Social Media Influencers and Hyperreality

“The media represents a world that is more real than the reality that we can experience. People lose the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy. They also begin to engage with the fantasy without realising what it really is.” ― Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

Since the seismic shift from a passive Web 1.0 to an interactive Web 2.0, ambitious fashion bloggers have evolved into fully-fledged influencers, dictating trends with the same (or arguably higher) level of authority as their traditional print-media counterparts. The success of fashion blogs rose from their often aspirational lifestyles, authentic approach and diverse viewpoints opposed to an often standardised, predictable offering by mainstream media. However, the fashion blogger’s online following has since migrated to Instagram due to “simplicity and ease of use” and are consuming images at an increasingly rapid rate.

Defined as independent third party endorsers who shape audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of other social media, Social Media Influencers contribute in creating trends, sharing news and personal opinion, and spreading information through on and offline word-of-mouth. They have evolved into significant players in shaping the direction of marketing communications, and have the ability to reach millions around the world almost immediately dependent on their respective followings. Hence, implementing influencers “can be more cost effective and more targeted than other forms of advertising” justifying why in 2016 brands spent an approximate $1.5 billion on influencer marketing (Gagliese, 2016). Within the luxury fashion segment, 66% of brands plan to increase their budget for influencer marketing over the next year (The New Face of Luxury, 2017). Despite alterations to the Facebook privacy policy disrupting practices of SMI marketing, influencers are not going away. However, they and their means of influence are evolving, blurring the boundaries between reality and make-believe.

*Enter the rise of CGI Avatars*

One of today’s most popular Insta-famous fashion influencers is named Miquela Sousa, a Spanish-Brazilian American model, who is additionally a singer and activist. She is also computer-generated. Sousa currently boasts a following of over 1 million on Instagram and has worked directly with Prada, Pat McGrath, and Proenza Schouler. Then there is Shudu, labeled “the world’s first digital supermodel”. Her image is based off a combination of physical features from Lupita, Duckie Thot, Nykhor, and the South African Princess Barbie and has attained more than 100k Instagram followers (and counting). Leading brand’s such as Fenty Beauty have voiced praise for her.

Casting CGI models too has been adopted, most notably, by luxury maison Louis Vuitton for its SS16 advertising campaign which featured the heroic, pink-haired figure “Lightening” from the cult game Final Fantasy. Louis Vuitton’s creative director Nicolas Ghesquière justified the unorthodox decision by explaining how the collection was predominantly inspired by video games.

“We’re all confronted by the digital world in a good way and we’re influenced by cyber, influenced by the images that make us a dream or judge,” said Ghesquière of the collection. “But at the same time we have this real life. And we’re all managing to have this real dimension. And that’s exciting. It’s a real reality influenced by the virtual world.” 

“Lightning is the perfect avatar for a global, heroic woman and for a world where social networks and communications are now seamlessly woven into our life… She is also the symbol of new pictorial processes. How can you create an image that goes beyond the classic principles of photography and design? Lightning heralds a new era of expression.”

Consumers are however being confronted with a new set of literally unattainable standards to aspire to - way beyond the retouch of Photoshop. What are the consequences of aspiring to unreachable, non-human qualities? In Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Jean Baudrillard, argued that human beings are now unable to see the world as it really is. Disruptive technologies and mediatisation have blurred our perception of the “real” and the constructed to the extent where we can no longer distinguish the two. The state where reality and illusion morph into one is called “hyperreality.” In combination with a sea of fake news and ever disruptive technologies, CGI avatars such as Miquela represent a point in history in the midst of a very complicated identity crisis. An identity where the unreal has become real.

The Renaissance Woman 2.0

As every final year student knows, there comes a time when you make an appointment with your university’s career office. Maybe just to check up on the C.V. Maybe brush up on those interview skills. Or to be very 2017, how to create a killer LinkedIn profile. Walking through that glass door, you build up the courage to speak to someone for advice on how to reach those at the moment out of reach dreams. In hopes of enhancing future prospects you sit across the careers counsellor nodding and smiling with a faint flicker of panic as together you scroll through job listings.

Entry Level job Requirements: Business Degree (Upper 2:1 degree), Photography skills, Photoshop and coding skills, customer retail skills, editorial experience, PR experience, social media savy and 5 years working experience. At age 22, the knot in your stomach tightens as you try to understand how alongside exams that would even be possible.

On reflection from my meeting discussing “Must have” skills within the fashion industry, it occurred to me that when looking at careers in the creative sectors you have to become a “Jack of All trades.” A Marketing role? Make sure you know photography, graphic design, styling, editing, and PR please.

In a way, we have ventured full circle these past 500 years and could say that we have entered a somewhat digital Renaissance 2.0. Instead of a period in history bridging the Middle Ages and modern history, Digital Renaissance 2.0 bridges the post-modern era to the digital age: an age promising self driving cars, life-like robots, 3D printing machines, virtual reality and immortal trans-humanism (yikes!).

Current millennials, let’s refer to ourselves as Renaissance men and women 2.0. Originally the renaissance man such as a Leonardo di Vinci was someone who sought to develop his abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, and physical. These intellectuals were polymaths: people whose expertise span a significant number of various subject areas may it be art, science, philosophy, medicine, you name it. Such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems and expressed by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), "a man can do all things if he will”.

Now fast-forward to 2017 and through adapting to current times we have a new breed of Renaissance women and men.

Within fashion you have bloggers who have completely turned the industry inside out, democratising an exclusive world to the masses through viral communications. These are influencers. Some are writers, photographers, marketing billboards, singers, media moguls. Chiara Ferragni one of the most successful fashion bloggers can also add author and creative director of a multi million dollar namesake shoe brand to her resume.

Models today are not only beautiful people in front of a camera striking a pose and calling it a day- they are designers such as Gigi Hadid collaborating with Tommy Hilfiger, actresses such as Cara Delevingne, tech gurus such as Karlie Kloss. And we cannot forget the ultimate model of the moment Kendall Jenner with her family the ultimate Renaissance Women 2.0: The Kardashians, a family of reality TV stars, entrepreneurs of retail, beauty, and clothing lines just to name a few.

Growing up in the 90’s or 2000’s you are told “You can be anything you want to be”, and in this digital age - why yes you can. Want to learn how to do something? Youtube it. Want to share your photos? Instagram it. Like in Renaissance Italy of the 15th century, the intellectual, artistic, social, and physical are merging together creating glorious athleisure wearing, kale eating, Snapchatting super humans. How exciting to witness this shift. But what does this mean in fashion?

More collaboration, more multitasking and more fluidity in job roles. As seen by Isabella Burley, “the editor in residence” for Helmut Lang, we see editors shifting to replace creative directors of fashion maisons curating a poignant brand identity, storytelling across all platforms.

Instead of a job role as photographer or journalist - you have a growing toolbox of skills and expectations to fulfil. Is it asking too much? Are we diluting what it means to be a photographer now that everyone with an iPhone 7 can become “Insta-famous”? Or are we just evolving into iMultitaskers more efficient and adapting to be better. Or the best.

The Renaissance woman 2.0 however is not purely successful based on skills and talent. She excels based on her own brand she careful moulds on her social media platforms. I would say that especially within fashion it is more about brand you than a neatly boxed up job role. Skills are replaceable but you as a brand are an asset.

So what about the modern day C.V - do you need all of these skills to compete? One of the greatest polymaths of all time is Karl Lagerfeld  - designer, photographer, film maker, artist. Surely, we can't all be like him? Or perhaps, we have to in order to reach those twinkling stars.

Louis Vuitton x Palm Springs

The Resort collection attendee is 1) very privileged and 2) very jet-lagged: on Monday we saw Chanel present in Seoul, next week we head to Nice for Dior, Rome for Valentino, Dolce and Gabbana in Portofino, and London for Versace Versus. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's discuss yesterday’s Louis Vuitton Cruise collection shown in Palm Springs. Venue: Bob Hope’s $25 million Space ship mansion designed by John Lautner, which seemed to fit in perfectly in the out of this world moonscape Southern California setting. The location carried the melody of the collection which echoed the fantasy of the desert and a futuristic character.

So- lets get right to it shall we?

Most outstanding were the intricate details of each piece, which I think was shown well through the diverse prints. We saw rich stained glass patterns reminding me of something very Valentino, and bubbly paisley jumping out at us. Organic tribal prints evoked the tranquil spirit of the Cahuilla Native Americans (along with fringes and tanned leather dresses) which juxtaposed with the harsh, cold, industrial prints of linked chains seemingly inspired by Urs Fisher. Chains were also made 3-D and tied around the waist of models. Don't these concept make us think of oppression- on one hand a group of people oppressed and on the other hand chains literally restricting us- but the models break them loose as shown through the revealing naked patch of the belly emphasizing that these aren't models-  they are warriors!

Aha! So now we have discovered the theme of the show. I would argue Pseudo Female Warrior aesthetics all mixed together throughout history. We have the Native American, as discussed above, we see medieval references of metallic shoulder pads and jackets (shining armor?), romantic Edwardian-style dresses, nylon quilted duster coats, worn by the typical 1950s American housewives, the 70’s jumpsuit, and sci-fi space rangers ready to battle it out with their chunky boots and Tevas shoes and backpacks ready for anything. No one can combine and redefine so many time periods into one collection and make each historical references feel so modern as Nicolas Ghesquiere.

Returning to a more literal note- this cruise collection substituted the A-line mini skirt with itsy-bitsy hot pants, experimented with both rigid and flimsy collars, and took textures to a new galaxy. Ghesquiere played with Studio 59 like color blocked sequins, patinated leathers, dramatic, glossy snakeskin, and perforated lambskin. Also, the silhouette combined hard-as-concrete architectural structure and lines with frothy pants and skirts, two opposing forces sometimes zipped together literally enforcing that jumpsuit image.

However the zipper moment belonged rightfully to the red floor grazing masterpiece in crimson leather, with it’s ruffled neckline and LV monogram cutouts. Provocative. California Cool. Grunge. Wild West. Strong. Why make a night gown out of chiffon if one can use leather?

If anything justifies transporting 550 guests to the middle of the desert, Ghesquiere’s  idyllic vision on Resort 2016 takes the cake.

The Warriors: 

To the Heart of Fashion

Berlin Monday 19 January 2015We're riding the U2 line somewhere underground in former West Berlin at like AM 9:20 cruising in the direction of Potsdamer Platz where we get off the train and orientating ourselves walk down Ebertstrasse in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate, opposite which has been set up only yesterday the gleaming marquee that will house this year's Mercedes Benz fashion week. In my capacity as photographer I wore a black coat, orange beanie and trousers the colour of which I can’t remember (probably brown or grey take your pick) which was fine as I was only the photographer and was to take shots of the more fashionable specimens on display.Nervously, though not without excitement, Nina disappears into the tent to watch the first two shows of the day and I head off to Starbucks after waiting around the fringes of the tent snapping though mostly just observing various cool young things arrive either by foot or by taxi walk up the white wooden walkway into the tent trying not to slip in front of everyone which would be tremendously embarrassing which one girl actually did though I obviously didn't take a photo of that as it takes great courage to stick your camera in a random person's face and obliquely take their picture.Starbucks was nice, same old.When I walked back across to the tent an hour later there were three girls shivering in their underwear with their heads in animal masks. Surely this was going too far, even fashion must have its limits somewhere oh but then I realised it was only PETA demonstrating against the use of fur. They were positioned so that people taking photos of them would find it impossible not to exclude from the frame the gleaming MBFW tent in the near distance behind them.Everyone outside seemed to be smoking when I crossed the street and lingered around the tent. It struck me that they were trying to ward off hunger. Ha, just like the starving child in countries were cigarettes cost less than food. Albeit smoking to get that chemical hunger-displacing rush for different purposes. Or maybe it was only the smokers that came to stand outside giving the false impression that a greater percentage of fashion people smoke than actually do.Ok, I say fashion people. I'll need to explain my terminology a little bit here. What became clear to me as the week wore on is that there are categories that define the clothes people wear. As everyone wears clothes, everyone must fit in a category. Categories are as such: Fashionable. These are the ladies and gentlemen at the apex of fashion, they dress themselves in the latest in designed produce and all seem intent on goading each other on towards the next fashionable thing, the process of which keeps fashion alive and evolving. The second, category, where I would place myself (80 per cent of the time), belongs to the stylish. Stylish people are those who settle for, well, just looking stylish. It is not a necessity for them to be always reaching further for new and artistic ways to clothe themselves. Stylish people can be quite happy with a nice Ralph Lauren shirt and a pair of comfortable jeans thank you very much. Then we have the not so stylish who maybe need a little advice and direction, or though equally, may not have the capacity or desire to spend money on 'stylish' clothes.I spotted Nina making her way towards me all excited about what she had seen inside and I was eager to hear about it and we got into a Mercedes-Benz sponsored shuttle bus which took us to another part of the city where a related event ‘Premier’ was taking place this week which was basically an exhibition of all of next winter's (so 2015/16) seasonal clothing that was being shown to store owners who could decide if they wanted to stock any of the clothes in their stores for people to buy next winter kind of in a way similar to picking stocks as the store owners need to predict what will likely sell well and thus decide how much of which items on display to order.  So, yes, as you are likely wondering, I have seen the fashion future... And it looked fiiiiine.No, but seriously, there were so many brands unknown to me at the convention that trying to remember the names of any of them makes my head spin. However, one brand that stood out for me were a sneaker company 'Some Are Thieves'. As I was taking photographs of the shoes I overheard the designer telling Nina about the inspiration behind the design on the shoes, that it was modelled on the patterns made when the universe began and that he wanted that the be the design as such a pattern predates any other known image in like all of time. I could totally chill with this guy! I didn't know designers could be so down to earth! The next pieces we looked at were hats that were made with specially malleable material. The designer, a quiet, intense guy, actually snuck up on Nina and plopped a rather wide brimmed hat onto her head, and began manipulating the shape of its rim with his hands, twirling it, folding it back in on itself. He didn't really say much, but he kept modelling these hats of different shapes and sizes on Nina with a keen artistic eye.It was at this point that I began to decipher a little bit the questions I have about the meaning of fashion. This piece was clearly artistic, clearly invoking a foregone age when hats were a daily necessity, though the designer had put that fashionable, in many ways unique and original stamp on his creation that I suppose is what pushes fashion on into unseen territories. What can one do with the idea of - the concept of - a hat to make it fresh and new and exciting; what does the artist see and seek to change, to add to and evolve the piece?It seems to me that on reflection I was reaching the heart of the matter - I was looking in at the concept of fashion - I was imagining what other possibilities there are for which we can clothe our bodies - I could feel the energy behind artistic creation and realised for the first time that our bodies can be canvasses which we dress according to our tastes, to our individual style or mood - as if by arranging other people's artwork and designs on ourselves we were creating a novel artwork, that artwork being curated and displayed as we go about our daily business. And then it struck me - this is what the fashion people do. This is how they live. They do just this. They wear designer clothes and they walk around like artworks because they are, in a way artworks; they are on display.It was from this enlightened state – from this new angle – that I was the following day able to view the fashion people outside the MBFW tent smoking or not smoking as individual works of personal expression.by Luke Gaillet

Milk and Sugar?

The first post- Ta Da!!  (also, hello and welcome one and all!)

A name is yet to be agreed on: some say Afternoon Tea, some call it Fika, some look forward to cafe und kuchen. I’m referring to that beautiful time of day in the afternoon, when you step inside your favorite coffee house: that familiar dark roast perfumes the air, the atmosphere is painted full of smiles, scuttling baristas, and furrowing brows, and you hear a symphony of espresso machines, turning pages, clinks and thumps, shifting chairs, laughter, chatter… (no, that fast-as-possible stop at Starbucks on your way to work, ordering a tall, skinny chai to-go does not count!)

It is here, we remember the good ole’ days, we dream of dancing visions of what could be, we plan, we discuss, we gossip (…xoxo) but most importantly we establish and preserve relationships, with one another and with our community. What really fascinates me, is how we  can learn from each other, through sharing our unique experiences and perspectives.

The Coffee/Tea tradition stretches across the globe and across generations, and I feel it is completely underrated. It has stood the test of time and has developed a sophisticated way of life, filled with mindful connoisseurs, who appreciate the highest quality in taste and company.  We savor the opportunity to celebrate, reflect, listen, learn, inspire… whether alone, with loved ones, or perhaps even with quirky strangers wearing Oliver Peoples glasses and black turtlenecks.

Coffee* in hand, I want to introduce this poised tradition to the hectic bloggosphere, and (hopefully) provide some helpful insights regarding the new “buzz” in fashion. Here, I celebrate this  Coffee/Tea culture, which emphasizes quality, tradition, innovation, sophistication, and most importantly, the “it” factor.

Modern Melange is about show casing a mix of meaningful brands (and items) who radiate this culture and dedicate their heart and souls to their mission. By keeping my eyes and ears open, I am on the endless quest to find brands with that extra something- who inspire through creativity and their philosophy, who focus on quality- not quantity- who’s voices need to be heard (and worn).

Perhaps one day we shall stumble across each other in the Café de Flore or the Café du Monde, but as for now I am here, sipping my coffee* and you are there reading this post: I hope you enjoy this blog and love the brands (chosen with care) composing this blog.

I can’t pour you a cup of joe, but I can pour you a cup of brand buzz!

* P.S. When I mean coffee, I mean a Viennese Melange: "one espresso shot served in a large coffee cup topped with steamed milk and milk foam”. It is certainly not an espresso and definitely not an Americano! Perfection takes time to create and time to enjoy.

That is the key philosophy and purpose behind the Modern Melange.