Is social media responsible for celebrities’ watered down personal style?

With more and more celebrities promoting sponsored brands and their online personas, the idea of having a unique, personal style is slowly diminishing

We live in a world where Instagram—and TikTok—rule almost everything we do, including the way we choose to look and dress. In the past year itself, we’ve had a roller-coaster of trend cycles, with the surging popularity of Barbiecore and grandmacore to balletcore and gothcore. We’ve also seen celebrities embrace these trends, painting the red carpet pink (in the same Valentino outfits) and channelling their inner Wednesday Addams on their Instagram feeds.

However, in recent times, while trying to stay trendy and relevant on social media platforms, celebrity style has gone from being personal to intensely curated. Even the ‘effortless’ street style looks of Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber are curated to promote sponsored brands or their online persona and, in turn, they end up looking like replicas of each other. Take the 16Arlington’s Solaria dress that became the hottest party outfit last year, thanks to its sparkly design and sexy key-hole cut-out. It was made popular by the likes of Hailey Bieber, Jodie Turner-Smith and Paloma Elsesser, among many others, making it one of the hottest products—and the hottest brand—of the last quarter of 2022, according to theLyst Index.

With the perpetual ‘influence’ of the Kardashians, Jenners, Hadids and the likes, is anyone even trying to find their personal style and embrace their individuality anymore, or is the idea of a personal style passé among celebrities?

Marketing personas

Fashion has always been about newness, with trends coming in and out every season. But now, more than ever, it has become fickle too, with the virality of micro trends every few months. Style, on the other hand, is something that transcends time and trends. Style is how an individual approaches fashion in their own unique way. But the definition of style seems to have changed with the reach that social media has. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and Meta (previously Facebook) have become great advertising opportunities for not just brands to build a community but also for celebrities to monetise their lives, and that includes the way they dress.

“Being a celebrity and having a public persona is a business. Any good business needs a good business plan and good PR. A curated public image is an integral part of communicating who you are to the world and what you represent, which is why you see celebrity style being so intensely curated. In most cases, it is marketable and many livelihoods depend on it,” says stylist, creative director and content creator Surbhi Shukla.

Stylist and costume designer Divyak D’Souza believes that the idea of personal style is absent amidst the game of numbers and algorithms on social media. It’s more about the clicks and the likes one receives on their posts than being true to oneself. “There are so many people vying for popularity on social media. Thanks to an overload of information, it has become something of a marketing machine, as opposed to earlier times when artists pursued their passion and got famous for what they were actually good at. Now, being famous for the sake of being famous is the thing. People express themselves, and show their art or their expertise through Reels. Everything is about keeping up with the trends, otherwise, the algorithm doesn’t pick you up. As a result, everything that follows—styling, hair, skincare, make-up or even their homeware and décor—is carefully curated,” says D’Souza.

For actress Shibani Akhtar, the instant accessibility to fashion has resulted in a style that is meticulously measured. “We are now able to see what is out there instantly, thanks to livestreaming of fashion shows, or digital magazine covers.  As a result, there is a lot of information around trends, along with referencing one can do to be able to create looks based on what one sees. It’s a quick and easy way to put looks together,” she says.  

Branding them young

One would think that at least the younger lot of actors are more experimental with their style and will express themselves through their clothes. But unfortunately, as they turn themselves into brands and marketing tools online, following carefully curated steps for better reach and better engagement, the authenticity factor is lost. 

D’Souza explains how this works. “Whenever I get a call to style younger actors, their management will give me a pre-existing template of a star who is already famous and will say that we want her to look like that. These younger actors aspire to fit into that one template, which is sad because it shows that people are too scared to express themselves and take risks. Being unique may be a risk, but if you have what it takes, then you need to be confident enough. This lack of confidence makes people not want to experiment. That’s why they probably think, ‘let's just follow a successful formula and ape what everyone else is doing’,” says D’Souza, who has previously styled Aditi Rao Hydari, Tabu and Saba Azad among other Bollywood actors.

Shukla, too, agrees that between mandates and briefings that demand a look to be palatable and bankable, personal style can be sacrificed. This, in turn, might even neuter the developing taste and identity of these young stars.

Online documentation

The Internet has made it accessible for media outlets to document a celebrity’s every move. There are paparazzi videos of actresses like Janhvi Kapoor or Disha Patani leaving the gym or dining with friends or going to meetings. You’ll find  Instagram accounts of the exact items that Hailey Bieber wore to visit her dermatologist or YouTube videos of how to dress up like Bella Hadid. “There's a quote by John Berger [British novelist, painter and poet] that goes: ‘Men watch. Women watch themselves being watched.’ We all sit up straight and arch our backs when we know we’re being watched, so yes, celebrities are catering to our voyeuristic gaze,” says Shukla. It’s safe to say that celebrities are dressing up to be seen.  

Moreover, if you’re in the public eye, you’re bound to get criticised and trolled. “It definitely plays a part in how celebrities represent themselves and how measured they are in putting themselves out there, because nowadays, even wearing an orange bikini in a music video of a commercial movie gets spun out of control, with actors receiving negative PR and security threats. So in an environment like this, you can’t blame someone for not being a hundred per cent authentic,” says D’Souza, adding: “Having said that, I do feel that there is much more resistance to being unique and authentic now. Everyone is so safe to the point of sameness that everybody has begun to appear boing and similar.”

Akhtar points at how the paparazzi culture leads to the pressure of always looking on point in every photograph. “​​What it does is that it forces you to dress outside your comfort zone for places where you probably should be more relaxed, like at the airport or if you’re going to the gym or to the grocery store. This whole idea of curating looks just to be photographed puts an immense amount of pressure on someone who is in the public eye. It feels contrived.  It may not take away their personal sense of style, but I think it does take away a medium to express yourself, which is what fashion is all about,” says Akhtar. 

The fear of sartorial misstep has resulted in the sameness that D’Souza speaks of. It comes as the Y2K-inspired uniform adopted by the millennial and Gen Z generation, which includes crop tops, ribbed body con dresses, cut-outs and most recently, corsets. But as a stylist and a costume designer, for D’Souza it’s not about dressing his celebrity clients in the trendiest outfits of popular designers. “When two artists are collaborating, in this case, a celebrity and a stylist, it’s very important that there is a resonance between their aesthetic, whether it’s understanding each other’s views on politics or even the world. It may sound lofty and people may think that at the end of the day, you’re just picking a dress for a party, but the amount of time we spend with each other for fittings and trials and hair and makeup, it’s important to strike that cord temperamentally as well with the client where you’ve spent enough time to understand each other, which then can translate through their style,” he explains.

For Shukla, it’s the stylist’s job to navigate through the red tape of the brands expected from the celebrities in order to leave that space for the celebrity’s personal style to take centre stage. “Brands and celebrities both recognise the power of aligning themselves, but ultimately it is the stylist that's responsible for a runway look to be transformed in a manner where the celebrity's innate personal style shines through,” she says.

As an actress, and someone who is photographed on and off the red carpet, collaborating with stylists and designers who understand her is extremely vital for Akhtar. “When I started out, six to seven years in the business, I was wearing things that I felt I had to wear. I was visibly uncomfortable and didn’t create a space for myself in the world of fashion; it was robotic. And hence I wasn’t somebody known for having any style, which is what happens when you blindly follow trends. I now know what works for me and what doesn’t, whether it’s trendy or not. And I know it by simply putting it on,” she shares. 

Style icons

If we look beyond film stars, both D’Souza and Shukla believe that there are many ‘celebrities’ who express their individuality through their wardrobe choices. “If you expand into the indie music scene or theatre or even follow some models and designers, there are a lot of unique styles that you will find. It’s not just about what makes a great Instagram-worthy outfit, but also consuming consciously and supporting brands that have the right messaging,” says D’Souza.

Akhtar shares examples of Hailey Bieber, Harry Styles and Rihanna, who are considered as major sources of inspiration for many. “All three of them are very different in their style but each of them has their own identity. They have created this identity by just staying very real and organic to themselves. They might wear things that are trendy, but they pick things that resonate with them and their style,” she says. 

Shukla, too, looks at musicians who showcase a distinct sense of style. “I really admire Harry Styles' personal style and how that has evolved over the years through his relationship with his stylist Harry Lambert, with Gucci giving him some iconic looks for his tours and appearances. Dua Lipa's eclectic style has also been interesting to observe. Her stylist Lorenzo Posocco does a beautiful job of weaving her personal style into her pop-star persona. Closer home, while Rahul Khanna and Saif Ali Khan have a very classic sense of style, Vijay Varma's stylist, Vrinda Narang, has done a wonderful job of dressing him up,” she says.

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