The Internet and social media have become integral parts of all our lives these days, and there are very few aspects that they haven’t touched or completely revolutionised. This month we look at one industry that has truly embraced these new platforms for communication, sharing and creativity – the world of fashion.
Once an industry that was impossibly difficult to break into unless you were super-talented or super-beautiful, today social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have opened up the industry to anyone with fresh ideas, a hint of inspiration and desire to engage with the massive online community.
Young people with an eye for what’s cool and new are able to do something never before possible in the industry – with enough followers they can actually become ‘Fashion Influencers’, and not just for their close circle of friends, but for thousands or even millions of people all around the world. I
n the following pages we meet up with the designers behind the online Hong Kong fashion label Dynasti; interview Scott Schumann, the man who innovated the whole concept of street fashion blogging; speak with one of the most successful social media fashion consultants in mainland China, Green Leafer; and meet some local fashion bloggers and Instagrammers right here in Macau and Hong Kong. Make sure you ‘like’ them!
NOYOT
Street Photographer
I studied Visual Communication at University, and became a street photographer about five years ago. I was working for the online magazine P1.cn (now P1.com), and I was planning first to do street photography then switch to the design department, but later I just kept doing street snaps, and it has lasted till now.
This job always brings fresh experiences to me, because I can always meet people with different styles, though I cannot make good money from it. I have to take other commercial jobs to make a living, and to save up money to do my own street photography. My ultimate goal is to just be able to live on street photography without taking others commercial jobs.
About two or three years ago, I sensed a need from the market. In the beginning I shot on my own, and then some brands found me and invited me to cooporate with them. Now I sometimes take photos according to the commercial demands of brands.
When I started, it was a bit difficult to do take street photos, but nowadays it’s easier because people are more open-minded and have started to accept it more.
There are many venues that I often choose to shoot at, like Central and Sheung Wan in Hong Kong, the MIXC and OCT-LOFT in Shenzhen, Zhongxiao East Road in Taiwan, and Xintiandi and Julu Road in Shanghai.
I like to shoot people who have a unique personality. They may not be very fashionable or in style, but the moment I see them, I can remember their faces immediately and very much want to take photos of them.
This season’s trend is the Pantone’s colour of the year – Rose Quartz and Serenity. You can see it everywhere on the street. People are choosing either one of the two, or sometimes if you see a pair or group walking on the street, they may have one colour on each.
Street photography will be my life-long career.
SONIA HOI
Fashion Blogger
Fashion has fascinated me since I was a child. I was always eager to try something daring and different from others. I would retouch my mother’s old dresses or DIY second-hand jeans. After years of trial and error, I found the best style for myself as well as a set of rules for matching outfits and how to dress well based on one’s body type. Many of my friends started coming to me for fashion advice and I accompanied them when they went shopping.
Then Belle de MO was born, so I could share my passion and opinions about fashion and fitness, the two most important interests in my life.
I started by sharing my own wardrobe first. The gradually there was some media coverage of my blog in Macau and collaboration with fashion brands, including H&M and some Hong Kong/Macau emerging brands. It took about four months before the media and brands got in touch with me.
Now I have a chance to share my enthusiasm with more people all over the world and it is really fulfilling for me. Free clothes and samples of the season are certainly one of the best perks!
The most challenging thing for me is time management, as I also established my own jewellery brand a year ago and it is very time consuming to run a start-up business while updating my blog on frequently. It is also very challenging to gain more followers from other geographic and demographic regions.
I started my blog purely out of passion without setting any financial goals. My aim is to work with more world-renowned brands and become one of the important fashion and fitness influencers in Macau, Hong Kong and even greater China. The fun and fulfillment I gain out of doing it is the ultimate motivation for me.
I personally don’t like to follow the trends just because something is hot on the runways or among street styles. Fashion trends fade, but style endures. I think the most important thing is to know what is most suitable for your body shape and temperament, then adopt and tweak the popular trends.
Having said that, my current favorite fashion trends include off-shoulders (subtle sexiness), block heels (for comfort), and high waist pants especially cropped wide leg types (best for long torso body types like me.)
Social media is definitely impacting the fashion industry in a substantial way. All the brands, including the big old names, are working hard on their social media accounts daily, also with famous fashion influencers. The speed of explosion of a new trend or new brand is phenomenal due to the wide coverage of social media.
Since blogging is a very saturated industry now, I wouldn’t recommend people start it for financial gains only. Also, it is better to have your unique style instead of following the fashion trends every season. In this way you will be more distinguishable and memorable in the ever-growing sea of bloggers.
HAYLEY LYLA
Fashion Blogger
I started blogging and instagramming back in 2012 when I was on a working holiday in Germany. I wanted to document my journey via my camera and share it with friends and family.
When people ask me what I do, my answer is usually “a bit of everything”. But you’ll see a pattern in my work. Luckily, it’s also what gets me out of bed every morning, and my love of relationships – finding them, building them and nurturing them, with candidates, colleagues, clients and customers alike, online and in real life.
I’m also mildly OCD so you’ll rarely find red notifications on my home screen (i.e. e-mails get read and actioned immediately), and I’m big on getting shit done (i.e: obsessive planner and organizer).
I have my own design/web studio (www.studio179.hk) offering creative solutions and digital marketing, and I also run an online fashion shop (www.thisisfaded.com).
In 2015-16, I have dedicated most of my time to the booming Hong Kong start-up community – with a focus on fashion, e-commerce and Tech related start-ups.
What I enjoy most about what I do is surrounding myself with creative people who have big visions and do meaningful work.
The biggest challenge is being your own boss. In previous positions, I usually answered to someone else. Now I am my own boss, with responsibility for handling everything related to the business. This means making a total commitment, sometimes at the expense of personal life.
Money isn’t the whole story, at least not for me. There’s a certain satisfaction in “doing it yourself” that may not be quantifiable, but is important. One of the biggest reasons for me is freedom. Some people just don’t like working for others, and they want the freedom to make their own decisions. Owning your own business is a way to achieve personal freedom on many levels.
When it comes to fashion, my favourite fashion trends and styles currently are Lace dresses, lightweight denim, silver ankle boots, flat ballet pumps and sparkling statement earrings.
There’s no doubt that social media has revolutionized the fashion industry. It has completely changed almost every facet of modern living from the way we listen to music to our eating habits and the fashion industry is no exception, for better or for worse!
To be a successful blogger, you have to be passionate about what you do. Also, you have to be strategic and keep posting until you find a consistent theme if you want to gain more followers.
DANELLA LEI
Fashion Blogger
I’ve loved fashion since I was young and loved sharing fashion tips with my sister and close friends. With this knowledge I thought blogging would be the perfect way to share my passion with people all around the world.
I cover a lot of topics on my blog. I love combining fashion with other things I’m interested in such as fitness, beauty product reviews, upcoming events, collaboration with brands, travel and occasionally healthy food recipes…I basically write everything that comes to my mind, but mainly fashion. My main aim is to put my work out there for the public and to use social media platforms to pursue my dream of having my own fashion label in the future.
It took me about eight to nine months before I started to gain visibility as I decided to make my website public and become more serious by investing in it.
I love being able to inspire others by my work. The feeling of receiving positive feedback and compliments from the audience motivates me to work even harder on my blog.
In the beginning, writing content was the most challenging thing for me, however in the last few years I have become more confident with my style of writing. I love to post exactly what I’m thinking and feeling so it’s easier for readers to enjoy this, as it’s on a more personal level just like a diary.
Personally, I love classic, minimalist fashion that I can wear for any occasions and for many years. Timeless pieces are always included in my wardrobe. I think simple is safe, and less is more and always works.
I believe Facebook is a very strong social media tool and I use this to promote my blog and give my followers updates. This generation relies a lot on social media tools such as Instagram and Facebook to follow celebrities and bloggers.
The influencers are setting the trends nowadays and their opinions are crucial for many shoppers. Today social media is an effective marketing channel and it’s easy for consumers to buy the promoted stuff directly via affiliate links, from social media to online shopping sites.
If I had to give advice for young people who would like to get into this type of work, I would say there will always be people who appreciate or criticize what you do, so don’t be afraid to express yourself on your blog, just follow your instincts. And readers always want your honest opinions, so it’s important to be true to what you write. Don’t be afraid of contacting companies for future partnerships/collaborations if you want to turn your blog into more of a business. Blogging really takes a lot of time and effort so be patient and you will be recognized for all your hard work.
JOANNE CHAN
Instagrammer
@Juuannie
I am an Instagrammer, a freelance model, and one of the owners of Bold the Shop. I am currently doing a bachelor degree in product design at the University of Technology Sydney.
I started using Instagram just like all the other girls who liked taking selfies, and was just posting photos of my make-up styles, hairstyles and sometimes my outfits. And people’s reactions were pretty good so I started taking Instagram more seriously. Then I slowly started working with brands and now here I am.
For my Instagram work, I take photos of my outfits and try to think of creative ideas of how to layer and mix and match different products, trying to surprise people by styling products that people probably don’t think are my style in a very “my style” way. Meanwhile, I pretty much sell what I wear (my style) at my shop.
I have already gathered 20,000 followers in around half a year, though I still don’t think my following is strong yet.
What I enjoy most is the process of mixing-and-matching the items, and collaborating with different people (brands, photographers, other models/ Instagrammers). It’s always cool to exchange creative ideas with people, and learn from one another. On the other hand, I think the most challenging thing is to make sure I’m not boring my audience.
My goal for now is hopefully to make my shop my main job. This is because we only just started, so my partner and I both work a few jobs to make sure we are getting enough capital to keep raising ‘our baby’ (our shop) as well as to not starve ourselves.
I don’t really have any favourite fashion trends/ styles. I’m more into the idea of “wear who you are”. I think as long as you’re wearing your personality, you will look good, regardless of the style you have.
I believe that the power of social media is definitely impacting on the fashion industry. People now have a larger platform to find out how to mix and match clothes, and its free! People who share the same interests, despite not being able to meet in real life, can now become friends through social media and exchange ideas. They also have more opportunities to be exposed to more ideas and get inspired.
My advice for other young people who would like to get into my type of work is to just stay true to who you are. Don try to pull off things that you don’t feel comfortable in, because you won’t be.
RUBY
Instagrammer
@Rubyrubygloom
I do a few things related to fashion and art. I founded my brand Weegirlsclub in 2015 and have made two collections since then, with a new collection coming soon this year. People call me a fashion blogger even though I don’t have a blog. I think I am more an “Instagram Influencer”.
I started Instagraming in 2012 when it first started to become popular. Before that, I mainly used Facebook to post my daily looks. But since Instagram allows people to create their own profile with just photos, I started to switch from Facebook to use IG more often.
It took me three years or more to gain a strong following. For me it’s been like a steady growth not all of a sudden.
I just love fashion and art so much. I enjoy creating and making things happen. I’m actually not very into being Internet-famous. But I do put effort into maintaining my social media as having a crowd of followers does help me a lot in promoting my brand and expanding my markets.
The most challenging thing for me is probably finding a balance between what I like personally and what people want to see from me. Sometimes I put effort into doing creative photos thinking they might be exciting for people to see, but somehow maybe my followers were just okay about them. Other times I just take a selfie with light makeup and think it’s boring, but people like that much more.
I don’t really follow trends since I just like sticking to what I like. But there are some trendy items/styles that I appreciate. I used to like Japanese Harajuku fashion a lot and now I am more into cyber grunge, but I mix it a little bit with oriental styles. Recently I think oriental (such as Chinese/ Japanese traditional styles) is a hit and I am so glad it’s on trend!
The power of social media is impacting the fashion industry. Back in the days when magazines, newspapers and television were the most influential media, people would wear what celebrities wore. Even though nowadays people also follow celebrities, the growth of Instagrammers from all around the world is leading the trends and they might even be the trend setters!
On the other hand, fashion brands are also using social media to stand out by sponsoring IG Influencers to get a bigger number of followers and explore bigger markets. And I think the growth of Street Fashion is also due to social media as more and more alternative styles come out from the Internet and it breaks down gender/country/age boundaries.