Where are all the top models and why are influencers walking the runways? 

By Valerie Gonzalez

D&G MFW 2019 mens show featuring Cameron Dallas.

For NYFW we witnessed a pattern in which influencers were walking the runway or where front row at many shows and the question is why? Is it publicity? 

It’s 2020! Everyone’s got a phone in their hand which allows us to be up to date any second we unlock our phone. News and social media are always there for us and as well as it sounds, it has changed many generations and the ways we choose to tell and read a story. The influence of social media is so big, and it will get bigger. We’ve had some waves like Vine and now Tiktok that have influenced the newest generations in ways we wouldn’t have imagined. Insta-models and influences are always in the “people you might know” page of Instagram or Facebook, allowing them to get an even bigger following base in the states and even in other countries.  Every day we see our screens full with” unknown” teenagers that have amazing talents or simply know how to take great pictures and talk to the public. Influencers are what the newest generations aspire to be. Remember when you were 7 years old and wanted to be like Sharpay? Or Gabriela? Well these kids want to be like Charli D’Amelio (dancer/tiktoker) or David Dobrick (viner/youtuber), and that might be one of the reasons why influencers have taken over the Runways and shows of this Fashion Week Season. It all began last year with the D&G show in Milan that featured Juanpa Zurita (Mexican youtuber founder of #LoveArmyMexico), Twan Kuyper (youtuber/ insta-model), Austin Mahone (singer) and many more influencers, as well as Louis Vuitton show with Emma Chamberlain (youtuber/ influencer) walking the runway.

Nikita Dragun, in MFW for Philipp Plein. Credit: shutterstock

This Fashion Week Season featured more social media influencers and some of them like Nikkitta Dragun (makeup artist/ influencer/ insta-model) are walking the runways and are invited to after parties and shows like, David Dobrick (viner/ youtuber) and Natalie Mariduena did on NYFW. Most of this influencers post on their social media daily, and that’s the publicity designers and brands are looking for, designers are giving influencers the chance to model and go to after parties for publicity and to make their names known all around the globe with the newest generations , definitely an amazing and smart way to promote the two brands (designer : influencer)