Are Brooklyn Social Media Influencers Saving NY Fashion Week?

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — To the outsider, New York Fashion Week may seem all about the models and designers who put on shows and the A-list celebrities that sit in the audiences to watch them.

But, according to social media influencers, the most important part of a day at the city's biggest week in fashion can actually be in the moments before and after the show, when cameras catch them in carefully-curated ensembles. That is, ensembles designers have often paid them to wear.

"You need that photo of you and you need to be wearing the right thing," said Brooklyn influencer and model Laura Arumugam.

Social media influencers — people who have made a career out of their presence online — spend their days during fashion week making deals with brands to sit front row at a show in the designer's clothes, get photographed at go-to parties or simply post online in outfits picked by stylists so they can both gain more followers.

And in recent years, that "right photo" can mean a world of difference for the newer, up and coming designers that have become more common at the week of shows, Arumugam said.

She and a group of social media influencers contend that their "micro" or "macro" presence online, or anywhere from 2,000 to 300,000 followers, is helping revive the fashion week at a time when major designers or big celebrities have become less frequent.

"As technology advances, we’re always on our phone — infuencers have a bigger power than ever before," said Urszula Makowska, an influencer and blogger from Greenpoint. "We’re the money makers."

And while some have claimed that the influencer-takeover is a negative turn — or even the "death of style"— Makowska and Arumugam contend that it is a positive shift that can make way for newer designers at an event that was once an exclusive celebrity club.

"It is an opportunity for them to have someone wear their clothing and post about it, they get not only free content, but we give exposure to the audience," Makowska said.

Makowska said her busiest day at this year's fashion week was a 14-hour stretch where she went to five shows and three after parties, and changed her outfit three different times. The goal being not only to post on her own social media pages — where she has upwards of 123,000 followers — but to be picked up by major news or fashion publications.

She added that although it seems like some of the more famous American celebrities or designers have left, in her seven years going to fashion week she's noticed an influx in Asian designers and influencers making their debut at the shows.

The fashion week landscape will continue to change next year, she predicts, but not in the decline that some have predicted. At least, not if influencers have anything to say about it.

"It's definitely still going to be around for a while — as long as we're around, it's going to be around," she said. "Fashion week is a classic we can’t let it end."