The Incomplete Guide to Fashion
Where Vanessa examines how fashion pops up in pop culture through the ages
Creators in Fashion
Last week, Style Theory live-streamed the second annual Creators in Fashion show. When the project was inaugurated in 2024, it marked the final hurrah of Theorist founder Matthew Patrick (Matpat), who retired from his involvement in the associated channels prior to the event, but teased this as his last hosting gig for the franchise.
In 2024, brands like Yes Theory, Critical Role, Popflex and Theorist’s own Theoryware and their newly-debuted Lumen line stomped up and down the catwalk, with online personalities Rosanna Pansino and Trisha Hershberger providing commentary, and red carpet interviews between collections which provided a bold vision of the disruption of creators in the fashion industry, including the ability to shop looks as they appeared.
An example of Rosanna’s fashion cred
And it was a bold move. Mainstream fashion’s online presence was simply a move from analog to digital: magazines had websites, and collections could be ordered from webstores, not just by relentlessly showing up in-person where you were subject to the whims of availability of the select sales associate. Of course there was some cultural development - upstart brands found it easier to break through compared to the relatively closed doors of Milan and Paris (though Berlin was always an option for alternative considerations). But the real digital revolution came on channels that the mainstream brands couldn’t control.
Fashion is constantly reinventing itself, but the practices behind it often don’t. Manufacturing by hand is still prized the most, and while this is no longer ‘affordable’ in first-world countries with fairly paid labour, the move to Asian sweatshops hasn’t lowered prices either, because of the associated luxury. Even brands like Loro Piana, heralded as quiet luxury because of their lack of overt branding compared to Gucci, have price tags unattainable for normies.
But on places like YouTube, fashion was democratised. Carapaces constructed on 3D printers competed for eyeballs alongside hand-spun knits for the attention of the viewer. Artisanal skill demonstrations sat alongside the dissection of the corporate power structures of labels and stores. This is how creators like Safiya Nygaard, Emma Chamberlain and more rose to prominence.
Creators in Fashion 2024 capitalised on the momentum of the change happening with its organisers, and put together a show that rivalled the professionalism of the industry content creators were seeking to shake up. Creators in Fashion 2025 moved from the industry-favoured format into something more familiar for its online audience.
Timed to be a part of the VidSummit itinerary this year, logistical changes included the ability for a live audience to attend, rather than a curated guest list, emphasising the democratised nature of the project. It also changed the format of the show, such as an opening musical number by occasional collaborator Stupendium, and creator challenges with live and online audience participation - because, crucially, passive consumption is not enough. Participation is the true measure of engagement.
The question this raises is what the disruption of the fashion industry means to creators. Personalities like Chamberlain or her Sister Squad compatriots seem to seek comfort in the establishment, preferring to host red carpet interviews for recognised outlets and leaving behind her YouTube days. Theorist has eschewed the traditional fashion show format of the previous year to something more akin to a livestream in the vein of their VidCon appearances.
Of course it’s not a binary choice between these two extremes, but lacking any commentary, Creators in Fashion’s move away from coherent collections with a point of view (the Try Guys were a pleasant surprise) to mere merch walks and two-outfit creator highlights (props to Stephanie Zazz here) suggests that creator fashion disruption is not taking the fight to the behemoths of the industry - your Vogues or Pradas. For now, it’s exclusive to the terminally online.
The Incomplete List of Fashion in Pop Culture
As a young girl in the 90s/teenager in the 2000s, I was not immune to pop culture’s positioning of fashion as a female pursuit. I occasionally bought a Cosmopolitan or Glamour magazine, pored over the Vogue’s September issue, and tried to see what a teen budget could adapt from the pret-a-porter runways. While the reality TV formats of shows like X Next Top Model are an irrevocable influence on my fashion jargon, below you’ll find 4 of my favourite influences from yesteryear to today.
1. The Devil Wears Prada
Everyone immediately thinks of the iconic movie (and now its planned sequel) featuring Emily Blunt in her breakout role, alongside the stars of the film, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. Stanley Tucci as ever brings a fantastic performance as well. But I wish to draw attention to the book by Lauren Weisberger instead, which pre-empts the film criticism of Andi’s boyfriend: in the books he’s not a selfish chef, who ought to be familiar with antisocial hours and creative demands, but a school teacher who tries to be far more accommodating. The fashion lingo requires more of a theatre of the mind, but it paints an even more evocative picture.
2. Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty walked, so that Jane the Virgin could run - the soap opera format was not unknown to American audiences, but centring a Latine family in the more familiar fashion world (we tip our hat to The Bold and the Beautiful) cracked open that door. It also attempted to be progressive in defining what was beautiful and fashionable: a plus-sized main character, a transgender character. While some of this would make us cringe now (and maybe did already back then), the heart behind it all is undeniable.
3. Project Runway
It’s not just German favouritism (I don’t actually care for Heidi Klum all that much), but watching Mondo Guerra stun in the print challenge of Project Runway’s Season 8, yet not win the season, completely encapsulates the feeling of “the one that got away”. Project Runway’s challenges are entirely unrelated to the actual workings of a fashion hours/design studio, as I understand it. But the capacity to reinvent and create from scratch under taxing circumstances never fails to impress me. Even first outs have more talent in their pinkie than I have in all my fibers of being!
4. Derek Guy, also known as dieworkwear
Have you spotted the collar gaps on the last politician you saw on the news? What about the sleeve length of their suit jackets? How about the placement of their shirt’s monogram? If you’ve not developed a laser-like vision for these qualities in menswear, you have not yet become a religious follower of Die, Workwear’s Derek Guy. I don’t need to know more about the man who yearns for walkable neighbourhoods and affordable housing, because what he wants me to understand is why clothes are a language, and that people are hypocrites for home-manufactured goods. I am here to learn.
What’s your fashion inspiration, or who is your style guru, and why?