Do Instagram photos undermine the quality of fashion?
Now that’s a food for thought. Mark C. O’Flaherty of the Business of Fashion argues that “camera phones are killing fashion”, and I admit; I won’t deny it. For this past month, my Instagram feed was blown up by bloggers and buyers updating their feeds with the highlights of each show. But unlike feeds with professional photographers behind them, a good chunk of the pictures were of blurry models and their garments, the former blown out by the strong lighting, and the latter seemed to be nothing more than ornate cloths. Obviously, phones are not designed to capture intricately crafted clothes from far away. Leave that to the professional photographers and their DSLRs.
When the point of fashion shows are held to showcase each fashion houses’ products to the world, a snap of the fashion power grabbers sitting on the opposite front row won’t cut it. The question becomes: what are these Instagrammers trying to get at? Their exclusive invitation to the show? Taking a quick snap with a phrase that crosses your mind- “Lovin’ this shoe”, “I spy a new trend!”, “this jacket is the bombdizzle” and signed off with the tags #nyfw, #mfw, #lfw, and #pfw do no justice to the products that designers spend months to create.
I’ve seen too many blurred photos of Nicholas Ghesquière’s debut for LV, a whole lot of expensive French fry cases off the runway, and the most bewildering of them all – a streaker running down the Prabal Gurung show. Did we really need to see so many copies of a blurry photo that seemed to be a copy of another blurry photo of another?
I’d love to hear what you thought of bloggers Instagramming their way through Fashion week.
Jane Summer 