Instagram and TikTok go to war at New York Fashion Week

It will change who sets the next trends and dominates the front rows of New York Fashion Week. For decades, they were respected editors of top fashion magazines. Eventually, top department store buyers and stylists joined them.

With the advent of the internet, the fashion blogger was born, joining the ranks of the fashion industry’s elite, with top fashion bloggers like Brian Boy and Chiara Ferragni on the front rows of fashion week. As Instagram took over as the top social media platform, the era of the blogger turned into the era of the Instagram influencer. Instagram has become the fashion industry’s preferred social media platform as it is a highly visible medium. Fashion, of course, is all about appearance.

Now, the next decade’s next influencers are coming, and TikTok is in competition with Instagram to see who can claim the status as the fashion industry’s preferred social media platform. This battle is clearly in evidence during fashion month – the front rows and the brands competing are changing.

The Small Business Blog conducted a study showing some of the pros and cons between Instagram and TikTok that brands should consider. TikTok proves to have the best average session length compared to other social media apps.

US TikTok users open the app more than 8 times a day. 13.15 percent of the 3.8 billion social media users use Instagram daily, and 11.01 percent of the 4.54 billion Internet users worldwide use Instagram daily. Instagram has 1.3 billion users to TikTok’s 1 billion, but by 2021, TikTok had 745 million downloads to Instagram’s 545 million. Still, 89 percent of marketers choose Instagram over TikTok for digital marketing.

Brands, like Coach, love courting the next generation of trending influencers. Tik Tok star and model Art Kaye was front row at the Coach show at New York Fashion Week. He is also known to receive lavish gifts from designers like Rick Owens who want to see him wear their clothes at Fashion Week events.

On the other hand, brands like Nicole Miller, who are more geared towards the millennial crowd, have historically chosen Instagram influencers like Christina Caradona among their front rows.

Gen Z model and influencer Cole Etgen, who has attended and modeled at New York Fashion Week, has 70,000 followers on Instagram and over 468,000 followers on TikTok. While he has a large TikTok following, he’s found more brands to work with on Instagram. “Instagram is the first fashion platform, so people there take fashion seriously,” he said. “On Tik Tok, if you are attractive and have fashionable clothes on Tik Tok, you will do well. On Instagram, people care less about being considered attractive, and pay more attention to proper fashion.

Other influencers like Martin Soto, who boasts 244,000 followers on TikTok, have found that brands compete more on that platform. Some brands see TikTok as a more authentic and less selective platform.

“TikTok is better for brands because there’s more authenticity to the app,” he said. “Brands can share their products in unique ways. One example is Tik Tok’s narrative feature, where videos show how a company starts its day. There’s the ability to share behind-the-scenes footage of things like fashion week, and videos can use trending voices on TikTok to complement their content.

Some of Soto’s sentiments were also shared by Justin Klein, founder of influencer agency Markerly, in an interview with Forbes. “Looking at brands, Rails received higher engagements and we think that’s because they have established and developed a presence longer than Tik Tok. “TikTok built its name on authentic, fun, creative content led by real people, so it’s no surprise that individual users are still drawn to brands on the app—TikTokers watch dance challenges, songs and jokes, not overtly branded content. He said.

Instagram is a highly regulated problem with images edited to certain standards, and the platform has shifted its focus to its video component Reels to compete with TikTok. While Instagram may still reign supreme as a fashion platform, designers and executives are realizing the importance of something less casual to connect with consumers like TikTok. (Both Instagram and TikTok did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.)

“If we’re looking at it from a business perspective and just from pure economics and eyeballs, I don’t see how a creator can just keep posting. [Instagram] food,” Vanessa Flaherty, president of influencer management firm Digital Brand Architects, told Fashion Business. “It’s a dying breed at this point.”

Fashion designer Adam Dalton Blake, who previously showed at New York Fashion Week, told The Daily Beast, “I’ve found that TikTok has a lot of eyes on it, and I’ve gotten a lot more orders from my TikTok Instagram. I definitely don’t get as much interaction on Instagram as I used to, and now I prefer TikTok because it’s more fun and creative.

Seating assignments at New York Fashion Week are also seeing a reboot. Last season, the TikTok account @nyctrends posted several videos of front-row guests on the show, such as Tory Burch and Colina Strada. “who’s that?” There are occasional comments on the video. As for guests. Many of them were rising or current TikTok stars.

Influencers who have made a big name for themselves on Instagram have been able to translate their success onto TikTok and move on to the next thing. Brand Boy now has 3.9 million followers on Tik Tok as we see brands covering him with gifts like designer bags. Fashion editor and stylist Caroline Vazana, who boasts 335,000 Instagram followers but more than 550,000 on TikTok, is best known for her “Get Ready With Me” video, inspired by Carrie Bradshaw or loaned to show people how to get ready for fashion week. From brands.

Some brands also copy Instagram influencers on TikTok influencers and vice versa. In the year & Voltaire This opened up these brands to the Gen Z world.

On the other hand, in the same season, Instagram sent two stars from the Netflix show. Cheer upNamely Lexi Brumback and Gabi Butler to be a part of the backstage cast and capture in different front rows.

The Instagram vs. TikTok battle will ultimately be won by two things: visibility and helping brands bring in investment. Instagram currently has a large audience, but Tik Tok has overtaken the platform in terms of new users. Most social media metrics these days include the sum of all channels, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, so it’s hard to tell which one is better than the other in terms of engagement.

However, when brands look to individual influencer metrics to see where their best return on investment is, there will ultimately be a clear winner. Until then, the battle between Instagram and TikTok will continue.