There is a specific kind of horror I’ve been seeing lately, usually illuminated by a clinical glow of a ring light.
It’s our influencers. They do this thing, and maybe you’ve seen it, where they lean in. They get uncomfortably close to the lens, invasive and breathless, eyes wide with the manic energy of someone trying to hack your dopamine receptors in under three seconds. And they say:
“Five homegrown brands you should buy instead of Zara and H&M"
And I watch this, and think: Are you dumb?
I don't want you to be. I don't want to believe that we have reached a point in our culture where we are physically incapable of understanding the value of a thing without comparing it to a piece of mass-produced, disposable garbage. But here we are.
When you frame a homegrown, independent label as merely a cheaper or similar alternative to H&M or Zara, you are insulting the brand. It is, to put it mildly, a profound disrespect to the founder's work.
I know founders. I know the type of people who start clothing brands with their life's savings. And I promise you, not a single one of them looks in the mirror and prays, "God, please let me create something that is a slightly cheaper and similar to the rag from H&M."
That is not the vision. The founders are working too damn hard for you to turn their brands into 10 second soundbites.
When you reduce their daily fight to survive and create something meaningful into a listicle called “5 brands that are basically Zara but local,” you’re undermining everything they’re trying to build.
I get it. Rent is high. Salaries are stagnant. People want to look good, and they don't want to starve doing it. But when influencers market independent design as a budget replacement for fast fashion, they are training the audience to view all clothing as disposable, regardless of who made it.
If you actually care, then do the work. Don't give me a list. Pick one. Just one.
Talk about them. Separately.
Go find out why the founder started the brand. What is the vision? Sit with the story the way you’d sit with a good meal. Taste it. Understand the ingredients. And then talk about it.