Lil Miquela took the blogger/influencer community by storm last year by being one of the first CGI fashion bloggers/influencers. Some people find her fame and even her existence, or better yet lack there of, to be quite strange while others embrace it. Lil Miquela, like most social media influencers, posts pictures of her outfits, upcoming projects, and takes a stand on things she believes in, in order to convey a clear personality to her following, the only difference between herself and most of the peers would be the fact that she isn’t real.
Although her account was created in 2016, lil Miquela started to gain attention around 2017-2018. Lil Miquela has around 1.5 million followers. Her account was created as a digital art project by two students who have remained anonymous. The two also created two other CGI instagram influencers by the names of Blawko22 and BermudaIsBae. There have been a multitude of conspiracies based on the origins of these accounts and their purpose. Some people have said lil Miquela was created as a marketing tool to promote Sims (the video game with characters who resemble lil Miquela) and there have also been rumours about numerous models who might have been behind the page. The initial discovery of these instagram accounts can get kind of confusing because they are pictured with one another and are created with so much detail that they almost look real, but then they are also pictured with real life people in real backgrounds, so you almost don’t know what is actually real and what is digitally manufactured to look real.
Lil Miquela has partnered with some of the most popular fashion and streetwear brands and has become a great form of publicity for each of them because she incites curiosity. The fashion industry is always evolving and constantly changing, therefor it only makes sense for these brands to want to partner with lil Miquela. She starts a conversation and those brands become a part of that conversation. If everyone is talking about her and debating all the conspiracies surrounding her, why not bring that attention towards your brand?
Personally I think CGI influencers make social media feel even more meaningless and fabricated than it already is. However, I dont entirely think that is a bad thing, because I don’t think social media should be taken too seriously. I feel as though, lil Miquela and influencers like her, reflect the negative aspects of social media, and in my opinion lil Miquela is the materialization of our society’s obsession with fame. It’s as if the creators are making a mockery out of the whole industry by saying it is so easy to be famous that you don’t even have to be a real person. To conclude, in my opinion, it is a little strange to look at a picture of something that looks so real while knowing that it isn’t, but that is essentially the same thing as the most famous instagram influencers who heavily edit and photoshop their pictures to the point where you are again, looking at something that seems real, but isn’t!
Thefashionpost 