Fashioning the TikTok
Looking way back before the the advancement of technology where it is all about the digital media, someone would have to wait for fashion updates on printed media like magazine which usually published monthly. But now thanks to the internet, someone would have the access to fashion world just a click a way on her phone on Instagram and Pinterest. Since then content creation has become a job for the influencers or trendsetters.
2020 has changed TikTok and simply inescapable up to today. On its early days TikTok was mainly associated with teens but now older users and high fashion industry have started underway.
The pandemic has made the app and its minute-long videos the outlet for self expression; from sharing personal style or daily activities to partaking dance challenge. TikTok links the communication literally everyone around the world. While most of our days were spent at home at the end of last year, TikTok opens up a platform for everyone to be just as creative as they are. Though TikTok stars began to trickle the fashion world in 2019, TikTok has quickly become a source for fashion ideas; outfit of the day style to fashion hacks.
Kudzi Chikumbu – TikTok’s Director of Creator Community – once said that TikTok’s appeal is all about authentic content. Unlike Instagram’s where creators try to posts perfectly composed feeds, here in TikTok they post more unfiltered videos, be it shopping hauls to Disney’s style creation. It gives the fashion industry a whole new platform to showcase creativity and personality.
The hypes coming from US has now well accepted in Indonesia and has further brought wider opportunities. From mega influencers to new Instagram faces appearing in the video has further democratise fashion content to simply everyone that first originated on Instagram. Arguably, TikTok manages to attract beyond teens to become the avid watcher of the minute-long videos.
Up to today we have seen models are being scouted in TikTok, high fashion brands like Jacquemes sharing their creative process and Gucci’s #GucciModelChallenge. TikTok has surely took part in the creation of engagement between a brand and its customers. Moreover, some business owners have also jumped into the hype with the aim to create awareness and further lead to sales.
Like Tommy Groenendijk and Jordan Deery with their brand @vintagestockreserve use TikTok more than just a place for video contents. Their brand was born in the app and amazes at least 1,8millions followers with dying and mending vintage pieces.
In Indonesia itself, TikTok became a digital platform for @jfwofficial showcasing the annual fashion event in the midst of a pandemic, Jakarta Fashion Week 2021 last year. Shopee, Lazada, and other small business ventures also use the app as a way to promote and engage with the customers. Obviously in the future, we will see more and more dependency on TikTok as a social media platform for fashion contents that are real time and easily retrieved.