Trendsetters: heroes of our time

Trendsetters, people who set fashion trends, appeared much earlier than this term. Today, every media person can get the right to be called a trendsetter: pop stars, bloggers, artists, IT people and even politicians. After all, there are trends in every area of ​​our life.

In simple words, a trendsetter is a person who defines fashion, which can be anything from clothes and music to food, cars, technology and a whole lifestyle.

How to become a trendsetter?

On the one hand, it seems that it is not so difficult – it is enough to have a laptop or a good iPhone. The artist Andy Warhol said: “Everyone has their own 15 minutes of fame, in whose hands a smartphone fell into the right moment,” and these words, of course, came true.

But on the other hand, blogging, social networks and other attributes of modern trendsetters take a lot of time and require not only skills, but also funds. And a lot of skills are required: a sense of style, expert knowledge of your field, photography, the ability to shoot and edit videos and write texts. It is not surprising that real trendsetters have full-fledged teams of professionals doing this every day.

Trendsetters are not a product of modern civilization at all. The first trendsetter can, for example, be safely called Garbriel Chanel. At the beginning of the 20th century, the birthplace of fashion trends was not Italy, but France. Ladies wore long Empire style dresses with bodice, gemstones, embroidery and other attributes of high status.

An alternative to them was progressive girls who announced a boycott of uncomfortable clothes, promoting light bras instead of tight corsets, simple dresses and trousers. One of them was Coco Chanel: Coco is, as you know, the pseudonym of the future great designer. Chanel created her own fashion, which, 20 years later, was followed by the whole of Paris, and the whole world followed it. Today, Gabrielle Chanel would definitely be called the “main trendsetter.”

The phenomenon of trendsetters is based on the interaction of the familiar and the new. When a new product is shown to us by a person we know and trust, we have a desire to own this thing. By the way, we can talk not only about clothes, as we have already mentioned.

Almost everyone can become a trendsetter, from a rap star to a confectioner. Technique, pop culture are developing, and the number of trendsetters is also growing. Elon MuskSteve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Pavel Durov are the most progressive trendsetters who move forward the development of not only modern technologies, but also of human civilization in general.

A separate front are numerous pop stars: Madonna, Lady Gaga, beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Lana del Rey are also unconditional trendsetters, like many rappers, from Kanye West to Morgenstern. And this is just an approximate list of trendsetters, which can be continued almost indefinitely.

The most persuasive trendsetters live on the Internet: Kaia Gerberposing for an advertising campaign for Chanel, Jennifer Lawrencerepresenting the Dior brand, Millie Bobby Brown in the images of Calvin Klein – the list is voluminous. One thing unites them all: they are stars that set trends. By the way, representing brands is also a very profitable business.

Today, the word “trendsetter” is already a bit outdated – the so-called “influencers” and even “micro-influencers” are becoming more and more popular. They not only inspire, but practically motivate us to action, to purchases. Influencers – people who influence public opinion – are a practical tool for brands in the fight for popularity.

Let’s take an example Kim Kardashian, followed by hundreds of millions of Instagram users*. Some say that the Kardashian style is the future of fashion and the embodiment of great taste, while others are convinced that the star’s clothes are vulgar bad taste.

But is it important for the trendsetter? No. Kim Kardashian is the most influential trendsetter and influencer in the world, she is an authority and an undisputed leader of opinion.

Micro-influencers do not have many followers, usually up to ten thousand. They inspire even more confidence than millionaire bloggers, since their small audience grew by itself, without “cheating” and other promotion tools. They also have powerful influence and can be considered trendsetters.

Social networks are the main tool of the trendsetter. According to statistics, 3 billion people around the world use social networks – this is 40 percent of the total population of the Earth, and most of all they are popular with teenagers who are the first to pick up fashion trends.

Interestingly, 70 percent of YouTube viewers aged 13 to 19 trust the opinion of bloggers more than the opinion of their parents. These young people are of particular interest to trendsetters: in 5 or 10 years, they will be earning enough to buy the products they promote.

So trendsetters in social networks are replacing real stars – theater and film actors, directors, producers, and creative intelligentsia. You can become a trendsetter when the number of subscribers becomes a number with five zeros.

For example, a fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni has become one of the most influential people in the fashion world thanks to the number of subscribers – her own live audience. And later she took advantage of the popularity and founded her own brand of shoes.

Whether to pay attention to trendsetters or make your own choice is up to you. The main thing is to have your own style and your own principles that will distinguish you from the crowd devoted to your idols – trendsetters and influencers.