Street-style photographs were a fundamental part of fashion month prior to COVID-19, and without in-person shows, entire content streams have dried up for some influencers.
Influencer posts during the fall 2020 New York, London, Milan and Paris fashion shows accounted for nearly one-third of all of fashion month’s Media Impact Value, according to Launchmetrics. That number fell by 17 percent during the spring 2021 season, resulting in less media exposure for brands and influencers alike.
To drum up social engagement around (virtual) fashion shows, Launchmetrics and Digital Brand Architects have created a campaign asking influencers to submit street-style photos — taken outside, by their respective content teams — to ImaxTree, the content distribution company Launchmetrics acquired in 2019.
“Fashion week was once all about the content,” said Reesa Lake, partner and executive vice president of brand partnerships at DBA. “This partnership is giving the talent the opportunity to syndicate their content to a new audience and keep street style alive, but in a new, approachable and different way.”
Fashion week has changed “dramatically” over the years, Lake continued, noting that influencers’ presence at the shows helped democratize some of the industry’s most exclusive occasions.
“At the beginning, brands knew that they needed to partner with influencers, to have them at the fashion shows, but there was still this veil of secrecy and limitations to what the talent could post,” Lake said. “As designers and brands started to see this immediate reaction from the audience to influencers’ content, it opened up this new world for consumers to see behind the curtain of this coveted time in fashion. Influencers made that approachable, and they did that through street style.”
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Allegra Shaw, Caila Quinn, Cass DiMicco, Coco Bassey, Kellie Brown, Kristina Zias, Liv Perez, Margo & Me and Paola Alberdi will participate in the Launchmetrics and DBA campaign. Through ImaxTree, influencers’ images will be syndicated for use by publishers and brands alike.
“The whole goal is: The industry is at this rough patch, how can we all come together and support?” said Alison Bringé, Launchmetrics’ chief marketing officer. “Influencers need the shows because those editorial opportunities drive projects with [brands] throughout the year. They are responsible for submitting content every single day to their content-hungry audience, and if they don’t have fashion shows or these moments in time, they don’t have anything to post about.”
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