How well do we understand the influencers?

The annual CFDA awards happened last Monday. Considered the Oscars of fashion, the CFDA awards are the ultimate toast to fashion talent, controversial or otherwise. This year’s biggest debate was a new award; the Influencer Award. It inevitably went to the singular Kim Kardashian West.

Over the past 10 years, this polarising woman has been as much loved as she is hated. While many are still hang up on her origin, plenty more have since moved into her sphere of influence where her 200 million plus social media followers know she has impacted fashion, skin care, beauty and yes, even tech.

When Forbes had her on the 2016 cover of as a Mobile Mogul-cum-businesswoman worth $45.5 million, it made the world sit up, possibly realising it may be more than reductive to keep referencing her as someone famous for fame’s sake.

Successfully parlaying being a socialite, (in the real, not Kenyan sense of the word) into a multi-million-dollar empire is a fate even her critics have to admit they are yet to attain.

Here is where it gets interesting. KKW’s award, it was felt by fashion insiders, was a mockery. This is a woman, they insist, who has no personal style. Let’s examine this.

The bandage dress, the saturating presence of a curvy silhouette, contouring, athleisure wear, nude lipstick, Yeezy, a cover with a ripple effect, women buying whatever she is wearing, her fitness regime, guest speaker at the Forbes Women’s Summit, 2017, failures like the family clothing store DASH and unfortunate licensing deals, KKW Beauty and fragrance premiers.

With the Forbes Celebrity 100 list around the corner, it would be interesting to see how much impact she has had. Especially for a woman who in 2016 made an upward of $300,000 per Instagram post.

The Business of Fashion publishes a special print edition every few months. They unveiled their April 2018 report. KKW is one of several influencers on the cover. She has also been featured in BoF’s first special report, which says “Kardashian sells an estimated 350,000 units per product launch, which could result in an estimated turnover of more than $100 million in revenue in the first year of her fragrance and beauty businesses.”

Kim is constantly said to be a savvy entrepreneur, and the BoF article wittily states, “Could Kim Kardashian’s secret talent — the one thing that everyone has claimed she did not have — be that she is actually a savvy business woman?”

BEAUTY INDUSTRY

With the beauty industry increasingly attracting independent niche brands, rather than be the subject of a brand’s endorsement, Kim segued what she is known for into a range of successful products.

This is where influencers play a role. Influencers occupy a previously non-existent plane carved out of bits held in check by advertisers, magazines and fashion editors. Industries acting as trend interpreters.

Bloggers were the early adopters responding to their observations. Over time, they drew in fashion designers then advertisers who knew an opportunity when it smacked them square in the face. Someone then coined the apt phrase - influencers. Because that is what they did.

As this phenomenon grew, some personalities proved to be very gifted at it, none more so than KKW. A woman who made over $100 million in a shopping game by collaborating with techies.

All the Kardashians have digital platforms with subscription-only access to even more parts of their lives. This model, which is not even working for mainstream established media, somehow seems to be generating wealth for them.

Whether you consider Kim a terrible influence/stain on humanity, or someone fabulous at clapbacks should you ever come after her family, the CFDA were right to acknowledge her as an influencer.

I applaud the award because it has sparked conversation on what precisely influence is, how it should be measured, why it is proving to be more, well, influential, and recognises that the industry is finally realising the power base, business models, working relationships, access to information and engagement with their audience, count just as much, if not more, than the product.

True influencer that she is, this award will trickle down, raising the net worth of influencers across the board. It might just mean the end of gifting products and service that influencers keep emphasising will not “pay the rent” and compel brands to respect the set of skills influencers possess.

It may also inspire influencers to expand their areas of influence and collaborate outside their comfort zones. How could that possibly be a no-good quality?