The time for simple and clean teen icons has ended. Today’s young influencers are aggressive, idealistic and super-stylish.

Fashion is more and more interested in younger audiences, and this could be endemic of the need for a new rebirth. Youth is a symbol of vitality, creative energy, freedom and a future full of possibilities. Fashion, now, has to latch on to these values, and to project them on itself. Fashion wants to appear like a force that can shock every part of whoever wears it. It’s predilection for younger demographics, therefore, it might represent a will and a need to rejuvenate itself and surpass its limits, and rebuild its sense of aesthetics from the ground up, which explains why it wants to cater to younger targets, which are a high potential resource pool, currently untapped by the luxury market.

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Justin Bieber

The whole phenomenon started years ago when Justin Bieber first came out. From then on the idea of fashion icons would have never been the same again. Justin was the first teen idol to embody that stylish mixture of streetwear and pret-à-porter that is now a standard for every young fashion icon or influencer. Justin quickly became many designer’s muse, from Riccardo Tisci (Givenchy) to Virgil Abloh (Off-White) and Jerry Lorenzo (Fear of God) who actually designed the merch for his last tour “Pourpose”.
However Justin is not the only one hitting hard on fashion and social media.

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Jaden Smith

The leading candidates to succeed to JB as most influential young faces in the business surely are Jaden Smith, Brooklyn Beckham and Lucky Blue Smith.
All of them already achieved important goals in fashion. Jaden is the face of the lastest Louis Vuitton campaign, Brooklyn shoot the latest Burberry campaign as a photographer and Lucky Blue walked the catwalk for brand such as Fendi, Tom Ford and Jeremy Scott and of course all of them have millions of followers on social media.

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Brooklyn Beckham

The role of the new media in this phenomenon is other than marginal. Social media are the key factor in almost every significant change in recent times. Everything is becoming more young-oriented also because young people are more better communicators through social media. It seems like the younger they are, the most successful they are in communication.

As a consequence, the success of teen style icons has driven a huge change in the world of fashion blogs. Successful fashion bloggers and instagramers become younger every day. They also dropped fedoras, flashy-coloured blazers and loafers (with the exception of Gucci fur ones) and now rock Saint Laurent fannels and skinny jeans, Fear of God drawstring pants and Yeezy boost 750. This new generation of bloggers gave birth of some interesting faces. One of all is the influencer and forth coming designer Alex Q Lopez. His blog “Youth of Paris” features a unique concept of street style mixed with rock and grunge vibes. His sense of aesthetic will be reflected in his upcoming streetwear collection that will be out next winter. Another very interesting face of social media is the instagramer John Melchico. He has already more than a hundred thousand followers on his instagram profile “BLVCKMVNIVC” and a really forward looking approach to streetstyle. His taste is close to what we can define street-chic, mixing brands such as Off-White, Balmain, Haider Ackermann and Adidas. He also launched his own street basics brand “Black Moniker”. The fact that many of the most interesting young fashion influencers are also trying to set up a brand on their own means that this new generation doesn’t just want to be a spectator in fashion system. They want to build up something concrete out of style their attitude and big consent on social media. This is because they know how it’s precarious to be a just a face but also that social fame can give good chances in real world.

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Lucky Blue Smith

It seems that this new generation of young influencers is way more experienced, self-conscious and somehow deeper than the previous ones. They know perfectly who they are and what to make out of it. Let’s see what happens next and how the fashion world will react.

 

 

 

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