From Influencer to A-List
Emma Chamberlain’s unconventional rise to celebrity status challenged the negative perception of influencers, specifically regarding their legitimacy in fashion, at industry events, and in mainstream media, held by the public, industry executives, and fellow celebrities.
Emma Chamberlain sporting a full Courrèges ensemble at the brand’s Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear show during Paris Fashion Week, further demonstrating the industry’s recognition of her unique perspective on fashion by pairing a halter top and thigh-length mini skirt over wide-leg pants. Photographed by Jared Ellner, February 2024. Available via IG @emmachamberlain. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.
Influencers rarely top the list of people who should be invited to large-scale industry events like the Met Gala, the Grammys, or the Oscars, especially in the eyes of more traditional celebrities. However, Emma Chamberlain’s career trajectory has helped shift the industry’s negative perception of their place in spaces of this nature. The same can be said for influencers infiltrating the mainstream fashion and media space, as many felt that content creators should remain confined to the four corners of their screens until Emma changed that perception.
Emma Chamberlain began posting lifestyle and vlog content to her YouTube channel during the summer of 2017 as a creative outlet. From the beginning, her content has been authentic to who she is and has grown alongside her as she’s gained a larger platform. Because of this authenticity, Emma’s fans take genuine interest in her perspective as she is not one to put on for the camera, even if it means showing vulnerability to those watching her. For most of Emma’s time on YouTube and in the public eye, she has showcased her sense of style in a multitude of ways, from thrift hauls and Instagram photos in the beginning to Fashion Week vlogs and high-scale brand campaigns later in her career.
By the time Emma had established herself as a major influence on Gen Z fashion trends, her fans were eager to know what her wardrobe looked like for summer 2021. With TikTok hitting its peak the year prior during the pandemic, a wave of users was making videos pleading for insight on how to style themselves based on the advice of their favorite Gen Z fashion empresario. Emma gave in and posted a video titled “WHAT I'M WEARING THIS SUMMER” in April 2021, garnering almost 5 million views and a plethora of comments pointing out the influence that she has over fashion trends, whether people like to admit it or not.
The industry must’ve taken notice of this influence, as less than a month later she attended her first Met Gala as a Louis Vuitton girl and Vogue’s special correspondent on the carpet. Although she wasn’t the first influencer to attend the Met Gala, as Liza Koshy and James Charles walked the carpet in 2019 with Koshy also serving as Vogue’s red carpet interviewer, Emma received a notably more positive reception from the public compared to her counterparts. Emma naturally fell into the role of carpet correspondent due to her genuineness and reputation as a fashion tastemaker. For the most part, her presence at the Met Gala was not associated with any anti-influencer rhetoric, helping solidify her role as Vogue’s carpet correspondent in the years that followed.
After this precedent was set, there has been a noticeable uptick of influencers at prolific industry events, as executives and brands have come to realize that some content creators are taken seriously within their respective fields. While criticism hasn’t entirely ceased, especially when it seems off-brand for certain influencers to attend events like the Grammys or the Oscars, the quality of Emma’s content and her irrefutable influence on fashion have created a landscape normalizing content creators in more traditional industry spaces. Only time will tell how the ingénue will further break barriers for those who got their start in content creation as she enters the film industry with her upcoming role in the horror film Forbidden Fruits.
