Fashion Blogging: Instagram Posts Make Bank

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A photo posted by Anna Dello Russo (@anna_dello_russo) on Oct 8, 2016 at 9:28am PDT

Instagram, the epitome of photographic expression and #goals, is host to some of the most beautiful, interesting people in the world (so it seems). We take a backseat to watch them broadcast their food preferences, outings, travel adventures, street art, and fashion. Ah yes, fashion.

Flower power @balenciaga 💜

A video posted by Natasha Goldenberg (@ngoldenberg) on Oct 2, 2016 at 3:52am PDT

Instagram has born a new generation of thinkers, feelers, and showers who are determined to plant seeds of desire in the hearts of the masses. They do this with glamorous, effortless pictures that perfectly accentuate the curve of a shoulder beneath a gauzy dress or the sharp lines of a patterned suit and contrasting tie. For those not drinking the Kool-Aid, Instagram represents the worst parts of selfie culture: vanity, consumerism, and an unhealthy obsession with comparison. This contrasts quite starkly with the fashion-minded followers who desperately savour each and every new post from their favorite stylish Instagram personality.

From Humble Beginnings

Fashion is an unassuming staple in world history, keeping stride with society well before Instagram modeling was a thing, even if fashion goes hand-in-hand with the picture-driven social platform. Truly though, fashion blogging came into existence in 2002 when blogs first began surfacing on the internet from the likes of Manolo the "Shoe Blogger" (no relation to Manolo Blahnik) who kicked off in 2004, the Sartorialist who began blogging about street fashion in 2005, and Tavi Gevinson who started the blog "Style Rookie" in 2008.

Once people begin to take notice of this form of expression, fashion blogging networks like Coutorture, founded by Julie Fredrickson in 2005, and IFB (Independent Fashion Bloggers), founded by Jennine Jacobs in 2007, successfully kicked off. In the following years, bloggers were invited to fashion events like New York and Milan fashion weeks, Flickr birthed the notion of photo-sharing, Twitter enabled micro-blogging on-the-go, eBay became a viable marketplace for vintage fashion sold by Rumi Neely, accomplished daily fashion blogger, under the handle Fashion Toast, and the Federal Trade Commission published regulations for bloggers.

Tavi Gevinson's Style Rookie Blog

By 2010 blogging had become a recognised outlet for expression, so much so that people started to designate free time as blog time, or left traditional jobs to pursue blogging. Instagram launched that same year, just as fashion blogging became a legitimate business. It was only natural that the first picture-sharing medium of its kind (incorporating social) would partner with fashion bloggers, those driven by the visual. The first ever fashion posts to the platform were very different to what we've come to expect by today's standards. Take Australian blogger Margaret Zhang for example. Creator of fashion blog Shine by Three, her first ever Instagram post (left) featured a flowery dress, sans head, whereas a more recent post (right) features all the things we've come to expect: branded content and pleasing pop art.

(img src: stylecaster.com)

 (img src: stylecaster.com) 

The New Normal

Thousands upon thousands of fashion bloggers spread their individual fashion taste over the far-reaching platform. Some of these bloggers have found enough success to be paid for their posts, a tactic called influencer marketing. This means that every post in which a blogger is wearing this or that brand, they receive some monetary payment. The exact amount is calculated based on "reach, strength of relationship with their followers and credibility," a spokesperson for Influencer Marketing Agency told Mashable. Basically, this means that payment can vary drastically, entirely dependent on the poster's social media presence.

According to Influencer Marketing Agency, who matches brands with bloggers, vloggers, and influencers, payment per post can be below $110 (£89) to $11,006 (£903).

An Instagram star with 1.3 million followers was given $6,104 (£5,000) for a post, says Jenny Woods, founder of social media startup Zaapt, to Mashable.

A brand shelled out a whopping $20,749 (£17,000) to a reality television actor who tweeted and posted to Instagram about the brand, reaching 1.2 million followers.

When an influencer breaks the 1 million mark for followers, they can expect to net $6,104 (£5,000) to $24,406 (£20,000) per post, says Woods. That's exorbitant to say the least. It gets sickening (not the good kind) when you realise that influencers with star-status, Miley Cyrus for example, get six figures for their branded posts.