The influencing girl feat. Black owned brands
Watching back Ugly Betty over quarantine and it really made think about how fashion girls give us so many hacks. Particularly the episode where Amanda teaches us how to have an amazing free night in NY; her outfit consisted of high end clothing, followed by the a question wouldn’t you love to wear it just once? “TUCK YOUR TAG!”. In reality however we have clearly seen that the fashion industry and their products aren’t made for every kind of girl. Hence the influencer girl finding the limelight and connecting regular girls to affordable fashions.
Good fashion comes with steep prices and limited sizing. But the fashion girls have the tools and trickery up their sleeves to make pieces work for them all whilst not paying full price. They’re usually in the know of underground brands that cater to certain girls (i.e, black, curvy, transgender), other brands that have supported social reform, social inclusion, diversity and give back to the community. A skill set the rest of us lack.
As a regular girl I have watched both kind of girls do their thing and I’ve taken inspiration for my own personal style, as most of us do. But it didn’t stop me from noticing some of the fraudulence that was presented to us in the months of lockdown. Unfortunately the culture in the UK has fallen short when it comes to showing support for new brands and projects, until they blow up, that’s the difference between fashion girls and influencers. The influencer girls are not realistic and it showed around this time, what’s more they rarely rewear or keep the clothes they want us to buy. Ironically “Tuck your Tag” is an issue influencers have been called out for.
It’s already a well known factor that white influencers have an advantage over black influencers. Despite all this they certainly do their part in promoting and sharing fast fashion prodcuts when it’s zeitgeisty. Each to their own hustle, because it’s not as if the fashion industry cater to every woman and man out there. These girls make our lives 100 times easier, by giving us shortcuts and deals to everyday clothing.
We should always go where we are wanted, but that’s not without saying the Instagram girls shouldn’t be held accountable for the encouragement of overspending. This pushed the girls to go out of their way and begin to support their own. Or should I say “for every 1 Gucci support 2 FUBU’s”.
During lockdown in the month of George Floyd’s death there was international unrest, followed by protests and people spoke out showing support to the black community. We saw all black folk remind and encourage each other the importance of supporting black business. I couldn’t help but notice the bandwagon many influencer girls jumped on, when it came to supporting said brands however. Similarly the fashion industry’s show of support consisted of several social media posts listing black owned brand names, without really doing the work of looking at their teams to see if they’d truly supported the cause all along.
Finally celebrities and other influencers took it upon themselves to wear clothing from black owned brands – for the longest influencers had barely worn black brands, as they weren’t as popular as they are today. It is thanks to them, black stylists and writers that we are seeing more of these brands. This lead to the success black owned UK brands have seen since, with the likes of Kylie, Megan and Saweetie these are the top black owned brands of the moment..
UK Black Brands
Farai London
Founder Mary-Ann has heavily impacted social media with the Gaia dress appropriate for getaways in the sun, that fast-fashion companies will envy for months to come. Farai London pieces are on every girls wish-list in recent months due to it’s rise in popularity, Kylie Jenner, influencers and surge of female rappers have been rocking their dresses.
Loudbrandstudios
Jedidiah Duylie’s (Founder) brand Loudbrandstudios pretty much blew overnight, thanks to Kylie Jenner’s Instagram posts posing in the Raw Edge Vashtie dress. Social media went into a frenzy over Jenner not tagging the black owned brand, though simultaneously the same Instagram post led to everything on their site selling out immediately. Loudbrandstudios are giving sexy day-to-night time pieces with fishnet materials and vintage prints.
Vanessence
Vanessence is breaking boundaries with swimwear and beachwear designs that cater to the fuller bust female made in London by Vanessa Tetteh-Squire. It’s rare finding affordable and inclusive swimwear and with the likes of Savage Fenty lingerie, brands like Vanessence are more confident they have a place in the industry. Big breasted girls can serve and feel comfortable in sexy swimwear.
WMNS WEAR
WMNS WEAR is designed in London and offers exclusive limited edition athleisure styles made, with ethiclly sources materials giving the pieces great rewear value. The WMNS WEAR brand in their own words designs for modern and on trend girls. Athleisure has become all the more popular due to comfortablility being on trend, with their inclusive clothing and shapely designs founders Liza, Valerie and Lola accentuate womens natural curves in bodycon dresses, bodysuits and skin-tight sexy motorsport two pieces.Created for WMN by WMN who care.
GDS Brand
In Girls Do Succeed own words — “streetswear brand and multimedia platform that celebrates and showcases the fusion of women’s fashion, sport and lifestyle. GDS Redefines the definition of success for young women today”. High fashion when talking about streetwear hardly mention the contribution black women have made. This brand is a black owned and London based and streetwear blogger Clarissa Henry also known as Vintagedollrisa has been making noise since she founded GDSBrand in 2017.
