“What he does is very different from what we did at Style.com and what we do at Vogue Runway,” Ms. Phelps said. “Those short little headlines, the white Style.com font against the royal blue. They work even better than pictures. You can read it in a flash of a second, half of a second, and you’re just scrolling.”
Mr. Blanks said: “He’s a keeper of the flame, In his slightly pell-mell coverage of the whole fandango, he is pointing out, I think, this ludicrousness of it. He’s also sort of the ultimate testament to the power of the fashion dream, this transformative thing that happens to people when they get into the fashion industry. It’s this funny Lana Turner-in-the-soda-shop-aspect of this world, that they can become stars kind of overnight.”
An Influencer, With a Loophole
Mr. Gvishiani does not use Style Not Com to post products or photos of himself at events, which is how most of his peers cash in. Occasionally he posts runway videos or a clip from an event he attends. He wears his own clothes, usually suits with Birkenstocks and a blue Style Not Com baseball cap.
“When brands pay for my travel and for the hotel and I get invited to the show, I already feel good,” Mr. Gvishiani said. In June, when Saint Laurent staged its men’s spring 2024 runway show in Berlin, Style Not Com posted “Saint Laurent in Berlin” against a black square instead of its signature blue and shared the time and location of the event in the caption. Mr. Gvishiani said the brand did not pay him for the post.
The honor of being invited to a fashion show does not pay the rent, however, and things have quickly become transactional. Many posts are negotiated — the specific subject, whether it’s a show, a campaign, an event, if a video is included. Then a rate is determined.
Last year, Mr. Gvishiani introduced a Style Not Com book conceived as a year-in-review, in which every page is a full-bleed blue square chronicling some fashion happening. The book sells pages like advertising, but which posts and pages are ads remains undisclosed thanks to a loophole.
Jessica Iredale
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