On Friday in Paris, the Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson will show his first collection as the creative director of the French fashion house Dior. During his previous, 11-year tenure as the creative director of the Spanish brand Loewe, Anderson became known for his avant-garde sensibility and dedication to craft — but also for his unique ability to turn the internet’s so-called boyfriends (those young actors and musicians who are lusted over online with possessive familiarity) into bona fide celebrities.
In the front row of Anderson’s fall 2024 Loewe men’s wear show in Paris were the established actors Jamie Dornan, Andrew Garfield and Nicholas Hoult, but also, seated with equal prominence, emerging ones, including Drew Starkey, who was set to star in “Queer” (the 2024 Luca Guadagnino movie for which Anderson oversaw the costumes), and Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, who would soon appear as romantic leads in Guadagnino’s film “Challengers,” a film that helped them reach mainstream heartthrob status, and with which Anderson was also involved as a costume designer. The following June, at Anderson’s final Loewe men’s runway show, the rising actors Kit Connor, Evan Peters and Enzo Vogrincic sat front row — suggesting, based on the strength of the designer’s track record, that they too would also soon become leading men. For Loewe, it was a display of cultural currency; for the actors, it was free publicity.
It used to be that an association with a brand was, if not a career-killer, then certainly not chic for an actor. It was hard to be taken seriously as both an artist and a de facto fashion model. But in recent decades, the rise of social media and the expansion of the fashion industry have blurred the lines between model, actor and influencer. Back in the 1980s, the Italian fashion house Armani began dressing Hollywood celebrities, including, most notably, Richard Gere for his role in the 1980 movie “American Gigolo.” But gone are the days when one megastar served as a company’s global face. Today brands adopt a multitiered system of ambassadors that includes international stars, yes, but also up-and-comers and influencers. While these cliques are often described by their members and parent brands as “family,” and frequently represent a genuine affinity, they are also carefully constructed to maximize a company’s exposure on red carpets and billboards — but also very specific corners of TikTok. Now, as this business decision solidifies into standard practice, the question is, Who ultimately wields the power, the celebrities or the brands?
Until 2010, “a few brands had ambassadors, but it was mainly for fragrance,” says Ben Cercio, the founder of a consulting agency specializing in brand strategy and communications with clients including the French fashion house Givenchy. But with the launch of Instagram that year, a shift occurred: companies began to engage not just with major actors but also with “microinfluencers” — online personalities with less than 100,000 followers — to reach their audiences early on. And because social media has accelerated the rise to fame, whenever a new talent in any field emerges from the crowd, “every brand wants to get its hands on them,” says Cercio. Now an ingénue like the actress Mikey Madison, who starred in last year’s “Anora,” might have a dozen offers from brands immediately after making a buzzy debut at a festival like Cannes, suggesting that it’s often the young actors, rather than the brands, who are in control. When Madison accepted her Oscar for best lead actress in March, she wore a custom look from Dior.
Cercio adds that while relationships once developed organically — a talent would come to a fashion show, be given some pieces and maybe wear something from the latest collection on the red carpet — increasingly, “money is very quickly involved.” Indeed, an ambassadorship is now a coveted deal among celebrities of all tiers. “There’s enough proof in the market of just how great a partnership can look,” says George Georgopoulos, the director of brand partnerships at Huxley, an agency that represents artists including Charli XCX. After releasing her globally successful album “Brat,” last summer, the pop star partnered with companies from H&M to Acne Studios and performed with a seemingly empty Gucci bag on “Saturday Night Live” in what appeared to be a wink-wink placement. (She’d headlined the brand’s annual LACMA Gala a few weeks before.) Getting a check for simply holding an object, she seemed to imply, was not selling out but making the system work for her.
For many celebrities, “there’s more money in the ambassadorship than in a lot of the payments they receive for their work onscreen,” says the writer and pop culture podcaster Evan Ross Katz. Those funds can free up major actors to pursue less commercial projects, like indie films and plays; they are also increasingly essential for younger performers who aren’t yet earning large sums for their creative work.
Depending on their level of fame, a celebrity can make anywhere from $50,000 to many millions of dollars with endorsement deals, according to several people who work on confidential contracts. On the lower end are social media posts: An artist with a significant following could be paid $100,000 to $150,000 for a single main-grid post holding a product and tagging a brand. If their following is in the multiple millions, however, these numbers can reach seven figures, one stylist said. Slightly more lucrative are red-carpet appearances. And on the higher end are elaborate contracts that require more than just showing up at Fashion Week twice a year. A deal worth around $3 million, for example, could involve appearing in advertising campaigns, attending events like store openings, being dressed for the red carpet, wearing the brand out more casually for paparazzi shots and creating several social media posts.
The prestige of an endorsement deal can also boost the cachet of a relatively unknown artist or internet personality immeasurably. Katz cites the YouTuber Emma Chamberlain and the pop star Addison Rae as two recent examples of social media stars whose fame has grown well beyond their original audience, partly because of their fashion partnerships. Since 2019, Chamberlain has been an ambassador for Louis Vuitton; last year, Rae appeared in a campaign film for Saint Laurent. Likewise, while celebrity ambassadors might not necessarily move units for brands in the short term — unless they have the influence of a Kardashian or a Hadid — they give companies exposure to niche but devoted audiences. By putting the actor Jeremy Allen White on a billboard, for example, Calvin Klein helped transform a nascent sex symbol into the kind of established idol the brand more typically casts — and it got to be a part of the cultural conversation following the success of White’s show “The Bear.” And when, last summer, Marc Jacobs recruited the viral TikTok chef Nara Smith to “make” one of the brand’s tote bags from baking ingredients in a tongue-in-cheek video, Smith gained fashion credibility, while the brand got to create a social media moment of its own. Both parties signaled that they were in on the joke. But not all relationships are the right match. “I remember this desire for fashion to lead the conversation and not follow it,” says Katz. “Part of me worries that that’s beginning to shift.”
Still, brands are continuing to experiment with new models. Last week, in anticipation of Anderson’s first show, Dior added a handful of fashion influencers and content creators, including Hanan Besovic of @ideservecouture, to its Close Friends group on Instagram, teasing inspiration images and photographs of new accessories. The recipients naturally then shared the images with their audiences. Although a marketing move, it felt both personal and reciprocal: The influencers were excited to be intimates of the house, and the company received free exposure. For now, a question remains: Which, if any, of Anderson’s Loewe boyfriends will be invited to sit front row?
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