Alexa Chung is the most-copied celebrity style
How many celebrities do you follow on Instagram? And how many times a day do you ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ at their style? Quite a lot? We thought so.
New research shows the extent to which celebrities and social media influences our style. People are spending thousands of pounds on fast fashion that’s driven by a new craze coined ‘Insta-Envy’.
Alexa Chung tops the list of most-copied celebrity style, beating off competition from Cheryl Cole, Rihanna and Nicole Scherzinger.
The boys however favour David Beckham and Dermot O’Leary who favour classic style rather than Tinie Tempah and Kanye West who usually opt for more fashion-forward style.
Nearly half of youngsters admit to spending an average of almost £1,000 per year on clothes in a bid to imitate stars like Alexa Chung, David Beckham and Kanye West – with over two thirds of these making their purchases at shops that produce low cost ‘fast fashion’ – major stores, chains & brands that are popular on every British High Street up and down the country.
The trend is causing more and more items of clothing to go into landfill, something vInspired, who conducted the research, is aiming to combat. 80% of those surveyed said they had no idea that a third of all clothing items bought in the UK ended up in landfill, with 54% highlighting that they would be more inclined to swap clothes if recycling events were more accessible.
Speaking about the study acclaimed Fashion Commentator Grace Woodward said: “I’m not surprised to see that Instagram is fuelling the need young people have to copy the style of their idols. It’s an easy and accessible way to see what stars are wearing, get tips on what is on trend and keep up with what friends are wearing. We can clearly see that celebrity culture is ensuring a new generation of young people are growing up on a diet of fast fashion; however a growing number are rebelling and looking at to customisation and swapping to ensure they are unique in their style”.
But it’s not all bad news, a healthy percentage of the people surveyed say that they buy the majority of their wardrobe from places like charity shops, retro stores or as hand-me-downs from friends and even parents. One surprising statistic was that nearly 1/10 of those surveyed claimed their parents were their biggest style inspiration.
Terry Ryall, vInspired Chief Executive, said: “Fast fashion might be cheap, but it comes with a cost. A cost to UK landfills, a cost to the global environment, and often a cost to human life. We want to change the way young people think about disposable fashion – and this survey of Britain’s young people, this weekend’s Get Trashed Car Boot Disco event at Ministry of Sound and our broader campaign is the start of what we hope will be a major difference.
vInspired is encouraging young people to save as many items from landfill as they can, and save money at the same time, by getting involved in swapping parties or reviving clothes via customisation.
Tagged in Celebrity style Style Instagram