It takes a lot of inspiration to craft a great meme. When it comes to fashion industry and its pathogeneses, it is often a great meme you only need to describe them without saying a word. Enter Hanan Besovic. The fashion commentator-turned-Instagram-sensation has always manifested you can approach even the biggest of the fashion scandals with the right dose of humor-and be universally heard. A Croatian who moved to the United States to initially work in hospitality, Besovic credits the pandemic for his change of plans and the birth of his passion project, the @ideservecouture Instagram account.
With a:” Ph.D. in meme with a master in throwing shade and a minor in fashion”, Besovic is, again in his own words, a fashion expert in the making who is sharing his knowledge and research of fashion to an army of followers and fans. He is already recognized as one of the new guards of fashion commentators that have built up their own fast-growing digital communities operating outside the traditional elitist models of the fashion world. Today we catch up with him to discuss traditional fashion media, the big brands, and the art of being yourself inside the vast fashion landscape.
I find it easiest to communicate my fashion vision on Instagram because it became a communication tool for everyone
Are traditional fashion media currently irrelevant?
I don’t think that they are irrelevant; there is still a market for it. It’s just a market that doesn’t think about fashion deeply, but just absorbs the top of this fashion iceberg. Traditional fashion media is valid and necessary when it comes to reporting on facts, but their critical opinion is what they lack.And I completely understand the lack of critical opinion because for them fashion is a business that has to keep the advertising money coming in. They have to find a balance between making companies happy to stay in business and their readers.
Are social media platforms and groups actually replacing traditional fashion media?
If we are talking about print vs paper, paper has been losing that battle for the previous few years. I went through Vogue’s September Issue only to see the pictures I already saw online. The physical copies of magazines are slowly becoming unnecessary. Social media platforms are taking over, as they should. It’s easy to access and they make them easy to navigate. But also, everything is online. You are getting your covid vaccination results online, why wouldn’t you also get fashion news online. Also, social media platforms tend to talk about topics that touch upon everything. It is not about drooling over Kendall Jenner’s outfit or how beautiful Bella Hadid is, but social media analyzes fashion in more depth.
There is a lot of fashion content offered online. What makes good one stand out?
It really depends on what a person is looking for. Social media is offering a variety of content and commentary. It just depends on what you are looking for. Quality and knowing what you are talking about will make content stand out.
How would you imagine fashion content will develop in the future? Are brands a part of it?
The brands are a crucial part of it because they provide the content since they are providing the materials for the content. Every brand’s business decision is fashion content because every decision affects someone. I always say that these brands are failing to realize that in the 90’s and before, it was all about clothes and the look. In 2021, they are getting judged on much harder standards.Every decision matters and is being looked at with magnifying glass. So their decisions are possible content for the future. We are covering who you hired, why you hired them, the inspiration behind the collections, we talk about diversity, etc. They are getting judged way harsher than in the old days of fashion.
What would you use if you had to choose one platform for communicating your fashion vision?
I find it easiest to communicate my fashion vision on Instagram because it became a communication tool for everyone. What Facebook was in the past, Instagram is now. And it is a social media where everyone finds their own group depending on what they are interested in. If you wanted to communicate your fashion vision, bring it to a platform where everyone is and make them see it. Fashion brands are even trying to get on social media platforms that are not designed at all for fashion, but they try to make it work.
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