The rise of the Insta partners: how influence became style currency

Influence is style currency as smart labels enlist the stars of social media to design next season’s look
Emma McCarthy27 August 2019

It’s no longer enough to have an influencer endorse a brand, or even star in its campaign — now they need to be on the design team too.

From blogger-endorsed jewels that are retail gold to entire collections based on Instagram likes, here’s an edit of the collaborations worth following right now.

Warehouse x Camille Charrière

Camille Charrière — or Camille Over The Rainbow, as she is better known to her 742k followers — is no stranger to a high-profile fashion collab, having partnered with the likes of Chloé, Mango and Tommy Hilfiger. Now the half-French, half-English, entirely insouciant chic style plate has teamed up with Warehouse to give mere mortals a lesson in how to tackle the tricky transitional season. “I don’t believe in the idea that for something to transcend seasons it needs to be expensive,” muses Charrière. “Layering is the key to accessorising outfits in autumn. Add a jacket under a coat; a cool turtleneck under a jumper; a fun pair of tights under a dress. I love the English mentality that anything goes — as long as you wear it with gusto.”

Combining her Parisian roots with a street style sensibility gathered over her years living in London, the edit — which lands in-store on Thursday — is brimming with moody floral mini dresses, pie-crust collar prairie blouses and heritage check overshirts. Among the hero pieces is a navy cord boilersuit and a pair of olive green leather trousers. Though as any self-respecting streetstyle star knows, the digital catnip is in the details.

So if you buy only one thing, make it the snakeskin print bucket hat … and maybe the camo quilted tote bag too.

Available from August 29. From £20, warehouse.co.uk

Missoma x Lucy Williams

Back in 2014, British demi-fine jewellery brand Missoma tapped influencer Lucy Williams (433k followers) to design a small capsule jewellery collection which included a series of shark-tooth necklaces and gold-dagger hoops. Fast forward five years and it’s safe to say that the relationship status between the west London fashion and travel blogger and the much-loved jewellery brand has gone from a casual fling to official. This Thursday welcomes her third permanent collection for the label, which takes its name from Lucy’s birth year, 1987. The inspiration also springs from the social media star’s memories of playing with jewellery as a child. The idea for one pair of textured waffle earrings were lifted directly from her mother’s jewellery box, while her late grandmother’s charm bracelet also informed one of the hero pieces. Other buys include chunky Eighties hoops and signet rings to cross pendants with serious Nineties vibes, all given a millennial-friendly, Insta-curated update.

Expect them to fly off the virtual shelves.

Available from August 29. From £25, missoma.co.uk

H&M x MenWith

Sartorial social sensation MenWith — whose Instagram accounts @menwithclass and @menwithstreetstyle boast a combined following of more than eight million — has lent its invaluable analytics to H&M. By extracting data from some 11,727 posts, the high- street brand identified those which received the most views, shares and comments and has created a capsule collection based on the most-liked styles. “This whole collection is created from what truly is personal style and what men want to wear,” says Ross Lydon, H&M’s head of menswear. “By analysing the images, we could clearly see that the looks with the narrow track pants, the fitted T-shirt or the slim-cut shirt had by far the highest engagement.”

The biggest hits are the perfect hoodie — think super-soft grey marl — along with neat office-appropriate roll-neck knits and tailored trousers with a contrast stripe designed with #everyman in mind.

From £7.99, hm.com

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