Instagramania

Instagram—the latest social network platform to infiltrate our lives has become a dominant force in how we not only communicate with another, but share photos. This recent billion dollar acquisition by Facebook is not only a tool used by everyday people, but especially major fashion houses, designers, celebrities, stylists, bloggers, magazines, and every other possible fashion affiliate you can think of. Marc Jacobs has one. Who What Wear has one. Jane Keltner De Valle has one. Emily Weiss has one. Garance Dore has one. Even Jessica Alba has one. Seriously, if someone in this industry doesn’t have an Instagram, you kind of have to wonder—they either live in a box or they are just completely detached from all things social media. Needless to say Instagram has garnered a huge following within the fashion industry and offer people something Facebook and Twitter lacked.

If anything—Instagram enhanced Twitter—yeah you know what I’m talking about. The tool that allows everyday people to get a glimpse into the coveted minds of major industry taste-makers and leaders, or just plain people we are darn curious about! Either way, Instagram is the new player in the game that now allows people to take a peek inside the coveted doors of these fashion celebrities using actual visual images (illuminated by a unique vintage filter) rather than just a mere 140 characters of nonsense  "genius."

On another note, have you noticed NYFW is going on? You must know right, how could you not? Anyways, like you and everyone else I’m assuming —I’ve been feverishly following the nonstop NYFW footage posted on every fashion related Instagram including Leandra Medine’s (often hilarious) photos to Eva Chen’s myriad of extraordinary backstage footage and Hillary Kerr’s up close and personal catwalk snapshots. It’s amazing how now, these once private and elusive  “fashion shows” have become so accessible through social media—but in this particular case Instagram. Within seconds of Alexander Wang debuting his latest collection using glow and the dark—I can instantly see photos via Instagram as though I was actually there.

photo of Leandra Medine on The Man Repeller's Instagram during NYFW, credit: The Man Repeller

photo from Eva Chen's Instagram, credit: Evachen212

photo from NYFW on Hillary Kerr's Instagram, credit: Hillary_Kerr

Alexander Wang, S/S 2013 NYFW, credit: Asos

Some may say that the mystery and intrigue of sitting at a fashion show dissipates by having so many media tools that allow real-time public viewing or even live streaming (as seen on some designer’s websites *ahem Louis Vuitton), but in reality—I think that social media tools like Instagram further promote a brand by making it more accessible and available to more people and in turn creating even further anticipation than if a collection only appeared on a few select sites like Style.com and not on someone’s Instagram News Feed that they probably check more often than niche sites.

All in all the Instagram craze has swept across the fashion world, and I’m pretty content with this new piece of technology. What about you?