Will this year’s Fashion Week online reds take most of the eyeballs?

Earlier last year, Julia Friedman was busy attending New York Fashion Week for the first time. However, the net red that was transformed from this swimwear model does not belong to the first echelon "net red" that can open a high price to participate in the event, or to be exclaimed when it appears. At that time, her Instagram account had 250,000 fans. She thought that she was famous for sending 30 or 40 application emails to big and small fashion brands. Finally, she received three invitations and started planning for three. A trip to New York.

Travel is still self-sufficient. $500 spent on round-trip airfare between Los Angeles and New York, $750 spent in downtown hotels (far from the three fashion shows), and $300 to $400 for Uber and dinner.

I deeply understand what it is that people rely on clothes and horses to lean on the saddle. The line is the most important thing. Before leaving Los Angeles, she also met a stylist, borrowed a few powerful vintages, and finally saved a few new ones. Clothes - $500 is gone. But she knows the need to do so, because it’s important to attract the attention of the top street photographers in New York, or else go to Fashion Week? But at the event, “I realized that I don’t have to fight like this,” She said, "Just go to Zara, H&M and Topshop and buy some extravagant clothes."

After three consecutive fashion weeks, Friedman has no plans to go any further. “I love fashion and I’m happy to see what new is coming out this year,” she said. But she thinks that the most unnecessary part of Fashion Week is the opinion leader. “Everyone is dressed so hard and the competition is fierce” is to compete for the attention of street photographers. “I am not interested in going to Fashion Week anymore. I feel that there is too much net red there.”

For those well-known opinion leaders who can get more rewards for non-fashion brands, most fans don’t understand or care about fashion, attending Fashion Week is a waste of time. But there are still a lot of people who want to participate in Fashion Week. Every season, the mailboxes of major brands' public relations will still be overwhelmed by snow-like emails. Nethong, who calls itself “Opinion Leaders”, hopes to attend the brand's fashion show. Well-known fashion public relations firm KCD said that the total number of applications from social media has quadrupled in the past three years (although not all requests come from opinion leaders, the applications issued by this group do occupy a large part). Launchmetrics, a company that runs Fashion Week's RSVP system, Fashion GPS, has a database that collects personal data sent directly to public relations companies; a representative from Launchmetrics said that they received the applicant's claim in the February fashion season. The “Opinion Leaders” email has doubled compared with the previous season, and 50% of them have finally been invited. Factory PR, a fashion public relations company, said that their public mailboxes receive about 1,000 requests per quarter, of which 500 are self-proclaimed "opinion leaders." Chris Constable, founder of the fashion company CCPR, said that he received 90% of the requests from people who claimed to be "opinion leaders."

But fashion designers and their brand representatives really want opinion leaders to come to the show, and everyone will always carefully check out these application emails. "They wrote a lot of people, 'Hello, I am an opinion leader, I want to participate in your show this season, and I have to sit in the first row,'" Factory PR's public relations Liz Franco said, "or say, ' I want my fans on Instagram to see your customers' fashion show's - the number of fans, 4000."

Factory PR will select 20 to 25 opinion leaders to collaborate from these emails every season. In the range of 5,000 to 8,000 fans, you can find several niche nets. “They usually don’t ask you for an appearance fee or a demanding requirement,” Franco said. “They just want to build relationships with you and the brand you represent.”

Many people who have not applied for it have printed their own emails to the brand on a piece of paper, or they will appear on the show floor. "We are very polite to them and will ask if we have received an invitation to confirm. They said no, we can only say embarrassed," Franco said. "We have seen all kinds of people who want to be hard-hearted." Those who are more intelligent and clever will be very polite and ask if there is no place to stand up to see the show. If there is a location, we will still give them in." (Friedman talks about his first fashion week Outside the show that was not invited, there was a show that went in like this. The other game was only silent, and eventually moved in.)

Many people who claim to be opinion leaders want to get into the game, for example, they are important street shooters. Some people even look for a street photographer to take pictures at the entrance of the show. "Then they can say that they came to the show, but they were not invited at all," said Rachna Shah, who is responsible for online media and opinion leaders at KCD. Compared with being able to send Instagram photos, some people seem to pay more attention to pretending to be famous: "Do they think that the staff at the entrance of the show has not seen the world, it seems that wow someone is posing here, we They should be allowed to enter the scene right away."

Over the past year, KCD has hoped to find a new niche network cooperation, but as the fashion week approaches, only a few people will win from the mail ocean. “The most critical point is that they can't just interact with us during the fashion week,” she said. “They should be able to cover us and fans in the next year, or participate in other activities.”

When Chris Constable set up a personal public relations company three years ago, he noticed the general trend of this opinion leader pouring into the fashion show. At that time, the street shooting was very popular, and all those who claimed to be opinion leaders would attach a photo of themselves to the street. "I definitely won't invite those who only take pictures in the street to come to the show," he said. "You're on the street, why are you going to come to the show?"

In order to select the opinion leaders to be invited, all the public relations people interviewed at the time of this writing mentioned some form of background screening mechanism. Often, the number of social media fans, interactions, and their own styling of opinion leaders are all factors that determine their suitability for a fashion show. Constable is also a leader for some of the fans who don't have a lot of fans but appreciate their styling. But these part of the opinion leaders are also very prone to problems. They "really like to sneak up and sit in the front row, I want to be crazy by them," he said.

But only in such a channel, Constable can find several opinion leaders that they particularly appreciate. “The gentleman dressed in a gentleman is very interesting, wearing a motorcycle helmet to show people,” he said of “The Suited Racer” with 140,000 Instagram fans. “It’s also covered with a mesh mask and glasses,” Constable said. This way you can put it in the front row of the fashion show, his style is very interesting."

For most opinion leaders, it is not worth spending money and events for the fashion show. Although the brand will still pay to invite some opinion leaders to attend, I hope they can go back and post news on personal websites and social media, but for those who can earn more rewards in non-fashion brands, most fans do not understand or care about fashion. For the leader, attending Fashion Week is a bit of a waste of time. Therefore, well-known opinion leaders such as Wendy Nguyen and Julia Sari?ana do not participate in Fashion Week. The less well-known opinion leaders who came to Fashion Week, the purpose of participating in the event is not for money.

“To be honest, street shooting is the most valuable,” said Beca Alexander, founder and president of opinion leader marketing agency Socialyte. The agency also acts as a business partner between Friedman and Nguyen, and helps brands build new opinion leaders every season. List - Only street photographs are posted on sites like Vogue.com and The Cut, and esoterics that include watch brands can be placed in the store. “It makes people feel that they are special enough, like a VIP guest, or they are personally selected by the designer.”

Alexander thinks it doesn't make sense for opinion leaders to participate in Fashion Week just to be "street shot". "They are obviously going in a certain direction, but where are they going? Going to Uber?" she said, "This is true. Very sad, unfortunately, people feel that coming here will be a hit."

Two years ago, the commercial value of Fashion Week was still relatively large for Socialyte, and now it is not their primary choice, because the price of the brand has reduced the opinion leader marketing budget. As more and more opinion leaders want to participate in Fashion Week, brands don't have to pay for them to report (Alexander said that the fashion brand Zimmerman's conference is one of the most popular sessions among fashion leaders during the fashion week). Therefore, the brand does not need to pay the opinion leader fee at all, and it is more picky for anyone who can come to participate.)

Alexander suggested that most opinion leaders feel that Fashion Week is not worth spending too much time and money to participate. Opinion leaders usually have to pay for their own pockets, and they do not guarantee that their photos will be published in important media. In addition, the discounts offered by hotel hotels to opinion leaders are not as good as before. Many of them can only be sponsored by renting houses.

"The upside is very small now," Alexander said. He expects that there will be about 1,000 fans between 20,000 and 30,000. The opinion leader hopes to come to Fashion Week to see the show. "You know, like New Yorkers, When someone asks you whether you are late or not, you have to say 'I am very busy recently. Anyway, the busier and hotter it is, right?' She said, "The opinion leader is also the same. I went to Fashion Week and said, 'Today is 12 Look at the show, you have to change eight sets of clothes, go to the party after three shows, God is really busy and tired."

If you don't have the stamina to fight for your life, I suggest staying at home. “In our industry, everyone is very busy and has no time to engage with opinion leaders,” Alexander said. “Public Relations is here to ensure that the conference will be held smoothly. No one is here to socialize with opinion leaders.”