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During New York's Fall in 2013, Instagram erected massive digital screens around town that showed FASHION posts tagged with #nyfw. Then came 2014: “Did we need screens again?” recalls Sara Wilson, who manages Instagram’s fashion and lifestyle brand partnerships. “Absolutely not.” The photo-sharing app had a bigger way to mark its place in the INBUSTBV $100 billion-plus global fashion industry: The September cover of Vogue, one of the business’s most valuable pieces of real estate, featured social-media-savvy models , , and , dubbing them the “Instagirls.” Back in 2011, when and his peers were Instagramming backstage at Fashion Week, the platform’s involvement was pure luck. But now it actively positions itself as the fashion world’s infinitely scrolling newsreel, one sign of how it stokes its hypergrowth and is creating a premium product inside Facebook. In 2013, when industry doyenne and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour Instagrammed herself reading her own September issue, Wilson “encouraged” Vogue to challenge its fans to make the same pose. Thousands did. Many involved babies and dogs. “I call it the moment Anna blessed Instagram,” popular across the entire network, but it wasn’t a hit. Last year, Wilson says. Within months, Instagram had hired its first dedi­ it relaunched as a tailored survey of user interests—handbags cated fashion and art community leader: advertising agency vet if you follow Rebecca Minkoff, couture gowns if you follow . Kristen Joy Watts, who had previously co-launched Lens, the Last August, Instagram introduced a new app, Hyperlapse, New York Times’s photo blog. Their team spotlights the most which generates time-lapse videos. Runner-up for Apple’s 2014 creative fashion houses, off-duty models, professional pho­ App of the Year award, it’s another gift to the fashion world—ideal tographers, bloggers, and tastemakers to inspire others to see for a makeup artist applying eyeshadow, say, or the final adjust­ Instagram as having the power to transform their popularity. ments to a photo-shoot tableau. Last April, for example, put out a call for models Now fashion companies are seeing Instagram as not ju^f a for an upcoming ad campaign using the hashtag #CastMeMarc, place to promote their wares, but to advertise them as well. In­ and 70,000 nonprofessional models posted photos, hoping to stagram’s first ad launched in November 2013; it was with Michael secure a spot. When Wilson approached the Council of Fashion Kors, and subsequent campaigns have been with the likes 0 Designers of America (CFDA) to pitch a Fashion Instagrammer Levi’s, Macy’s, and Users are liking and sharing-the Scis of the Year award, it was an easy sell. The organization chose just as they do with other content, and that’s proved Instagram’s eight nominees for a public vote. Inaugural winner Patrick worth in a big way: It made a deal last spring in which global ad Janelle (@AGuyNamedPatrick) got to Instagram the annual giant Omnicom promised to buy a reported $40 million in ad­ CFDA Awards. “It always evolves from a conversation,” says vertising, and the photo-sharing app is a major component in Watts. “It truly doesn’t work unless the person we are working FacebooKs multiyear ad deal with Publicis Groupe. And with that, with gets inspired and runs with it.” Instagram’s fashion partnerships come into full focus: The in­ Instagram’s growing fashion clout has also influenced the dustry brought intrigue to the platform, and now it’s going to features it develops. “Explore” once pulled up random posts bring the revenue, too. —Emma Whitford

74 FastCompany.com March 2015 Photo illustration by Jose Romussi Added color A from Alexander McQueen's Ready-to- Wear show Copyright of Fast Company is the property of Mansueto Ventures LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.