Yahoo Lifestyle Why Instagirls Gigi Hadid And Kendall Jenner Are The Millennial Supermodels
Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. Photo: Getty Images.
The term 'supermodel' has certainly evolved over the last 20 years, but it's only in the last few that social media has become integral to a model's success.
To make it big in the industry now, models have to boast a significant following or they risk being overlooked by big brands.
"I realised that social media was an important marketing tool when clients that I was working with started to bring up the things I had posted," Gigi Hadid told AdWeek. "You kind of realise that they were paying attention."
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The model, who secured contracts with Maybelline and Seafolly this year, credits social media with her overnight success, which has seen her walk the runway alongside the likes of Kendall Jenner.
"Gigi is extremely connected, and beyond being connected, she is fantastically engaged with women around the world," Maybelline's Leonardo Chavez told AdWeek. "She is extremely relevant for the millennial consumer, not only because of who she is externally - her beauty, her fashion, her style, her sexiness--but also because she is a girl that has amazing confidence, has amazing drive, and is willing to share that with women through social channels."
Gigi Hadid. Photo courtesy of AdWeek.
Hadid added that she'd learnt a lot from her social predecessors, including Jenner and Karlie Kloss.
"From Kendall I learned how to deal with the haters," explained Hadid. "She has a really good sense of when to stand up on social media and when to back off."
Hadid credits Kloss with "letting her personality shine through on social media", saying, "I think she does such a good job of showing who she is."
However, Kloss, who boasts 2.2 million Instagram followers, believes there's also a downside to today's technology.
The supermodel participated in a talk called "How Technology Colonised Fashion Week" at SXSW, telling the audience she thought something special had been lost via the introduction of social media.
"I do think there is something special that has been lost a little bit - that is, simply being present, without the distraction of being the first one to immediately tweet what the nail color is backstage at Calvin Klein, as opposed to just being there in the moment," the supermodel said. "I think that's the case, not just for me as a model, but the audience. All the editors are taking pictures and sharing that. There's good and bad to it."
Kloss said she thought social media democratizes what is popular and who is powerful - and that while it's incredible that a blogger with a great voice can earn a seat in the front row, it's also a sign of the times.
"It's an interesting that models are being booked for jobs and covers because of their following on a social media platform," Kloss commented. "I walked in the Balmain show for Olivier Rousteing. If you rounded up all the numbers of the majority of his line-up, there would be upwards of 10, 15 million followers."
Included in that lineup were Jenner (who boasts 21 million Instagram followers), Jourdan Dunn (1.1 million followers) and Kloss herself, (2.1 million followers).
On the flipside, says Kloss, established supermodels like Kate Moss have no need to set up social media accounts because their past histories speak for themselves.
"I think somebody like Kate Moss doesn't need to have an Instagram," Kloss explained. "She's always going to be Kate Moss. There's something about that mystery, not knowing what she had for breakfast."
Hadid is similarly cautious about modeling after 25: "What people want to know is, OK, what's after modelling? And that's forcing us to think about those things even earlier," Hadid told Adweek. "It's not just OK anymore to model until you're 25 and then stop and be a housewife."
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