Tracking the Rise of Fashion’s “Lifestyle” Influencers

Fashion has always been an important area of interest for the influencer community. As long ago as 2010, marketers were buzzing about a new group of digital creators showing up at some of the world’s biggest runway shows and fashion weeks, and the community has only continued to grow since then. But as the world of influencer marketing continues to evolve, so too has the focus of the now well-established fashion creator category. As a growing number of trends suggest, more of these fashion and beauty creators are broadening their content efforts as they branch out into new “lifestyle” topic areas including travel, home decor, wellness, food, parenting and beyond. What’s actually causing this shift in content focus? And what types of content insights do marketers need to consider as they formulate future fashion-focused influencer campaigns?

Why are fashion creators broadening their focus?

While there’s no single reason fashion and beauty creators are broadening their content creation efforts, there’s a number of factors contributing to the shift. One factor is the increasingly competitive nature of the fashion influencer category, where it’s getting more competitive for brands and creators looking to form sponsored content partnerships. There’s also broader changes taking place in the lives and values of fashion-focused creators. As many creators “grow up,” and experience life changes, their priorities evolve, leading to more content about topics like parenting and buying homes.

Related to this is a broader shift in millennials’ consumer priorities placing more value on paying for experiences over owning stuff. “We see this demographic invest in the experiential, and the ultimate bragging rights are in the wellness, travel, and lifestyle sectors,” said Sarah Owen, senior editor at trend forecasting firm WGSN, in a recent article about the lifestyle content trend. “Posting a photo of a designer handbag is no longer associated with the changing notion of luxury.”

How is this shift toward lifestyle content changing post habits?

We used our insights tool to assess the top content over the past month from a selection of some of the fashion and beauty category’s top 50 female creator accounts. Are lifestyle-themed social posts gaining traction? Based on some initial results, the answer seems to be yes.

• Alisha Marie – fashion-focused influencer Alisha Marie has earned a following of more than 3.3 million fans on Instagram, 2.8 million followers on Twitter, and 5.8 million subscribers on YouTube. And while she continues to earn high engagement for her style-focused snapshots, one of her 10 most popular posts in the past month was actually a celebration of her Los Angeles apartment.
• Rachel Levin – Rachel is yet another beauty and fashion creator who sits among the upper echelon of digital creators, boasting an audience of 3.9 million Instagram followers, 2.5 million Twitter followers, and over 12 million subscribers on YouTube. But even Rachel is trying to diversify her content approach with more travel and pet content. This recent beach snap was her #6 most-popular post in the past month with 163,000 likes, while this adventure-themed outdoors image was her seventh most-popular, with 143,000 likes.
• Camila Coelho – Camila also ranks among the world’s most popular fashion and beauty creators with social followers of 6.2 million on Instagram, 2.9 million on Facebook and over 4 million on YouTube. Once again, Camilia seems to be doing more travel these days, something her audience seems to enjoy. This aviation-themed image was her top post in the last month, with more than 249,000 likes.

Fashion will continue to be an important content category for both marketers and creators. But for brands hoping to maximize the success of their next fashion campaign, it’s worth considering how this expanding lifestyle approach might impact future campaign strategy. As always, the Captiv8 team is ready to help if you need any insights or helping hand with this new content approach.