Are you considering becoming an influencer? Do you dream of walking the red carpet at the Vixen Awards? Here are a few things you can consider keeping in mind, after the organizers of the award went to the sensational step of suing Natt&Dag before the Press Professional Committee, after the newspaper published some sour comments about the guests and their outfits on Instagram. Firstly: Internationally, there are a number of publications and fashion blogs that work overtime when there have been major award ceremonies or premieres. Then the outfits are picked apart, analysed, praised and criticized. The magazine Cosmopolitan regularly hires fashion bloggers Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez, known as Tom+Lorenzo, to choose the best and worst dressed. LEGEND: Helen Gurley Brown founded the outspoken girls’ magazine Cosmopolitan. Today, the magazine constantly chooses the best and worst dressed stars after major award ceremonies. Photo: Ap General manager of the Vixen Awards, Pia Tryland, reacts to the fact that the images from the red carpet are used in a different context than clarified with the guests. Then she is either not familiar with how this is done elsewhere, or believes that Norway should be an exception. Anyone with a subscription to an image bank, be it international Getty and Stella Pictures or Norwegian Scanpix, can retrieve images from there and use them with proper credit. And Scanpix was present at the Vixen Awards and willingly clicked away. There was a time when this kind of online fashion commentary was tougher than it is today. Then body, outfit and image could be sauced together in an unsavory and sometimes rather chicanous mixture. THE COMPLAINT: Actress Olivia Munn is one of very few international stars who have complained about fashion bloggers criticizing red carpet outfits. Photo: Reuters Now some fashion bloggers have gone far in the opposite direction. There have probably been reactions from the readers, who, after all, make a living. They are more reluctant than before to send critical remarks in the direction of highly gassed stars. Even if these stars smile with effort in outfits that almost scream “I’m under contract to the fashion house, okay?”. It naturally requires good balance and technique to catch the ball, that is to say the outfit, and not the woman. But it is entirely possible. In the post where Natt&Dag suggests that one of the guests looks as if she has a disability, many will think that they fell into the wrong ditch. But then it is not that the images were used in an unexpected context that is the problem. “JUST EMBARRASSED”: Leah Isadora Behn was among those who commented during the photo carousel where she and other Vixen guests were criticized for their outfits. Photo: NTB Secondly: It may not always be easy to know exactly when you are in a public place. But if you dress up and go to an awards ceremony, where there’s a stage, a red carpet, and about seventy press people, it’s definitely a public place. If you walk the red carpet, in front of the photographers, it is because both you and the organizers want you and your outfit to be photographed. That’s because everyone involved wants these images to reach a larger audience. And when these pictures hit the public, it is not at all certain that the public thinks your outfit is as nice as you think. They may even say that out loud. Or they might make a satirical Instagram post about what they thought didn’t work. As Natt&Dag did. PRAISED AND CRITICIZED: Oskar Westerlin won a prize at the Vixen Awards, but was among those who got the smooth layer of Natt&Dag. Photo: NTB But the reactions after the Natt&Dag post indicated that many simply do not see the possibility of famous people being greeted with anything other than compliments and heart emojis. VG commentator Selma Moren described Natt&Dag’s carousel as “bullying aimed at people who have done nothing but dress up”. That description is probably not quite correct. If you’ve been rummaging through your wardrobe for something to wear to the Christmas table at work, you’ve done nothing but decorate. If you’re hitting the red carpet at one of the most press-covered awards shows of the year, styled to the teeth, you’re at work. The mother also compares the Natt&Dag post to the sexism women in the public used to be exposed to “before”, which presumably means fifteen to twenty years ago, when stars such as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton were hounded around the clock and regularly exposed in the media for what they did in private life. FOT FOLLOWED: Britney Spears was one of the female stars who was pursued by the press and paparazzi around the turn of the millennium. Image from the film “Framing Britney Spears.” Photo: The New York Times But this frenzy, which helped to destroy Spears’ life, is probably not exactly comparable to having an ironic comment thrown at you after a public appearance. When you actively seek attention, you have no guarantee that all this attention will be positive. But influencer-land is a mixture of the private and the commercial. The individual sells both himself and his own life, and the goods to the partners who finance it. This means that the influencers can choose to go in and out of the role that suits them best. They are smart salesmen when the flashbulbs are on, vulnerable individuals when they receive criticism. This means that decisions that have been taken at least partly for financial, strategic or commercial reasons become impossible to criticize, or to criticize, because it takes so little before it can be characterized as “bullying”. COMMENTARY: Many were offended on behalf of Anny Isabella Øvrehus for the comment she received from Natt&Dag. Here in another dress, made from taco lefser, before she changed into the mentioned outfit. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB One of the Natt&Dag comments that has received the most attention is the description by Anny Isabella Øvrehus: “The tits are so far apart that they only communicate via Skype”. Several have taken this as a comment about Øvrehus’ body. It really isn’t. It is a description of what the dress she is wearing does to her body. Unlike the first dress she wore this evening, which was amusingly made of taco shells, the Night&Day dress had a plunging neckline and small cups that just look like they’ve been pushed out to each side. This is a conscious design choice by the person who designed the dress, and Øvrehus made a conscious choice to wear it in the lightning rain. Not everyone thought it worked. It’s not worse. COMPLAINT: Pia Tryland in the Vixen Awards complained to Natt&Dag before the Press’ Professional Committee. Due to the committee’s rules, the complaint will not be processed. Photo: Press image The PFU complaint will not be processed, because Natt&Dag is not affiliated with the Norwegian Press Association. The thoughts and feelings behind it are still worth a closer look. When Tryland explains the complaint by saying that the guests at the Vixen Awards should be “safe”, it is actually a highly dubious compliment she pays them. Because what does it say about you if you go to the ground with mild satire? Are you “insecure” if someone doesn’t like the dress you’ve shown to the whole of Norway? If you encounter unexpected resistance? Is that a well-chosen word at a time when many people are in actual physical danger? It is very, very little fun to receive negative reviews. If the influencers who felt hurt by Natt&Dag cried a little in the crook of their girlfriend’s arm the next day, it is completely understandable. I hope they got a hug and a big cup of hot chocolate. And that someone said to them: If you go out into the world with the goal of being seen, people are going to see you. And perhaps you neither can nor should be able to control how they react.
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Smart salespeople when the flash lights are on, vulnerable individuals when they receive criticism. – Speech
