One year ago today — much to the chagrin of a certain hand-flapping ghost — Instagram unveiled its Stories feature. Insta-holes grew to Insta-vortexes. Above our regularly scheduled, algorithm-determined programming popped a secondary feed, one that allowed us an even more up-to-date, seemingly intimate look at the lives of friends, acquaintances, friends-of-friends, influencers, celebrities (be they biped or quadruped), brands, etc.
To fête the occasion, Instagram released a list of the top 15 fashion industry users with the most engagement on their Stories. The company based its rankings on the total number of views these accounts received over the past year and only considered handles with 10 million or more followers.
The final list features 11 models, three brands and a single blogger, Chiara Ferragni of the Blonde Salad. Ferragni scored second place, bested only by model, actress and Bernie babe Emily Ratajkowski. Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana were the only non-humans to make the cut. Of the three, only Dior cracked the top ten.
Unsurprisingly, despite having smaller followings, models and bloggers tend to outperform brands when it comes to Stories engagement. Eva Chen, head of fashion partnerships at Instagram and creator of the #evachenpose, feels brands aren’t letting their hair down enough. “The industry wants everything to be picture perfect at all times. If it doesn’t look like a Mario [Testino] or a Patrick [Demarchelier] shoot, oftentimes they don’t want to post it,” Chen told Business of Fashion, adding, “What Stories has really meant is that fashion is now able to be a little bit more authentic, a little bit more down to earth, funnier, scrappier. What everyone [in this list] has in common is that you have this sense of being there with someone, and feeling like the walls have come down.”
Ferragni holds that the key to her Stories success is a total lack of boundary between her personal and professional life. (That, and she never re-records.) Something to consider.
See the full list below.
1. Emily Ratajkowski
2. Chiara Ferragni
3. Candice Swanepoel
4. Hailey Baldwin
5. Cara Delevingne
6. Adriana Lima
7. Victoria Beckham
8. Miranda Kerr
9. Gigi Hadid
10. Dior
11. Dolce & Gabbana
12. Kendall Jenner
13. Gisele Bundchen
14. Louis Vuitton
15. Christian Louboutin
[ via Business of Fashion ]
