The imitation game: Why we copy celebrities and influencers like Kate Middleton and Victoria Beckham
Sales of the crutches Victoria Beckham uses jumped by 80 per cent when she appeared at Paris Fashion Week this month. Photo / Getty
When Victoria Beckham lurched down a Paris runway on a pair of crutches earlier this month, it wasn’t her outfit that soared in sales. It was the crutches that went boom. Jane Phare looks at
the power of aspiration — why we want to be like those we admire.
Within hours of Victoria Beckham hobbling up to her husband, football’s golden boy David Beckham, to kiss him after her Paris Fashion Week show, sales of the black Cool Crutches brand she was using went off.
Powered by Beckham’s Instagram following of 32.7 million, and with millions more watching the Paris show online, it was a marketing guru’s dream.
Suddenly, everyone who needed crutches wanted ones like Beckham’s. Sales of Cool Crutches soared by 80 per cent in the hours and days after the show. That was on the back of a 73 per cent rise in sales since February when, after a break-it-like-Beckham moment at the gym, the fashion designer and social media star appeared sporting a moon-boot and crutches as her latest accessories.
Call it aspiration, admiration or adulation, the “influencer” effect is worth gold, platinum and diamonds.
No one is more aware of the startling benefit of star power than Auckland Pacific fashion retailer Vira Tavioni. Twelve years ago she gifted clothes to William and Kate, the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, during their royal visit to the Solomon Islands. It’s a gesture that’s still paying off.
Tavioni, who manages Tav Pacific store in Onehunga, gave a blue shirt and a pink, tiered dress to the couple who, finding the clothes in their bedroom, abandoned their pre-planned wardrobe and wore the Tav Pacific clothes instead.
Sales of the “Kate dress” and the “William shirt” soared after photos were published, with online and export orders coming in from all over the world. Tavioni says they’re still going strong.
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“That’s why we keep making them. Every time we make the William shirt it just sells. We’re ordering some really nice cotton to do the shirt again in that same (blue) colour. We’re just waiting for the material.”
The $370 Kate dress is just as popular both in Auckland — the pink version is sold out right now — and at Tav Pacific’s main store in the Cook Islands.
“We sell all the sizes from 8 up to 24, that exact style and in different colours,” Tavioni says.
Tiahuia Pittman, left, and Vira Tavioni from Tav Pacific in Onehunga modelling the “Kate dress.” The pink version has sold out. Photo / Jason Oxenham
The “Kate effect” has never waned. Out the Princess of Wales strides in a pair of Jennifer Chamandi pumps or an Emilia Wickstead dress and they sell out instantly, with stockists clamouring for more.
The white wrap coat Meghan Markle wore when she and Prince Harry announced their engagement in 2017 sold out in minutes, crashing the website of Line the Label, which made the garment. Now anything that the next generation of royal children wear causes a frenzy of orders, as do clothes and accessories worn by the American royal family, the Kardashian-Jenners.
Why humans are copycats
So why do we copy or aspire to be like celebrities, royalty, influencers or people we admire from a distance? Why do websites crash and dresses we’ve walked past in Zara suddenly have people fighting over them because a celebrity has worn them?
Tauranga psychologist Kate Ferris says it’s a complex interplay of neuroscience, psychology and evolution. It’s an urge to imitate, what she calls “paying attention to status”, and it’s hardwired into our brains.
“As a social species, we get most of our knowledge, ideas, and skills by imitating others,” she says.
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Copying high-status individuals in the “group” activates feelings of reward, and increases a perception of status and prestige. That in turn releases feel-good hormone dopamine.
“This may explain our interest in what car a sports star drives or what brand of perfume Beyonce wears,” Ferris says.
“We may never attain their talent or fame, but we can move closer to it by wearing something they have been photographed in, even if it doesn’t suit us, or reading a book they tweeted about.”
Ferris has fallen for the copycat syndrome herself in the past. She fell in love with a “gorgeous” white Zimmermann dress she saw Kate Middleton wearing in a women’s magazine.
“The dress screamed grace, elegance and quality — traits that I interpreted she possessed — and I wanted. I obsessed over the dress and endeavoured to track it down.”
Ferris wore the dress a few times before the “special lustre” wore off. Nowadays she’s better at checking her motivations.
“The wanting doesn’t have the obsessive flavour that I used to experience.”
That “want” is wired into the human brain, Ferris says, so people need to consciously work to counter the impulse by learning to be content with who they are and what they have.
Enter George and his coffee machine
All well and good but there’s a reason that Nespresso uses the handsome and suave George Clooney to sell its coffee machines.
Ferris says celebrities promoting brands creates a sense of aspiration among consumers who want to emulate their lifestyles. Owning a George Clooney-endorsed coffee machine may help us to feel more important, desirable and stylish, she says.
Marketers, brand promoters and retailers may not fully understand the psychology behind why we play follow-the-leader when it comes to shopping, but they do understand the power of the influencer, in all its forms.
There’s a reason Nespresso uses George Clooney to help sell its coffee machines.
Luxury brand Gucci has partnered with ambassadors such as James Corden in the past and more recently Ryan Gosling of Barbie fame, Billie Eilish, Miley Cyrus and British DJ Mark Ronson.
K-pop (Korean pop music) influencers are increasingly embedded in the niche mix with luxury brands like Versace, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Calvin Klein and Armani.
Says Waikato University’s senior psychology lecturer Dr Cate Curtis: “We copy people because we want to be like them which is why celebrity endorsement works.”
We’re more likely to be persuaded to do something or buy something if it comes from a person we admire, aspire to be like or can identify with, she says.
Curtis says young people are more likely to be influenced by celebrities and influencers than older, more self-assured people. Young people can be a little unsure of themselves, possibly lacking in self-esteem and looking for guidance, she says.
“You’ve got this person who lives this life that we could only dream of. Being able to buy their handbag or shoes, or their crutches, helps people to feel a little bit more like that person whose life we aspire to have.”
Kiwi fashion stylist and creative producer Jaime Dillon Ridge agrees that the younger “Tik Tok” generation is more likely to be influenced, either because they want to be exactly like the person they’re following, or want to avoid being left out of a “group” they align with.
Ridge, 30, who lives and works in Los Angeles with husband Tommy Bates and their toddler son, regularly posts images of her wearing classic, chic designer clothing, often styling the photos in stark backgrounds for her more than 54,000 Instagram followers. The emphasis is on the clothes, not what she’s doing. Ridge thinks her peer group are more interested in exposure to the garment or accessory, not who’s wearing it.
Los Angeles-based Kiwi fashion stylist Jaime Dillon Ridge tries to be a conscious consumer.
She’s well aware of the pressures in her world and tries to be a “conscious consumer”. Although she hasn’t bought any Prince Louis copies for her young son she admits to finding any excuse to buy him something new and is particularly susceptible to heavily targeted branded ads.
“Shamefully, they always get me.”
Isabelle Carson, a 23-year-old Aucklander and avid fashion follower agrees that it’s the young demographic that is more likely to be influenced.
“I think that maybe comes from a place of insecurity and wanting to fit in whereas if you’re a little bit older you have had more time to develop a personal style, to figure out what you actually like.”
Carson is part of the TikTok generation, following young and quirky creators for fashion inspiration, and working with fashion influencers as part of her job. She understands the pull of an item showcased by a celebrity and the urge to track it down online.
“They live such an unattainable life, so owning a piece that they have kind of makes us feel closer to them in a way.”
But she knows it can get out of hand.
“It definitely contributes to over consumption because people get obsessed with the person and then they want to have everything that they have without maybe considering what they’re purchasing.”
Monday Haircare founder Jaimee Lupton, 31, thinks copying someone’s look or style is a natural instinct.
“If it’s coming from a good place I think it’s flattering. I love the style of women like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Erin Deering, and of course Kiwis also have amazing style — Maggie Hewitt from Maggie Marilyn and the Harris Tapper girls Sarah and Lauren always look incredible. I follow many Australian-based stylists like Jess Pecoraro and Elliot Garnaut and have no shame in asking them where a look is from.”
Monday Haircare founder Jaimee Lupton has no shame in asking strangers where they bought clothing she admires.
Lupton jokes that fashion is her sport and she’ll often ask someone wearing an item she admires where they bought it.
“Strangers in the street even.”
Welcome to my life
Apart from the brands themselves, it’s often the people behind the brands who resonate with followers — and potential customers. Victoria Beckham has cleverly incorporated more of her personal life mixed with her brand on her social media posts, Dan Ahwa, creative and fashion director for Viva and NZ Herald says.
Followers see the chickens Beckham bought her husband for Christmas, family members cooking together in the kitchen, or Beckham dancing with her daughter-in-law Nicola Peltz Beckham during a holiday in the Bahamas.
“It shows that yes, she is one and the same with her product, but it also helps people connect to her better, and ultimately a way to sell product,” he says.
With celebrities and influencers posting daily on social media, Curtis says followers can develop a one-sided relationship with them.
“We know what they’re wearing or eating and what they’re doing. In some cases, we know as much about celebrities as we know about our closest friends. And of course, they don’t know us at all.”
Ferris: “When they recommend something, we trust their recommendation like we would that of a friend.”
Ridge’s advice to both clients and friends is to dress for their lifestyle and body shape, not shaped by someone online who lives a completely different lifestyle.
When it comes to buying fashion items, she says, ask yourself “is this the man/woman I want to be?”
“It has saved me and those around me from a number of wild purchases. “
However she admits there have been times when she’s been “deep in an online shopping cart”, and she’s had to remind herself of her own advice.
“I’ve had to immediately eject myself, close that tab and take a deep breath to avoid purchasing something completely ridiculous, absolutely not my style, or not at all practical for my lifestyle.”
An unhealthy obsession
Crutches aside, psychologists warn that the urge to emulate “successful” people — which in a modern context might mean famous, rich, talented and/or beautiful — can lead people to behaviour that has no benefit or is even harmful, morphing into an unhealthy obsession. It’s important for people to pause and question what’s driving their pursuit of status, to make sure it aligns with their values, Ferris says.
Although online relationships can help with identity formation and engender a sense of comfort and community, in some instances they can become obsessive and addictive, she says.
For Kiwi Michael Grieve, who has spent the past four years in Milan as vice-president of brand and client engagement for Gucci, trust is a major component in his life.
“The more I feel there is an authenticity and a trust component to a brand or an individual, the more likely I am to receive or be impressed by whatever it is that they’re doing. Otherwise, it’s just another scroll feed,” he says.
In his opinion, imitating those we admire is part of the human condition.
“We’re always going to have a psychological desire that is aspirational. Being inspired is a core part of the human condition, it’s a fuel that drives each of us.”
Amelia Peckham, the co-owner of the Cool Crutches brand, also talks about trust. She and her co-owner mother Clare couldn’t believe their luck when their crutches appeared on a Paris catwalk this month. Developed after a serious quad bike accident in 2005 left Amelia Peckham partially paralysed from the waist down, the crutches are undoubtedly stylish and beautifully designed. However, Peckham is well aware that the sudden spike in sales came from the star rating of the celebrity as well as the star rating of the crutches.
Amelia Peckham and her mother Clare, co-founders of Cool Crutches in the UK.
Celebrities like Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, English cricketer Jonny Bairstow and now Victoria Beckham have been photographed using the crutches. Peckham says consumers trust that celebrities will have access to the best medical experts.
Those with restricted access to specialists because of financial constraints will know aids such as crutches have been stringently assessed and approved by top medical teams, she says.
“Celebrity influence is strong at the best of times but for us it’s huge.”
Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based features and investigations journalist, former assistant editor of NZ Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.
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