What happens when everyone’s wrong, but also a little bit right?
Social media is a volatile space that often lacks both depth and nuance regarding critical conversations. Combine that with the volatility of fashion’s predilection for “yes men” and online fashion forums quickly begin to mirror the vacuum sealed environment of the industry they so deeply admire. Though these faults could often be attributed to the individual behind each screen, social media’s framework inherently restricts context clues and long-form self-expression, more often than not creating the spark that lights the viral fire. For fashion’s online community, High Fashion Twitter (or HFT as they are more commonly called), day to day discussion includes runway reviews, archival image scans, and general industry chatter. However, every once in a while, a viral argument comes across the timeline that exposes how fashion’s toxicity can seep outside the boundaries of the industry itself.
Just over a week ago, designer, and NYFW’s critically acclaimed, “half-canceled” darling, Elena Velez posted on her Instagram stories that she was looking to cast unsigned models, and real people, for her upcoming SS24 runway show (this was not the first time the designer has opted to cast amateur models). Elena Velez, who is often praised for her raw depictions of motherhood and femininity in her work, recently came back up to the spotlight for her profile in the New York Times where she candidly discussed the industry’s various exploitative habits, how “hype” doesn’t pay the bills, as well as the struggles of surviving as a small brand with a large amount of financial debt already invested into “making it”. Shortly after posting the casting call, the designer opened up on Instagram stories allowing her 75,000 followers to ask further questions about the brand and the show. In response to a question about the model’s potential pay, Velez posted the following: “Compensation for models this season includes trade and a once in a lifetime opportunity. You’ll be on a runway at New York Fashion Week and in Vogue magazine (et al).”
Though Velez’s tone was characteristically brusk, it is not altogether shocking (and representative of larger industry problems at hand) that a small, financially unstable, brand could not afford to pay models, as is common with many independent projects and designers, however; the viral conversation that ensued quickly shifted the discussion from the ethics of labor to the ethics of discourse with participants across HFT, the fashion industry, and Velez herself all throwing shots, and valid criticisms, across the timeline. This argumentative side of HFT is not new, nor is it specific to fashion’s online community (outrage is a common form of viral behavior to which every form of media is susceptible). Though on the other hand, HFT exists in a unique position—while labeled as “outsiders”, their discourse can permeate the industry through Twitter’s open channels of communication with brands and other journalists who rely on social media, and community interaction, to promote their own work.
Despite HFT’s dedication and love to fashion as a creative art, the industry’s opinion of their fans often wavers due to their sometimes-herd-mentality and misinformation of the industry’s mechanisms. India Roby, a NYC based fashion writer and BDG contributor, expressed frustrations with the HFT community’s discourse. Roby compares the community’s insularity to fashion’s own explaining, “I do think there are productive conversations at times but the issue with HFT is that they're very...self righteous? They think they know everything and their opinions are the only correct ones. I also believe that because fashion discourse is based on facts/history, HFT users don't consider that fashion is so multifaceted.” She does however go on to applaud how HFT has made themselves relevant to an industry so historically inept at listening (their digital Met Gala was applauded across the industry for its sense of community, and even spotlighted by Vogue).
Kanika Talwar, a Business Reporter for WWD, echoes the latter point, “The Gen-Z market that the industry is trying to target and cater to exists on HFT. From a business perspective, getting people invited and involved within brand activations (like Coach or Telfar) is phenomenal. I think more brands need to tap into them and leverage them to their advantage,” adding that their dismissal could be rooted in the elitism that the industry has yet to overcome.
In regards to the Elena Velez argument, HFT answered the sounding call. Clearly, posting an unpaid casting call for thousands of followers and fans will elicit criticism, despite Velez’s transparency, and the designer should have been prepared to respond appropriately and defend her decision to do so. Talwar elaborates on how, from the get go, the argument on both sides lacked nuance regarding the industry’s finances and general exploitation. That being said Talwar also explains, “I personally didn’t see people attacking her, trolling, saying her garments were ugly, or sending unnecessary hate. She found people’s tweets, got scathing about people’s valid criticism, tried to clap back at journalists, and started blocking people. Once this happened, the conversation got out of hand.”
A primary voice in the case of Velez v. HFT was twitter user @ChaosWintour. CW, who is 28 and has previously received a Masters in Fashion Management is an active voice in the community though they do not currently work in the fashion industry, and applauds HFT’s unfiltered honesty. Describing the community that they have built, CW says, “There is so much diversity- definitely much more than how much you find in the fashion industry and everyone shares their honest opinions because we have nothing to lose. My personal focus is on researching and sharing my opinions and as a former outsider I feel I don’t have many biases (yet).” They also compare “insider’s” delegitimization of HFT to the blogger-boom of the early 2010s noting “In fact several journalists just use our tweets without asking.” Like Talwar, CW emphasizes the importance of brand’s shifting attention to HFT users in order to understand the next generation of consumer habits as fashion fans become increasingly interested in the industry’s design history.
Overall, the HFT community is incredibly active, and interactive with one another. Few hours go by without members DMing each other, sharing magazine scans, vintage listings, or fellow fashion opinions. CW says they answer an average of 15-20 DMs a day and always takes the time to engage personally to each of their followers. If this is possible for a user with tens of thousands of followers, many HFT users hope for the same of the brands and industry professionals that they in turn interact with themselves. CW references Vestiaire Collective as a prime example of this positive behavior explaining that they received a personal response to an enquiry they had posed about sustainability earlier this year. “Be professional - write to us, treat us like professionals/adults and then that’s how you will be treated as well. I promise you anyone on HFT would be more than happy to see such a message and change their opinion. But trying to censor an opinion is not a good idea,” they explain.
Roby, who quote tweeted one of Velez’s clapbacks, jokingly asked where her publicist was implying that Twitter was the incorrect setting to address said criticisms, and was promptly blocked and the original tweet was deleted. Roby expressed her disappointment, “It's unfortunate that a talented designer like Elena chose to engage in conversation that I personally feel wasn't worth it. Not only did it leave a bad taste in my mouth as a writer who does actually cover her, but I wonder if this situation will affect her career at all going forward. It wasn't just the fact she didn't agree with people online, but she chose an ignorant way to go about it.” Though building an online community can be a key aspect of an independent designer’s success, the character limitations of Twitter can often lead to messy, misunderstood, and unfiltered petty arguments causing the HFT-led internet tides to quickly shift against one designer or another.
One thing remains clear about HFT– as a community, they have paved the way for an outsider’s perspective to be heard and potentially valued in the fashion industry. Though not every hill is a hill to die on, unpaid labor in a historically underpaying industry is a hot topic ready to set the timeline on fire. That being said, internet dialogue can often be driven by the parasocial relationships built between consumers and digitally-active brands and industry “insiders”– a phenomenon that is especially unique to fashion. As a result, these parasocial relationships often can lead to demands that lack context and subsequent conversation is then limited by the medium on which it is discussed as we have seen over the course of Elana Velez v. HFT.
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