From small player to powerhouse — how TikTok has shaped the fashion world to be more inclusive
Fashion show runway. Picture: iStock.
Since launching in the international market in 2017, social media platform TikTok has become a global phenomenon – from minor player to powerhouse in eight years.
TikTok is known as a platform that sets and influences trends, and its impact on the fashion world cannot be ignored – from making the fashion industry more community-driven and shifting power from designers to consumers, to making fashion trends more attainable and fashion weeks more inclusive.
Leading fashion brands are adapting their strategies to the TikTok platform by changing how they interact with consumers, making it a two-way conversation.
Creators on TikTok are adding their own lens to the fashion industry by not only making current trends more accessible but also by focusing on the ‘street’ approach to style and fashion and celebrating individualism.
This shift has made fashion weeks around the globe more inclusive and accessible, changing the traditional perception of the events.
As Ireland celebrates its first-ever fashion week this week, creators have been posting in anticipation of the event, which celebrates talented designers hailing from the Emerald Isle.
As the country transforms into a vibrant runway, the country-wide celebration of creativity, culture, and creation will play out on TikTok, with creators making users feel like they have behind-the-scenes access to events and campaigns.
Kristina Karassoulis, Head of Luxury Brand Partnerships at TikTok, says that fashion is no longer dictated by designers but is being shaped by the people who are wearing the clothes, and that TikTok has handed the power back to the consumer, changing not only the way that we interact with content, but the way in which brands interact with us.
Speaking to the Karassoulis explains: “Fashion has almost been reinvented, I would say, and it's no longer dictated by designers. It's almost shaped by the people who are wearing it, and that's what makes TikTok so special, because it's so community-driven.
“What TikTok has done is almost handed that power back to the consumer, and changed the way in which not only the way that we interact with content, but the way in which brands interact with us as well.
“It has made it a two-way conversation. I think back to my days at . It was like the runway would tell us what to wear, whereas TikTok tells us how to wear it. Which is quite nice and different because it is user-led.”
Speaking about how TikTok's algorithm creates an individualised experience for each user, adding a unique layer of mini subcultures, Karassoulis says: “Because of the algorithm, it means that everyone has such an individual experience. You and I will see what is relevant for us, and when it comes to the fashion world, what it’s adding is a unique layer of mini subcultures behind it.
“If we take a brand like Burberry, they're not just playing in the fashion space, they're also playing in the Gorpcore space. Whereas a brand like Chloe, for instance, is very much still in the fashion space, but plays very much into Cottagecore.”
Karassoulis says that some of these trends will only be discovered through TikTok, which she says is what makes the influence of the platform so unique, as fashion shifts become movements.
“I think what TikTok has done is, if you can take a luxury campaign or a fashion campaign, it takes only one TikTok to turn that into and spark a movement. The everyday person now has more control over what they consume. So, it has changed the way in which fashion has evolved,” she says.
“If we take street style – that's always been there, but now it's been able to spread far and wide. It has this global approach where a young designer like Robert Wun, who is a UK designer who doesn't even have TikTok, has probably spent years of his life trying to hone his craft, is now being catapulted onto TikTok by someone else who has given him 12.5 million views on one single video. I think that's a really magical moment.”
Touching on how brands have adapted to the user-first approach of the fashion world, she says: “Everyone thinks Gucci was the first brand to get onto the platform, but it was actually Burberry, because Burberry has innovation built into their DNA. But then, after Burberry did it, of course, Gucci came on. And I think what Gucci did really well is that they were the first brand to really push the boundaries.
“Their first campaign was actually two grandmas dancing. They were dressed in fur coats, and it was two grandmas at a time when TikTok was a platform built on amazing dance and so forth.
“It's taken a while – we've had to actually get brands and educate them and get to the point where they have started to embrace this new culture. It’s about how you balance lo-fi versus hi-fi content? How do you get them to that point?
“Last year was the year that they truly got it, because we've moved away from them thinking that it's a top-down influence to being very much community-driven and I would say some of the best brands that are doing it are the brands like Loewe because they've realised that luxury is not just about exclusivity, it's about the community itself and it's about how they allow others to interpret their brand too. So they're not selling fashion anymore. They're selling what we call a cultural movement. So that is what makes a brand explode on the platform.”
Speaking about how TikTok has broken down the barriers of the front row, making fashion week events more accessible to people, she says: “When I think about fashion week and why it's been different, is that it has almost ripped down the barriers or broken down the barriers of the front row, and now the everyday person is a supermodel, the creator is the supermodel that is also adding their own lens. So, we're starting to see a different side of fashion week, which was almost reserved for those red carpets, behind the velvet curtains. So it's nice to see that change.
“There isn't a brand on the platform now that doesn't have a fashion week strategy, whether they're doing a pre-event, during the event, and post-event. Last year, Dior, for instance, had these beautiful TikToks that went live where they counted down to the actual live stream itself.
“They had this TikTok that was a handwritten invitation of all the amazing celebrities that were going to attend, and so it built this exclusive moment on the platform that people were then waiting to watch the live stream.
“So they [the users] become a part of that fabric. And that's been going on for about, I'd say, the last three and a half years.”
Speaking about the cultural nuances that exist during fashion week, Karassoulis speaks about the importance of the choice of music used during fashion week events, which can often lead to a viral TikTok moment for a brand.
“Louis Vuitton, for instance, has very strong music behind their shows in general. Rosalia played last year. Rosalia is an incredible musician, and she actually ended up playing a Louis Vuitton show.
“And what it actually led to was this beautiful moment of the Middle East community actually celebrating the show, because she played a song in Arabic. That moment was brilliant, because it was in the Middle East where Louis Vuitton, of course, does show, but it became bigger than the moment itself.
"That's why I think TikTok is special, because whether or not you love fashion or not, you're still feeling like you're a part of something that would have originally been reserved behind those closed doors.”
Ireland Fashion Week takes place across five days from October 6 to October 10 and will spotlight 55 designers across seven shows, including flagship runway shows, graduate showcases, events and exhibitions.
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