The TikTok Effect
ELLE US|February 2023
The short-form video app has transformed the runway, with designers competing to see who can create the ultimate viral moment.
Tyler McCall
The TikTok Effect

Thom Browne swears he doesn’t plan on going viral when putting together his fashion shows; he doesn’t even think about how they might play on the internet.

Instead, he crafts his shows—which, really, are much more like pieces of theater—to tell a story to those attending in real life. “For me, it’s more interesting that you get this more intimate experience in regard to what the collection is saying, or what I want to say through the collection,” Browne says.

Still, when you cast Golden Globe–winning actress Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as a modern-day Cinderella and send her down the runway in a pink tulle Cadillac to close the show, as Browne did for his spring 2023 collection, you’re bound to attract more than a few eyeballs online. And on TikTok, there are a lot of eyeballs to be had: The hashtag #fashionmonth alone had a staggering 228 million views in September 2022.

Fashion has always found its way onto social media, whether through archive-obsessed Tumblr accounts or the in-depth analyses found on high-fashion Twitter—and, of course, Instagram, with its reputation for glossy images, has been the reigning platform of choice for many years. But, armed with a video-forward ethos, TikTok is poised to take over.

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