The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
LOS ANGELES, United States — Patrick Starrr has 4.7 million followers on Instagram and has his own MAC Cosmetics collection. Manny "MUA" Gutierrez is closing in on 5 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and launched his own cosmetics line last year. Bretman Rock parlayed YouTube stardom into endorsement deals with Morphe and Benefit Cosmetics and is now filming his own reality show for MTV.
"I'm usually starting by 6am and ending at 10pm," she said, sitting inside a conference room at DBA's headquarters overlooking LA's rolling canyons. Her iPhone, positioned next to a succulent and crystal garden, buzzed incessantly.
Jones is at the top of a vast and complex network of managers, agents, financial advisors, writers, stylists and photographers who keep the influencer economy humming along.
There's a lot of money to be made: Brands will spend $10 billion on influencer marketing this year, according to the market agency Mediakix. Some influencers charge as much as $100,000 per Instagram post and are launching fashion lines and beauty brands that generate millions of dollars in sales.
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Much like their peers in music and film, these people typically stay hidden from view to maintain the illusion that influencers' are the minds behind their content. The jobs often involve long hours and unglamorous work, and dealing in a still-evolving industry full of contracts with murky terms and scammers.
But for those who can stomach it, the influencer world is providing the sort of entry-level fashion industry opportunities that have grown harder to find at publishers and public relations firms.
"I don't like attention so I'd rather be the one taking the pictures," said Moe Paretti, who for six years has served as chief brand officer for Danielle Bernstein, the WeWoreWhat blogger turned mega-influencer. "I like that a lot of these girls and guys are more relatable than celebrities. And we are disrupting fashion by creating this huge, modern type of advertising."
The pros of working for an influencer
Paretti, 25, has been Bernstein's right hand ever since. She edits blog posts, handles sponsored content, answers emails and attends fashion shoots all over the world. She helped Bernstein develop her swimwear line and the duo recently rolled out a tech platform for fellow influencers.
We are disrupting fashion by creating this huge, modern type of advertising.
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Yi, who is attending university in Australia, now co-hosts a podcast with a marketing expert, where she shares insight into the worlds of Chinese social media.
Influencers provided a backdoor. Brands trust influencers, so they trust their photographer.
Getting a foot in the influencer space can be tricky. Paretti said emailing an influencer or attending their events can lead to jobs. Some influencers like Rachel Parcell of Pink Peonies post jobs to their sites, while others, including Leonie Hanne and Victoria Barbara, have posted to digital boards. (Other influencers prefer to post openings covertly with recruitment companies, which is how some Hollywood assistant jobs are shared.)
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The cons of working for influencers
There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and so the end product doesn't always feel as strong.
In some cases, the combination of a heavy workload and little or no credit can take a mental toll. Last year, Caroline Calloway's former ghostwriter wrote a widely-read essay for New York Magazine describing her time with the influencer as a low point in her life.
Much like joining a start-up, working for influencers comes with long hours and in some cases little pay. Social media content is largely unregulated — and many influencers have a dodgy track record of following the rules that exist. Working for the wrong influencer can mean performing tasks that are unethical, or even fraudulent.
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Influencers have been caught buying followers, posting fake sponsored content and teaming up with friends in Instagram "pods" to like and comment on each other's content in order to boost engagement rates. Influencers shill for dubious products, from diet teas to the infamous Fyre music festival.
Wealthy people who hire ghostwriters have no business pretending they are inspirational.
Jenn Powell, who started an influencer management firm in 2017 after nearly 20 years as an agent at Next Models, said helping to write the rules of a new industry can be stressful.
How to make it
We're looking for longterm people, not people that just want to get seen.
Influencers are also looking to hire people who respect privacy, added Powell. Emily Schuman of Cupcakes and Cashmere learned that lesson the hard way when a former editorial director shared the blogger's dirty laundry online after Schuman fired her in 2017.
Editor's Note: This article was revised on 14 January, 2020. An earlier version misstated the age of Christina Jones. She is 27, not 26.
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