020, early 2021. During the pandemic, with IRL networking opportunities diminished, industry professionals also turned to socials to maintain a presence. When they went back outside — and to the office — the need to be present online stuck.
It’s part of the wider industry shifts professionals are left to navigate. Publications fold often and lay-offs at those that remain are becoming all too frequent. A social presence offers a sort of safety net. “This industry doesn’t always pay very well, and it’s very up and down,” Bonilla says. “If you did get laid off, you would hope you’d have some sort of following to fall back on.” Many people who were laid off, she points out, turned to Substack newsletters — and brought their audiences with them.
The heightened need to be ever-present on social media is ultimately an evolution of what’s always been the case in fashion: people are interested in the lives of those in the industry. Editors and writers were socialites, Bonilla points out. What’s changed is that access is easier than ever, and it’s up to the professionals themselves to pull back the curtain, while producing the content that’s behind it.
Balancing act
Where do we go from here?
Industry professionals say that deciding how much of their personal lives to share online, versus restricting it purely to work content, is a point of contention — especially as followers grow outside of inner circles.
Theodora is figuring out how to strike a balance between sharing knowledge as a stylist and sharing what she’s up to, from vacation spots to restaurants to outfits. Sharing more of her life isn’t something that comes naturally, she says. “Having a presence on social media is intimidating for me,” she says.
There’s some solace, they say, in that brands and other clients do still value experience outside the realm of social media and influence. Some say it’s even harder to get gigs with just an ‘influencer’ label — putting them at an advantage if they have fewer followers but more experience. Rosenthal distinguishes between ‘influencers’ and her friends whose followers “come with having the cool job”: a bigger following makes it more difficult to get taken seriously in fashion, she says. Fashion and culture writer Hunter Shires, who got his start blogging, feels this tension. “With only social as my primary outlet for over three years as a fashion blogger, it feels like there’s pressure from industry professionals to work on the inside as social stars are widely deemed uncredible,” he says.
It’s hard when your brand is your name, professionals say. For jewellery designer Presley Oldham, this means a lack of separation, something he wishes he’d had the foresight to put in place. “Sometimes it’s nice to be able to provide a little critical distance,” he says. Through the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund programming, he’s learning that more casual content is what hits — though there’s a limit to how much he wants to show. “It’s difficult to find what that line is.”
Theodora wants to invest more time in her social media presence, but says it’s dependent on her actual work. She’s considering hiring an outside firm, or tasking a student intern with a specific social media focus. But if she books a big job or two, that’s where all her focus goes. “That’s just where I am right now,” she says, “I can only handle so much.”
Not everyone is ready to yield to the pressure. Jeanie Annan-Lewin, consultant and creative director of Perfect magazine, posts on socials, but not at the expense of her personal life. “I want a bit of a life, and I want to be able to sort of stop my job when my job stops. I don’t want it to be 24 hours,” she says. “My online presence is usually post and go. The rule is whatever I want and however I feel. My socials are like a personal diary; it’s a curated space but not an airbrushed one.” It’s with this airbrushing that Rosenthal struggles, too: “It’s hard to be someone who’s fabulous and cultured and into fashion all at the same time, without losing a part of yourself that feels very true to you.”
It’s hard to reconcile this resistance, though. “Everyone has this rather narrow view of how a fashion editor should look and represent themselves, so there’s an increasing pressure to be on camera,” says Annan-Lewis. “I find it exhausting, but when I do show my face on screen, my views go up. It’s stressful.”
For Criales-Unzueta, too, Instagram is now an extension of his day-to-day. “A lot of the ideas and the things I want to say are funnelled through Vogue first and then they’re expanded on on Instagram,” he says. “Which is also the fun side of it. That’s where I put the personal side.” But it’s a lot of work — especially since he aims to answer every DM.
“That’s where the conversation is,” Criales-Unzueta says. “The whole point is to build community, and to build an audience by building a community.” Something that takes time, energy and effort.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
Correction: Jo Rosenthal started working at Nylon eight years ago.
More from this author:
Inside Villa Zegna, a private club pop-up for top clients
