Why is Fashion taking an Instagram detox?

With the launch of Instagram’s shopping feature alongside an already persistent array of adverts, the app has been criticised for becoming more reminiscent of an online mall than the social platform it began as. Why is it that some brands have decided to, digitally, close up shop? Earlier this month, Bottega Veneta vanished from the app entirely, bringing into question whether a brand needs to continue on the more traditional platforms in order to maintain relevancy.

The rise in influencer marketing would suggest so. As of July 2020, more than half of people on earth now use social media, convincing 91% of marketers that influencers are an effective use of budget. While the pandemic kept us at home and on our phones, influencer marketing further cemented itself as an integral element in commercial strategy, with Instagram being the leading platform for influencer marketing investment.

Meanwhile, TikTok collected a flurry of new users, surpassing more than 91 million US users by June 2020. Naturally, brands have joined them, with Celine presenting its SS21 collection on the app. Beauty brands like Mac Cosmetic have capitalised on the popularity of beauty makeover videos and cult favourite Crocs, launched an original song on the app for their “Strap Back” products. 

As brands and designers look for alternative platforms away from the commercialised nature of Instagram and embrace the future of video content, TikTok has become an obvious choice. Its popularity, however, means it’s already a mainstream one. That’s where more subversive platforms like Nintendo’s Animal Crossing come into play. The wildly popular game saw a number of fashion crossovers during quarantine, including fashion designer Sandy Liang’s digital pop-up shop, attracting almost 100 users in line at one point for her digital recreations.

As with many new ideas, by the end of 2020, the cute Animal Crossing collabs had become tired, opening the door for creative uses of other newer platforms and technologies. The invite-only app that’s still in its pilot phase, Clubhouse, provides a newer opportunity, launching a “Creator Pilot Program” with more than 40 Clubhouse influencers who represent a new class of online fame. While designers and brand owners are already on the platform, the ways in which marketers can utilise a voice-only platform is still largely yet to be seen. 

Then there are the emerging designers who, without a marketing budget, are creating their own innovative ways to utilise unexpected apps for their designs. For New Zealand-based designer Rob Tennent this meant showing his graduate collection on Grindr, casting his friends as models, and creating a “gay online store” on the hookup app that lasted as a one-day presentation.

“When our lecturers told us we had to have an online aspect in order to graduate, I realised many people would be using Instagram or Tumblr”, Tennent explains. “My collection was designed and catered to gay and queer men so I thought it would be fitting to use a gay dating app”. While the app does have advertisements, this was the first time it had been used to showcase a collection. The colossal popularity of dating apps as a whole has seen a gradual integration of its model with shopping features. Take Mada, for example, a new app that’s been dubbed the “Tinder of shopping”.

Tennent believes that Instagram businesses can be helpful for brands who are starting out, saying that sales for his first book in 2018 relied heavily on Instagram. “I don’t know if it makes me feel inspired because that’s not what Instagram was in the first place”. He hopes Instagram will adjust its algorithm to cater and help small designers “rather than making them feel forgotten” and says Twitter remains his personal platform of choice.

With smaller brands and creatives often feeling unsupported by Instagram’s advertising-heavy algorithm, many have opted to instead approach the app differently rather than deleting it altogether. This is evident across the digital clothing space, where brands like Happy99 launch digital pieces on Instagram with the idea that liking a picture or engaging it, is itself a means of consumption. Scandinavian retailer Carlings also launched a collection that only exists digitally, photoshopping the pieces onto influencers to spread the word about the collection. 

There’s also the opportunity for brands to utilise features available on the app, like live streaming, and instead, push their customers or fans to other lesser-known platforms. UpLive, an independent video-centric live social app, will be the host of The New York Fashion Week Talent Awards this month, an annual event that aims to select and reward the most talented fashion personalities from around the world. “While streaming is on the rise, I would not say that live streaming will replace everything else”, anticipates Vivian Li, the Project Manager for UpLive’s New York Fashion Week Talent Awards 2021. “I think it’s just going to provide an additional way for people to communicate post-pandemic”. 

While brands and designers are venturing away from traditional social platforms in an effort to avoid the monotony of lookbook images posted on a feed of other lookbook images, their efforts ultimately end up being shared on Instagram, from fit-pic accounts celebrating Animal Crossing’s fashion moments to the promotion of events on other platforms. This makes Bottega Veneta’s move a bold one, perhaps only possible for a brand so well-established. For small businesses and emerging designers, it seems the monopoly of power that Facebook has in the market means designers are still at the mercy of an ever-changing algorithm.