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It’s time for one of the hardest steps to switch from fast to slow fashion… It’s time to break up with fast fashion influencers.
Many, if not all, of us are familiar with the rise and climb of influencers thanks to social media sites like Instagram. We follow them for outfit, travel, or beauty inspiration, take mental vacations via their feeds, and watch their stories daily. All of this engagement over the years can make a follower feel personally invested in and connected to the influencer.
Which is why they are then able to influence… you!
Fast Fashion Influencers:
It’s not you, it’s them
You may be thinking “Oh, I don’t need to unfollow anyone, I don’t get influenced by others“… but that’s exactly what I thought before IT happened. I bought boots from Zara, a store I had swore I’d never shop at, after they had been promoted by several influencers I followed for weeks.
The thing to remember is that it’s an influencer’s job to get you to like engaging with them. They want you to feel like you’re engaging with your friends, because then it’s easier to sell you different products!
Why are you following them?
The first question you should is ask is why are you following this person. Do you enjoy their style, follow their beauty tutorials, or feel motivated by their workout routine? Or did you follow them randomly when they modeled for one of your favorite brands?
Whatever your reason for following, make sure it’s a conscious reason.
What are they promoting?
The next thing to consider is what are they putting out into the world? Consider everything from their ideas to the products they’re promoting; influencers influence us in more ways than one.
The people you follow online should make you feel good and inspire or motivate you. See how you feel when you watch their stories and monitor if they’re influencing your mood for better or worse.
If you’ve decided they influence you in a positive way mentally, it’s time to check the items they’re paid to convince you to buy.
Write down the brands they’ve linked in their recent posts and look them up online. See if the clothes are ethically made, what their carbon footprint is, if they’re considered fast fashion, and more.
Common fastfashion brands promoted on instagram:
- Zara
- Urban Outfitters
- H&M
- Forever 21
- Boohoo
- Pretty Little Thing
- Missguided
- Victorias Secret
- Windsor Store
Do you support those items?
After looking up all the brands popping up in your feed, you have to decide if you want to support those brands as well. Would you feel good purchasing from them? If no, it’s time to unfollow all the influencers that promote them.
You might love their style, but if you don’t support the brands the influencer is promoting, you should probably unfollow. Five years ago I would NEVER have considered buying from Zara. I thought of it only as fast fashion; cheap, disposable, and knock-off-y. But in the past three years Zara has been almost a constant on my feed… and eventually… they broke me. I purchased a Zara headband last fall and the fake Prada boots on black Friday last year.
Are they pushing fast fashion brands?
Do they use cute lingo for fast fashion items? Like “dupe” instead of calling it what it is… a cheap knock off. Do they constantly get new packages in the mail? If so, do they post pictures bragging about the tower of boxes at their door when they return from a trip? Or do they talk about sustainable packaging? Are they wearing samples in their pictures? Or do they own every new outfit they shoot?
Once you start to analyze the influencers you follow, it will be easier to pick out those pushing fast fashion vs. those who are pushing slow fashion.
Fast Fashion Influencer BFFs:
Why you need to Unfollow the entire squad
The newest marketing strategy is for influencers to work together on projects under the guise of being “best friends”. They book gigs together, go to events together, and build off of each other’s followers.
Brands also benefit from these influencer besties because their target audience now see’s a wave of images featuring the brand, instead of just one or two images on their feed.
Just think of Revolve and it’s influencer vacations (and Revolve festival). If you follow any of the influencers on the trip, you’ll suddenly be bombarded with videos and images of beautiful, seemingly fun events. You’ll probably follow one or two more influencers or brands, and by the end of the week you’ll have an urge to purchase something from the new line everyone was wearing on the trip. Its a great marketing strategy!
Unfortunately that means if you need to break up with one member of an “insta squad”, you need to break up with all of them. You’re more likely to purchase an item if you see three, four, or even more people promoting it rather than just one.
Take my black Friday blunder for example. I didn’t buy the faux Prada boots by Zara the first time I saw them… I bought them after seeing them promoted by EIGHT different girls… and then seeing FIVE of those original eight promoting them again during black Friday. Realizing how badly I had been influenced (and the guilt I felt when the boots arrived) is what made me switch to slow fashion.
Of course there are exceptions. If you have a legit reason to follow one influencer from the group, go for it! For example I follow someone for their work out routine although they promote Forever 21 and Zara. I just skip through her “sales pitch” stories. š
10 influencers who promote recycled, vintage, or otherwise sustainable and ethically made clothing:
It’s time to replace the fast fashion influencers you unfollowed with slow fashion influencers! The algorithm is going to keep pushing fast fashion influencers your way until it sees you making a definitive switch. That’s why it’s important to replace fast fashion influencers with slow fashion influencers!
Here are ten different slow fashion influencers I follow on instagram:
- melcarrero_
- corinaalulquoy
- taramilktea
- tuulavintage
- consciousnchic
- kissenundkarma
- unmaterialgirl
- msjasminerose
- Marinatestino
- plasticfreemermaid
Share any slow fashion influencers you follow in the comments below! I’m always looking for more to follow. Have fun changing your feed so it promotes ethically made and sustainable clothing brands!
Check out the rest of the series!
This post is step two of the 5 baby steps to Make the switch to Slow Fashion