Why You Should be Taking Your Favourite Fashion Meme Pages More Seriously

Scroll for more than 30 seconds on Instagram, and there's a high chance you’ll come across a fashion meme or two. Maybe you’ll see a starter pack that calls back to the good old days of 2016, or something that speaks to the 2022 Arc’teryx crew (or at least those who don’t hike). Though meme accounts have been around for a good while, they still seem to be one of the genres that the Instagram algorithm keeps pushing. Highly shareable, relatable and above all, funny - Instagram’s meme page admins have found the perfect formula for success on the platform, which has rapidly transformed into success outside of the ‘gram too.

It's highly unlikely that you’ll be unfamiliar with memes, but - if you did need a refresher - a meme is defined as “an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.” The term was actually coined back in 1976, theorised by Richard Dawkins in his work “The Selfish Gene.” According to Dawkins, in the same way that society develops physically by passing on genes, memes (here defined as ‘a unit of cultural information spread by imitation’) allow society to develop culturally. Where so much of fashion revolves around (and sets) the current zeitgeist, the crossover between memes and fashion feels fairly natural, and for this reason fashion memes have been around for quite a while (just check out meme creator fuckhopsin’s YouTube video for the near-full history). Of course, the most obvious platform for these creations is social media, which provides creators and brands with enormous opportunities to shape and dictate these cultural codes.

According to research company GWI, a third of Gen Z look to social media to see what’s trending. A quick search on TikTok will bring up hundreds of budding trend forecasters, each competing to coin the next trending term (goblin-core, anyone?). But while TikTok relies heavily on its algorithm and videos showing up on the FYP page, memes are still primarily a static medium. Creators on Reddit and Instagram have managed to cultivate their own communities of followers that have provided them with the stepping stones to launch into alternative careers, whether that be starting their own brand or focusing on consultancy and content services. Yes, that’s right - your favourite fashion meme creators are legit industry figures, so here’s exactly why you should be taking them seriously.

Ollie, who’s 22, started the Instagram account fashion_wankers when he was 18, and has since gone on to launch his own brand, Ollivion. “I would share memes I made with my friends and one day just felt like posting them,” he told us. “Within a week the page was going crazy. Never would have thought such a thoughtless decision could have brought me so many great opportunities. I’m just glad the younger me went to memes and not ketamine like everyone else in my hometown.”

In a similar vein, Karsten (21) works as a content consultant, having started his meme page, meme_saint_laurent five years ago when he was only 16. “I had a few friends that were also minorly into fashion, but when you're in high school there's not much that you can really do with it, so there was no connection to all this amazing stuff that was happening in New York or London. For me, out of boredom, memes became the way I was able to interact with that.”

Both creators sit firmly within the Gen Z age bracket - which is significant because of the way they choose to communicate. According to GWI, 23% of UK & US-based Gen Z-ers and 18% of millennials have posted a meme online, and 51% of the former have shared one with their friends or family. Essentially, to share a meme is to have a shared understanding of something, as each person will need to possess the same cultural codes in order to derive humour from it.

Outside of these age groups, efforts to make memes are usually pretty terrible. Boomer humour immediately brings to mind dreaded Minion memes, wine time references and “I hate my spouse” tropes. That being said, Gen Z humour in particular is hard to pin down - it’s known for being non-sensical, or “shitposting” as Karsten puts it. This kind of ironic approach to fashion and humour is the reason brands like Balenciaga appeal so much to the younger generation: its identity and products are often based on irony and internet culture. Even before his Balenciaga tenure, Demna had embraced meme culture at Vetements - its DHL tee being one of the many tongue-in-cheek pieces that did the rounds years ago.

Balenciaga isn’t the only brand that has flirted with the idea of using memes to attract a younger audience. Viktor and Rolf sent memes down the runway during its Spring 2019 Couture show, with huge frilly dresses emblazoned with slogans such as “Sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come,” as if anyone would pass up the chance to wear couture. Then, of course, there was *that* Gucci watch campaign, where a number of creators were tasked with making memes around the phrase TFW Gucci (at varying levels of success). The virality of the latter helped to propel Instagram’s meme page admins to a whole new level, validating them as creators and showcasing their marketing talents. Soon, other brands followed suit, and Karsten found himself working with Valentino, in a move that would prove just how essential his own input would be.

“The first time I worked with Valentino I pushed for a lot of things but they were like ‘No, give us our creative control,” he explains. “I was like 'Fine, take this softball meme,' and it really didn't work out. For some reason, they reached back out to me again and they gave me complete creative control. This time they just told me to post on my account, and everybody loved it - it was great, it was funny and it worked. Valentino doesn't seem like the kind of company it can work for, but if you give creators control, and they're good creators, even if you're a serious company that wants to be taken seriously in a lot of aspects, these types of campaigns can work because memes are one of the main communication methods for Gen Z.”

When it comes to attracting the younger crowd it pays for brands to bring in creators who already know how to speak to them, as not doing so can come off corny or too try-hard. That being said, Karsten believes that humour is still the perfect way to tap into his generation’s spending power. “There's always the saying ‘sex sells.’ That's not necessarily the same with my generation, because it's so desensitized to that kind of thing. Something that it has retained is humour, and memes are a very important way to become noticed. I think you can really see that happening in the fashion industry - where the traditional Tom Ford sexy Gucci ad isn't going to have the same effect as Balenciaga memeing on Bernie Sanders. For one reason or another, my generation is going to be more interested in that.”

Knowing the type of content that an audience responds to is key for brands looking to make it on social, but in a case like Ollie’s the rules are slightly reversed. Though running his page has allowed him to both influence and understand his audience’s taste, Ollie still assures us that he’s making Ollivion for himself. “I wanna make cool stuff that I’d enjoy wearing, and if other people like that too then the world is a better place.”

Creating purely based on personal taste is hard, and as all 20-somethings will know, these years are ripe for personal development. As he continued to critique and make fun of the landscape, he noticed his personal style change, and as Ollie’s style changed, so did his memes. “Memeing on Rick Owens got me into Rick Owens. All I wore was Rick Owens for nearly 3 years. This year I’ve kind of left Rick - at least FULL Rick.” He says. And although he’s constantly poking fun at things, that doesn’t mean he isn’t self-aware about it. Amongst the rest of his Instagram feed, one particular meme stands out: a starter pack depicting the 20-year-old fashion admin. “I can’t act like I don’t fall into tropes. We all do, it’s simple pattern recognition,” he explains. “Not addressing myself in context with the content I’ve made would be ridiculous. Who am I to distance myself from the jokes, when I’m the one making them? That post was my way of showing that I am just as sad and laughable as anyone else.”

Though both creators have managed to leverage their online presence, it’s important to remember exactly why they started their accounts in the first place. Both meme_saint_laurent and fashion_wankers were born out of shared frustrations with the industry, and making it big on social media is still one of the only ways to cut through in what is historically a very gatekept business. At their heart, fashion memes provide a kind of entry into fashion criticism, and for some time, a lot of meme creators did consider themselves as critics that just happened to use Instagram as a medium. But whether becoming a fashion critic was the desired outcome or not, there’s no doubt that fashion meme accounts have helped to democratise the industry as a whole, not only by opening doors for creators but also allowing the audience to identify and relate to brands or tropes in which they seem themselves.

“Bringing down the aforementioned hierarchy was my main goal,” Ollie laughs. “Level the playing field and let everyone know that regardless of what you wear, there’s always a way to make you look like a bellend who shouldn’t be allowed to dress themselves.” Karsten agrees. “I think there are a lot more kids like me, from places like the midwest, that are into fashion now. Now they have an outlet besides just consuming it - they can also have conversations. There's a place for them now, I think. In that sense, it's definitely helped democratise it.”

As for its longevity, meme accounts have already been around for a good while, and though many influencers and Gen Z-ers are moving over to TikTok, Instagram’s favourite meme accounts still seem to be going strong. Karsten points out that now Instagram seems to be moving in a product-based direction, mood boards and fashion memes still seem to be algorithm favourites because of their ability to push products. “There are a lot of products that have blown up and I can trace that to meme pages,” he explains, “I don't mean to sound like a pretentious idiot about that, it's just facts. That actually sucks for me - anything I like and I want to make content about, people are going to be like 'oh let me buy this up.'

Ollie shares a similar sentiment, pointing out how memes can help to both build hype, and eventually destroy it. “I think hype pieces are undeniably laughing stocks, because everyone knows what they are in this scene, yet everyone who owns them believes they stand out from the flock. We’ve been over the same thing a hundred times; a thing is cool, gets popular, gets laughed at, and finally dies out.”

Trends will come and go, and the cycle will always continue. Right now, irony is in, with Demna and Balenciaga paving the way. As fuckhopsin points out, the current scene is very convoluted and nuanced - it's hard to meme on a product that’s already designed to be a meme, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, people will always find a way to meme on the most mundane things going. Therefore, fashion memes aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Aside from the fact it’s proven you can make a legitimate career out of being a meme page admin, perhaps the most important side effect of the phenomenon is that it proves how important it is to be able to laugh at ourselves and at our own taste within the streetwear realm. At the end of the day, whether it's a career or hobby, fashion is meant to be fun - it’s why we look back at 2016 so fondly, and it's why Balenciaga is dominating the scene right now. Though we no longer gravitate to Vlone tees and Off-White belts, and not everyone can afford an $1800 crisp packet bag, there’s still excitement to be found. And, if the meme admins aren’t worried about the state of fashion, neither should we be. As we finish our interview, Karsten adds: “There are times where I've done an interview and I'm like 'I don't know where fashion's going' and I sound like Tony Soprano in therapy. But I don't know, I'm really excited about it and I'm always looking forward to what I can make, what other people are gonna make. It's cool as shit. It's a very exciting time to be in fashion right now.”

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