“Instagram’s democratized fashion and made it possible for anyone to participate in the fashion industry and feel like they have a front row seat,” said Instagram’s head of fashion partnerships, Eva Chen during a candid — and educational — discussion at WWD’s Style Dimension last week.
And do they participate — according to data from Instagram. From a global community that’s comprised of more than 800 million people, fashion is the third most-followed account type of young people on the platform, the company said. Millennials are transformed by the platform to be would-be fashion editors, despite locale, age or experience. They’re now able to rub digital elbows with their most beloved celebrities, models and brands. According to the platform’s data, nearly half of Millennials on the platform follow a fashion account.
These numbers are set to only increase as Generation Z maintains larger spending potential and accordingly ups their consumption of fashion apparel and the number of trendsetters they follow, too. According to the platform’s research, users under the age of 25 spend on average more than 32 minutes a day on Instagram. Currently users over the age of 25 spend an average of 24 minutes a day on the platform, for comparison.
During that time, they’re likely checking in on Kendall Jenner — the most-followed model on Instagram, who currently touts 87.4 million followers. Cara Delevingne secured the second position with 41.1 million followers. Gigi Hadid rounded out the top three with 38.4 million Insta-followers.
Designers are also flocking to the platform in order to devise a real-time dialogue with consumers. “Fashion brands should be taking risks and trying new things — they should be runway shows, presentations, Insta-shows. Engaging new consumers is incredibly important. If people want to reach you [the audience] it might be through Instagram or a pop-up like Glossier did. Whatever brands do, it should feel fresh by talking to you directly,” Chen said.
Brands looking for a bit of direction might find inspiration in the pages of Alessandro Michele or Fenty Puma by Rihanna — the designers with the most-engaged followers last year — meaning they had the highest percentage of interactions relative to number of followers.
And while Insta-supers like Jenner and Hadid might be in the process of dominating the digital world, neither appeared on the list of models with the most-engaged followers. Julia Ratner boasted the most engaged followers, followed by Mayowa Nicholas, suggesting that the number of followers isn’t everything.
The Top Five Most-followed Models on Instagram
- @kendalljenner
- @caradelevingne
- @gigihadid
- @bellahadid
- @emrata
The Top 10 Designers With the Most-engaged Followers in 2017
The Top 10 Models With the Most-engaged Followers in 2017
Source: Instagram
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