Like the rest of the world, the fashion industry has widely utilized Instagram (the photo sharing app with over 300 million users) to share insider glimpses into brands and lives, highlight the creative process, and find simple ways to connect to followers. Brands and consumers are sharing personal, visual “moments” in their lives (of course, perfectly oriented and filtered). In celebration of this relationship between the fashion industry and social media users, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) released their newest book, titled Designers on Instagram: #Fashion.
The book includes photos from CFDA designers (including Alabama Chanin), hand selected by the council and separated into five chapters, categorized by hashtags: #BehindtheSeams, #Selfies, #Inspiration, #Fashion, and #TBT (aka “Throwback Thursday,” for the uninitiated).
The colorful hardbound release is appropriately square shaped, like all Instagram photos. We think it’s a beautiful volume; the photos make you feel like a fashion insider, even if you are on your couch eating popcorn in your pajamas (no comment) or dressing a seven-year-old for school (or at least trying to dress a seven-year-old).
Follow Alabama Chanin on Instagram and look for our featured photos—including a picture appropriately titled “Halfway there and halfway dressed.”
The photo below—one of my all-time favorite photos—almost made it into the book. (My grandmother signed a model release form and it made my day.)
Get Designers on Instagram: #Fashion here.
Dear Natalie – Thank you for sharing the picture of your dear grandmother. It is lovely. She looks like a woman well-loved because she loved well.
The thing I’ve come to appreciate most about social media is the way it allows us to expand our community to include folks we would’ve never known otherwise and at the same time it helps us – me at least – realize and appreciate my own identity.
The interwebs allowed me to learn about you and your brand; your books inspire me and make me want to cut and stitch and cut and stitch some more. But your willingness to share your world, including your grandmother, makes me feel like we’re friends – our people have stories: our grandmothers, our children, our loves; we have stories, too. If I lived nearby I’d stop by the factory as often as possible, hoping to have a glass of tea with you.
Since I’m all the way in north Texas you don’r have to worry about me hanging around all the time. That being said, I wish you’d consider a pop-up workshop in our little town. I live in Denton, Texas and we’re a perfectly lovely community of quirky artists and craftspeople. Everyone knows everyone and we’re all living this life together as best we can. The local talent is astonishing. The heart and soul of the community is inspirational. We’re home to two universities, University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University so there is a bit of a hippy vibe going on which works out to be just the right sped for this 55 yr-old grandma.
So, please, please, lease, come see us. You can stay in the little guest cottage / garage apartment at my house:: I have chickens and a garden! If you can’t work this little bitty Texas town into your workshop schedule I completely understand but I can’t promise I won’t show up at the factory one day asking for a tour.
All the best. Your friend,
Vicki