In luxury fashion, there are pockets of time when seemingly every influencer suddenly becomes enamored with a specific “it” item. In late 2017 and early 2018, it was the Bulgari Serpenti Bag. Popular influencers like Victoria Magrath (@inthefrow), Tamara Kalinic (@tamara) and Lydia Elise Millen (@lydiaemillen) all sang its praises in posts that popped up within a few months of one another. Magrath featured her electric blue patent Bulgari bag in a blog post, writing, “I have seen this bag on the arms and shoulders of so many of my favourite bloggers recently, and I have a feeling that the Bulgari buzz is certainly here to stay for some time.” That buzz, of course, lasted only until the next “trend” item was dispersed. But when it’s time to move onto a new free bag, where do the old ones go? For a lot of influencers, cleaning out their closets means potentially selling thousands of dollars worth of gifts.
Sometimes these influencers and celebrities work with resale sites to help them clean out their closets, and some sales apps are willing to offer them sponsorship deals to be their location of choice. In the past, we’ve seen these sponsored shops with big names, like Chiara Ferragni partnering with Depop, or the Kardashians holding closet sales through the RealReal to benefit charity.
At least in the beginning, online influencers rose to popularity because what they were doing seemed authentic when compared to traditional fashion media. Digital stars are well-liked because they create either a relatable vision or an aspirational spark for their followers; unlike traditional celebrities, these influencers make money by essentially being “themselves” through a more curated form, and their reach is undeniable.
“Some influencers have like a million followers who are tapping into their posts every single day,” said Chelsea Carter, the Head of Content at Whalar, an influencer marketing platform. “I think that the fashion brands sometimes relied more on PR than they have on influencers, and I think that’s changing now because they can see the audiences aren’t reading magazines anymore – they’re following Instagrammers.”
It’s this same idea that caused brands to want a piece of the digital pie. According to a 2017 research report conducted jointly by Fashion and Beauty Monitor and Econsultancy, 73% of luxury brands now work in the influencer marketing space – an attitude that has shifted in just the last ten years alone.“[A brand] is able to afford so much more with an influencer than with the traditional creative agency,” Carter said. “Influencers are the production company, they’re the photographer, the model, the set and styling [and] design people all in one.”
But there’s a backside of this influencer marketing industry that pulses beneath the #goals: gifting. PR companies and brands have always given away products, especially to celebrities and models, but gifting can throw a wrench into an influencer space built on the audience’s perception of authenticity. When it comes to that Bulgari bag, for example, influencers like Josie Fear (@JosieLDN, also known as “Fashion Mumblr”) and Arabella Golby (@arabellagolby) knicked the “cult item” façade when they mentioned in YouTube reviews that the brand reached out to them and gifted them the bag.
At this point, gifting has become a bit more transparent, and it’s actually caused some fashion influencers, like Karen Blanchard (@karenbritchick), to buck the trend in favor of presenting a more unique point of view and experience for her followers. “I’m very conscious of what is extremely popular on Instagram. For example, I’ve noticed that PR companies that represent brands often gift influencers at exactly the same time, and you can see that. So it’s the reason why you see a certain ugly sneaker or a certain Chloé bag, and you see every major influencer is wearing it all at the same time. It’s not coincidence,” Blanchard said. “So when I see that, it makes me very aware – especially in terms of my profession – to not necessarily buy into it.”
Blanchard is the creator of the fashion blog Where Did U Get That, and she compares this mass repetition of a particular gifted item to hearing a record on the radio constantly. With nearly a decade of experience working in the social media space, she says that while this strategy was effective in the beginning, it’s not always beneficial for the influencer’s audience, whose budgets may not align with pricey designer gifts.
Blanchard says PR agencies and brands may reach out to influencers with free items, press showroom invites to preview a new collection (and leave with a free item or two), partial discounts, or a chance to loan out items for an event. In return, there’s an expectation that an influencer will create content highlighting the brand. While some influencers make serious cash (in some cases, up to six figures) in exchange for their endorsements, others are only paid via gifting. That attitude has also begun to shift.
“The influencers now start to realize their worth, such that they’re worth more than just gifting, and they should be getting paid for the work that they’re doing. I think maybe two years ago it was okay to just gift someone because [for] these brands [it was] more of a PR act,” Carter said. “Whereas now you have to gift them because you need something to make content with…If you want great content, you’ve got to pay these people…because the producing process takes [time].”
That demand for constant content, though, means multiple partnerships are usually in play. Blanchard says she’s worked with so many brands over the years that she’s lost count. That type of exposure is a recipe for plenty of packages, which also means plenty of clutter.
“Once [influencers] have worn or used that item – whether it’s for the season, two seasons, three seasons, [or] a year – they want to turn [it] over to wear different things because by the nature of their job, their turnover of clothes is going to be higher than the average person,” Blanchard said. “You can’t keep it all because you’re just going to drown in it. You’ve got to get rid of it.”
Plenty of influencers have Depop and eBay pages, but that’s where things can get tricky. With careers built on visibility, these influencers can’t necessarily just hawk a gifted designer bag on the resale market without their followers, or influencer community, noticing. Blanchard says she hasn’t been gifted any of her luxury bags and paid for all them out of pocket but says followers do have the right to be a bit irked if their favorite influencer tried to make a profit off of a gifted luxury item through an “upsell” technique.
“If an influencer was gifted a bag by Gucci, and she used it for a season and then she turned around and put it on a Depop, I would be annoyed as a reader if she put it at retail or put it close to retail [price]. I think that she should give it as a deal so that [followers] can get it…for way less than they would anywhere else,” she said.
So are these influencers within their right to resell gifted items? It depends on who you ask and how exactly they go about it. On Tamara Kalinic’s Depop account, there’s a clear disclaimer stating that all proceeds from her page are donated to charity. Kalinic’s page is filled with plenty of high-end makeup products – an overflow that is quite common in the beauty space, especially. Those massive makeup haul videos you see from YouTubers are usually PR “unboxings” of gifted items from brands who will send these influencers their makeup items in every shade imaginable.
Some other influencers aren’t so transparent. Again, that brings up questions of authenticity. As a follower, hypothetically, if your favorite influencer claims to love a gifted item so much, but then turns around and sells it on Poshmark for double the price, it can create a confusing narrative and one that Carter says Whalar would not tolerate.
“I think if we saw one of our influencers doing that we wouldn’t keep them on the platform anymore,” she said. “When [influencers] are gifted a product, they’re gifted a product because they need to create an advert with that, and then to sell it? I mean I’ve never seen anyone do it. It’s just kind of not really right.”
“That goes to the authenticity thing,” she said. “That shows that you actually didn’t care about that product, and we always kind of try to pair the right influencers with the right brands to make sure that they actually like the products they’re selling because otherwise, what’s the point?”
This type of behavior also crosses into the discussion of disclosure when it comes to ad and sponsored content on social media. If the gifted item in question was, in fact, part of a paid campaign, selling it could also land that influencer in some hot water from the Federal Trade Commission.
“If someone’s given a free product, they promote the product and talk about how they love the product without disclosing that they were paid or given a free product and then sell [that] product? They need to disclose that,” said FTC senior attorney Michael Ostheimer. “It doesn’t matter that they sold the product. They still got the benefit of the value of the product, and it feels like something that influencer’s followers would probably care about.”
In April 2017, the FTC sent out letters to more than 90 influencers and brands warning them about disclosing their content as sponsored. They sent out follow-up letters to 21 of those same influencers who continued to ignore the rules. Ostheimer says so far they’ve only brought serious cases against a handful of brands, and that the responses from those warned parties was cooperative and positive. To clear up any confusion, the FTC also recently updated its Endorsement Guides online in order to prevent any miscommunication in the future.
“If their endorsement itself is rendered deceptive or false by them getting rid of [the item], then there’s a problem,” Ostheimer said. “With respect to individual influencers, if there’s some sort of conduct along that line, we generally try to educate them first. If there was an influencer where their conduct was egregious or where they continued to engage in problematic conduct after we had contacted them or warned them, then we might proceed with a case against them.”
Which is why, again, when we see an influencer put up an item for sale online that they photographed just once, it does a disservice to both the brand and influencer, and the audience realizes that maybe that partnership wasn’t that sincere or substantial to start with.
“I think when influencers get a bit shady about hiding who they’re working with it’s because they don’t actually like the brand they’re working with, and in that case it’s a bad partnership and it shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Carter said. “We always kind of say our influencers are consumers themselves, so they would never want to promote [something] they wouldn’t actually buy.”
So how can these influencers offload gifted items in a way that both curries favor with a brand while remaining in good standing with their followers? It’s simple, Blanchard says.
“Everyone loves a giveaway,” she said. “It’s not just optics.” Blanchard recently had a makeup giveaway on her YouTube channel that featured numerous products that Tarte sent her.
Giveaways are also a great way to spread the wealth when an influencer has duplicates of the same item. After buying a separate Bulgari Serpenti bag, Lydia Elise Millen actually featured the one she was gifted from the brand in a special giveaway on her YouTube channel as a way to celebrate hitting 500,000 subscribers. Again, giveaways are a win-win: the influencer’s closet becomes a little bit lighter while providing a lucky follower with a piece of that vision he or she aspires to in the first place.
“I like doing stuff like that because I think why shouldn’t you?” Blanchard said. “You’ve already been blessed with what you’ve got, and you’ve been given so much stuff. Share it!”
Love Karen, i am glad that majority of what she shares she finds her self. She shares really excellent styling advice.
The PR hauls and constant gifting of items can be fun to watch but i am less likely to purchase. But i am sure the numbers say differently or they wouldnt keep giving so much away. You really have to remind yourself these influencers have all these thousands of dollars worth of clothes because it is gifted. Or they get a discount or voucher. I just dont believe people are making those type of purchases every seasons. Every season you are buying a $2000 handbag??? All of the ASOS, ZARA hauls are just try ons because they return most of it. I dont want to see you try on a bunch of clothes that dont fit. I dont want to see a bunch of make up that doesnt look good on you. I dont have the time for all the bad, i watch people who make informed purchases and the item works well with their style and they can style it multiple ways. And they actually wear the clothes multiple times. And no most apparel purchases are not investments arrgh.
Great post
” Every season you are buying a $2000 handbag??? ” this happens for real actually… if you go to the Purseforum and you see people’s hauls, some people do buy a handbag every season, sometimes multiple handbags in one day / week.
Same for Youtubers. There is one woman that has a new handbag every week…time for another unboxing. She doesn’t see to work so I assume she is independently wealthy or has a wealthy husband. I work hard, have a good job, make good money and I certainly can’t afford a new designer bag four times a year, never mind a month! This was a great article. Thanks to Megs and the team for great work.
Ya… tPF is a special place – but it’s not the norm for majority of people’s day to day lives! We just have a community of devoted handbag lovers and shoppers!
Ok, I stand corrected, Thank you for telling me, i didnt know
This article is so well written and meaningful! Thank you so much for sharing this insight and research. If more young women understood the business/financial side behind all of the instagram glamour, there might be less pressure on them to feel the need to spend money to keep up with the kardashians, so to say! its such an important message in this day of constant social media exposure
I really appreciate this article because it brings to light important questions that we (people who follow “influencers”)should be asking about the business that has risen out of youtube, instagram and blogs. I personally follow quite a few on youtube and even less on instagram and I choose so wisely because many “influencers” content seem to be focused on product placement rather than pure enjoyment or some sort of admiration for whatever their endorsing. The people I follow are relatable and are like me; enjoy designer luxury goods but aren’t driven at whatever cost to obtain them, because there are other things in life than “stuff”.
I understand that for many of these woman this has become a job and advertisements or “endorsements” are needed to sustain them at a certain level, but for many I think it has gone beyond that and they’ve been swallowed up in a black hole where all of their “creative energy” is sucked into “keeping up” the facade of their “fabulous” (yes I’m aware I’m using an abundant of scare quotes) life. If it hasn’t already I feel like this will eventually bite them in their butts because they have become un-relatable and this is bad for brands that are interested in using them, and their own overall personal “brand” because it shows that they can be easily bought.
I really appreciate your comment. I’m a makeup artist/beauty girl and am working to get more involved on the cyber space. I have such a hard time with the dynamic. Many of these individuals don’t have actual product or industry knowledge, it’s just placement. That is one reason I love this space. It’s a great community of individuals who have a shared interest, and the writing is informative and honest.
very well written article – these instagram stars are worse than celebrities in my opinion because a lot of them dont disclose their affiliation and the fact that these items are free and fool their viewers!
It’s why we have always been incredibly straight forward about anything that is sponsored or a bag that I review if it’s been gifted. It’s important for me to be truthful with everyone and that also means I turn a lot of free items away, because many people expect that a free product means a more favorable review. I’ve actually been gifted something, covered it with my real thoughts, and had that brand come back and give me attitude. It’s easier for me to buy product myself so I don’t have to deal with that (as much, still happens ha!).
i agree with you Megs! your honesty and passion make the purseblog unique and has kept us loyal for years!
these instagram stars do it for many reasons – free stuff/ advertising/ to become pseudo celebrities – the sad part is some younger viewers think “it is normal to buy so much crap” or that “its easy to create this alternate lifestyle”
I agree. It is dishonest at best if they pretend to like a product only because they were paid to do so.
Wonderful article. I’m glad I am no longer interested in influencers on instagram and what they wear, that is what leads to over spending and buying items that you don’t really end up loving or using because they don’t fit your lifestyle. Do a lot of research and think before you buy.
Best article on PurseBlog in years!!
So glad you liked it!
Great post! More like this one please!
I love Karen! I remember when she used to post on the Balenciaga forum years back. She seems the most down to earth blogger with her own unique style…she doesn’t follow trends, she makes her own! I really enjoyed this article too. Thank you.
I actually stopped following all influencers quite recently and it has been so nice. It was case of fatigue – gets so boring and repetitive. I know I can rely on other sources (including PB!) to cover topics and trends – basically because you follow them for us I don’t need to myself. Obviously others may follow them for different reasons but in my case I don’t need it.
I sometimes do actually like the items they are trying to “influence” – for example those ugly balenciaga sneakers (I know I know). I own a pair and it actually made me less willing to wear them because they are seen as so trendy and obstenciously hip. But in the end I decided we should all be allowed to do whatever we like. Yeah I do get commented on (especially if I’m going shopping and the sales people definitely know what it is) and consequently judged on. But I’ve learned to not be swayed by others’ opinions and go with my heart! That’s always the hardest part isn’t it? As an aside: when I explained this to my partner he made me realize it’s not really a fashion thing – it’s ecerywhere. He’s a lifelong Golden State Warriors fan but if he say that now everyone thinks he’s a bandwagon fan who came onboard these past couple years and look down on him! Those who know NBA will understand why here 🙂
Forgot to say: wonderful article – this and the 3000 dollar bag piece show a wonderful trend on PB content and I’m so happy to see it!!
We’re always working on it!!
No one influences my purchases but me liking or not liking a style. All these bloggers are just paid adverts so I ignore them all. I thought everyone alrleady knew this.
No one influences you… except the entire fashion industry working relentlessly to take your money.
I think we are influenced by what we like. The advertising just puts it in front of us… For anyone to spend over $2,000 on a bag because someone was carrying it seems pretty sad to me. I have an extensive hand bag collection and I get the same thrill out of pulling out an old Fendi spy bag as I do carrying my
my new Balenciaga Metallic Edge City bag. I’ve slowed down on my handbag shopping because I enjoy my older bags more than some of the new bags coming out. Now I really only purchase a new bag if I can look in my handbag closet and say I honestly LOVE that new bag more than one I already have in that color. It doesn’t matter who the designer is. I do this because I know that if I don’t.. I will always pick my favorite bag to carry over the new bag and I have little interest in what some blogger is carrying.
Karen is fantastic-sharing styling tips, shopping tips from thrifting to high-end and everything in between, and unique fresh inspiration. All while authentic and real.
Great article-an interesting discussion about what goes on behind the curtain. That’s where generosity or lack of is revealed.
I absolutely loved this article. It was informative, articulate, and covers an issue many are blatantly ignoring. Even though I can see right through the marketing scheme, I’m still sucked into it! I feel like it’s actually more healthy for me to not follow these types of accounts. I’m more interested in people who have a true passion for a craft and have experience or knowledge to share. The idea of people receiving gifts and then selling them is so wrong to me (unless it’s charitable). So is undisclosed advertising. Those who refer to themselves as “influencers” are paid marketers. They share what they’re paid to share, it’s not authentic opinion.
Great article PB! I stopped following most of the influencers. I try to stick to working women, who can really afford. But since there’s a problem of disclosing, I’m not sure now.
Yeah I think consumers are more savvy these days, so you can’t really take them for a fool. The best way is being transparent. You can’t really hate honesty.
Like in the hay day of blogging I had a blog about something which interested me and after 5 years I had a huge readership and was paid by companies to review their items and I sold ad space. I made a tidy side income and got a LOT of free items for review. Unfortunately once I became extremely popular with companies I started to hate blogging… it began to feel forced and fake! Like yea I’ll write a glowing review because XYZ was free and hundreds of dollars if bought… after 2 years of that I just stopped. It felt deceptive! I honestly just unloaded all that free stuff on EBay or have it away.
While it’s fun to get stuff for free in exchange for a review it’s also a double edged sword!
It’s hard not to be positive when you get something free, it skews your perception a bit. It’s why we have worked so hard to not make taking free items for reviews from the beginning because I knew it would compromise my voice even if I didn’t want it to
I really enjoyed reading this article. I don’t follow fashion trends or the next IT item that I have to run out and purchase right away. When you read articles like this and you know bloggers, and celebs are getting most of the items free or discounted why should I pay full retail for that item? I don’t.
I think getting an honest review of an item can help make purchasing decisions, but it is now so clouded by free items that make people automatically more inclined to be positive about it. You lose your integrity as an influencer by doing this. Many people realize it, but majority do not.
Thank God I have never followed an “influencer” and never will.
Agree this is a great article! I work with influencers, but not in the fashion industry so it is very different. I would be very interested in some follow-up articles as to how they became influencers – their journey. And what is involved? Do they pay someone to take professional photos? Do they travel to exotic locations or are these just strategically picked local scenery. How much do they get paid? What other perks? I noticed at events like Cannes lots of Instagram “stars” were there, who funds this? Even if they do not want to disclose their name, it would be a very interesting “behind the scenes” look.
I’m sure we could work on something like that!
Well written article.
I read this article several days ago and I couldn’t stop thinking about it because I have so many problems with this weird reality we’re living in with social media influence. I love to scope out the fashion choices of IG “influencers” just as much as anyone else but I am so grossly annoyed with how much they get for free. I totally get it, companies basically get free advertising because people like a persona more than they may like a brand. That said someone may fell compelled to purchase something because they want what this person has. What is totally absurd about this though is these people don’t actually have to live with this stuff, and by that I mean they can just be photographed with it and don’t have to use the bag day to day! Maybe some do and maybe they don’t but it really irks me. The market is getting more expensive, it makes me feel like as these brands keep giving stuff away for free that these price increases are artificial and total BS!!!
There is nothing wrong that an influencer gets free designer bags and it’s up to each one of them what how they will use it, or if they prefer to sell it, well done to them. Why everyone has to be so negative about someone’s success?