Bright and early on a Sunday morning in the heart of New York Fashion Week, a cross-section of folks gathered at NYFW On Fifth, a new fashion week hotspot in mid-Manhattan to listen to a panel discussion on “The Role of Influencers in Fashion and Music.” Five young Instagram Influencers: Nyakim Gatwech, Bre Wilburn, Nefatari Cooper, Jessica Markowski, and Alexandra “Lex” Diek, took center stage to share how they penetrated this new industry and discussed the pros and cons of being at the forefront of this relatively new career path that’s fueled by the Instagram.
The panel was moderated by fashion czar Darlene Gilliard-Jones who’s career trajectory included stints at Elle magazine, W magazine, Essence magazine, and digital-undivided among them. The panel shared how they built and grew their platforms. They also informed on some of the pitfalls of sudden success, notoriety, and fame. Dealing with major companies, who pay thousands of dollars for their expertise was a hot-button topic during the discussion.
Nyakim Gatwech, a bold, blonde Afro-haired beauty from Sudan, who ended up in New York, shared that she’d been to every modeling agency in New York and was told “NO, we already have a dark-skinned model that we represent.” “I was like, you only can work with one dark-skinned model?” said Nyakin. “I was determined, so I started doing my own posts and developed a following. Then I was able to go directly to the companies I wanted to work with….that’s how I started working.” Nyakim shared one story of how an uber driver once asked if she would lighten her skin for a large amount of money. Her answer was a huge laugh. “You won’t believe the kind of questions I get and the kind of looks I get for having this skin,” said Nyakim who has some 900 thousand Instagram followers and has been dubbed as ‘The Queen of the Dark.’ “My skin absorbs the sun rays and my hair defies gravity. Now, you can’t tell me I’m not magical.”
Bre Wilburn, a model from California, talked about being true to yourself on Instagram, where she’s got over one million followers. “You have to be your authentic self if you are online and not try to create a caricature,” said Bre, who is also known as `The Tik Tok girl.’ “Influencers play a vital role, and there are multiple ways people can touch you and not just in one area….like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook all those.”
Nefatari Cooper, a New York-born singer/songwriter/model, with Jamaican parents, said her Social media profile went through the roof after her Cover Girl make-up campaign went viral and thousands of new followers came on board. “A lot of that came from fans I have in the Jamaican dancehall community. I’ve done a lot of work as a singer/songwriter in that community, so when they saw me posing for Cover Girl, they went crazy.” Nefatari, whose singing career began as a background singer for Lindsay Logan, broke down the way influencers and big companies connect. “I realize there was a need for influencers’ voices to be heard clearly and also educate business leaders on the impact of influencers in fashion and music. There was a disconnect in the fashion and music industries about the role influencers play,” said Nefatari.
All of the panelists also shared other experiences, as influencers, like being hacked and mental stability.
