Infl(uenc)ation

The Rising Cost of Being Trendy

My unofficial economics/marketing class is now in-session!

SheerLuxe posted a video called “Inside Monikh’s Wardrobe” last week and- as a comment-reader- the following comment thread stuck out to me.

The TL;DR is that commenters noticed that SheerLuxe, which is a self-described online lifestyle guide with a killer TikTok account¹, has increasingly featured high-end products that, according to the commenters, is unreachable for the average consumer. Admittedly, I clocked these comments because they were hitting on something I, too, have noticed.

There has been a shift in the last 5 years where the influencers I admire have started buying higher-end brands and I felt a sense of relief reading these comments. I was relieved to know that I’m not the only one tracking this change but, also, I was relieved at the honesty that the high-end items often featured are expen$ive! Am I the only girl on a budget?

It’s important to recognize here that as people age, their spending power naturally increases. In fact, if you are below the age of 30, I urge you to watch this video from one of my favorite TikTokers, Pretty Critical, about how following influencers who are older than you can cause you to overspend as you try to keep up with their lifestyle that they have had more years to build.

@prettycriticalhow following older creators can cause you to overspend #fashion #shopping #personalfinance #budgeting #overconsumption #deinfluencing

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However, I am the same age as lots of my favorite influencers and my shopping habits have also changed; what used to feel like a ton of money to spend on a t-shirt actually feels quite normal now. You could call it inflation but I will call it infl(uenc)ation.

What is infl(uenc)ation?

At the risk of stating the obvious, as an influencer’s follower count grows they are able to charge more money to post a sponsored item and their earnings through affiliate links grow. And, as it was noted in the YouTube comments, they are gifted clothing at an incredible rate. As their earnings grow, their shopping habits change to higher and higher-end brands. Frankly, mine would too. If I had lots of my wardrobe gifted to me, I could take my normal shopping budget and apply it to my aspirational items.

Followers watch an influencer’s closet mature because of influencation but the follower is left to try and keep up.

Influencers use “aspirational marketing” which is a strategy that appeals to the audience’s desires by tapping into emotional, psychological and social needs. It’s all based on the idea that people are motivated to buy products that help them become a better version of themselves.

We are trying to become more stylish versions of ourselves, more fit versions, more organized versions, etc. etc. And there are hundreds of influencers that can “motivate" us to do each of these things.

The trouble is, the influencers we start following for their style may grow in the ecosystem to the point that most of their closet is gifted to them. With their new-found spending capital, a ton of influencers are able to buy from high-end brands that the followers may have never considered before. The first sign is usually a nice purse.

I think influencation is explored well by looking at one brand in particular; The Row.

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As a quick primer (that I doubt is needed by most); The Row is a brand started by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in 2006 as a part of MK&A’s quest to find the perfect white t-shirt. That shirt sells for $350.²

Their offerings have expanded into a full line with an emphasis on extremely high-quality fabrications, classic cuts, and leather goods (handbags and shoes) with timeless designs. The average price point for their items is 4-figures. It’s safe to say (and has been said) that you have to “bleed money” to shop The Row regularly.

The brand has existed for nearly 20 years because there have always been $rich$ women who could spend $1,000s on their clothes. This interview for The Cut reveals;

Marina Larroudé, for years the fashion director at Barneys New York, where The Row was the No. 1–selling ready-to-wear brand — better than Prada, better than Gucci, better than Alaïa, better than Saint Laurent — told me a story about her time there. She had come from the world of fashion magazines; there, The Row was considered cool, but she didn’t know a lot of women who wore it. Then one day “a client walked in,” she told me, “and bought 30 Row sweaters — three-zero. Of the same crewneck. She bought everything we had in the company in her size so she would never run out of them. $30,000 in crewnecks.” She realized then that “if you’re a super-wealthy woman in New York? The way we go to Uniqlo — they go to The Row.”

However, over the last 18 months, our own peers are the people bringing this brand into our feeds.

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According to Google Trends, where I pulled this graph from, a value of 100 shows “peak popularity” for a search term, which The Row hit in March of this year (and is currently at 88/100).

I hear the argument that The Row’s clothes are outstanding quality but I think it’s popularity could also stem from millennial love of MK&A, but that’s something that should be explored in an unofficial psychology class ;)

But I can’t figure out what makes The Row items sought after with such fervor. The Row released these lovely white sneakers with red soles that retailed for $790. They are on sale right now for $475. The profile looks *pretty* close to Keds which retail for $55 but are on sale for $38.75.

How was it decided that $800 sneakers were THE shoe? Influencation. I didn’t want Keds but somehow I did want The Row sneakers…

Influencation can explain in my own life how the amount I used to spend on a belt is 10 fold more because I saw that dang Benny belt over-and-over in my feed (no regrets). The value of my closet is increasing faster than the price of eggs because of influencers I follow. Troubling though, is that I’m not gifted anything.

Now, realistically I consider myself a mid-range buyer. I can save my shopping money and splurge on an expensive belt but that’s going to be a real treat to myself. I still shop second-hand to stretch my dollar further and buying from a high-end brand is going to be a rarity in my closet.

Something else is happening to us mid-range buyers and it was summarized exquisitely in a comment³ on Totally Recommend’s recent post about Sezane’s cult following, gifting program, and declining quality (truly such great writing).

The commenter wrote;

These mid-range brands are sparse; especially when it feels like you can only pick two;

CUTE + AFFORDABLE + HIGH-QUALITY

I couldn’t help but think about an IRL economic term, shrinkflation. Shrinkflation is when manufacturers and retailers maintain the cost of an item while reducing their costs by shrinking the size or quality of their product.

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The clothing equivalent of shrinkflation is qualityflation. We spend $100 on a sweater but now we receive a poorer quality sweater. Either the composition quality decreases or the customer service for the brand diminishes.

What’s a girl to do?

High-end brands are mostly out of reach, while mid-range brand quality falters. Who can we trust when there is an influencer out there suggesting each of these brands in equal excitement? And how can we even trust influencers when they are gifted so much that their opinion, naturally, becomes blurry.

What do we do as we watch prices for the “must have item” grow out of our reach and the product that is within reach falls apart after one wear?

1. My words on their TikTok

2. In 2006 the shirt sold for $195 and inflation would make the shirt $303.79 today so actually the shirt has outpaced inflation.

3. I told you, I’m a comment reader