By Avalon Doyle, Contributor
Right now, Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media outlets, with a staggering 10 million unique visitors each month. Over 80 per cent of these users are women, which begs the question: is Pinterest the new fashion authority?
Pinterest is a website that allows users to “pin” items to their personal boards and share items that others have pinned. The site has become a place for many to create wish lists or online notebooks for fashion, weddings, and recipes. A more interesting statistic, however, shows that Pinterest has more purchasing power than any other social media medium, with 69 per cent of online consumers reporting they bought or wanted to buy an item they found on Pinterest.
Gone are the days of females with a keen eye for fashion trends cutting out items from magazines like Vogue, Elle, or InStyle. Now it would appear that these fashionistas are finding items online and pinning them onto virtual bulletin boards titled “My Dream Closet.”
The site doesn’t just cater to high-end fashion: there are plenty of links to thrifty buys and do-it-yourself pages for the broke students who still want to rock the latest trends.
“Pinterest has influenced the fashion world by making it more accessible to everyone,” says Natalie Aybars, a Vancouver-based fashion blogger. “No longer is fashion determining the trends; people are now determining the trends with fashion following suit.” One of the reasons Aybars believes in the power of Pinterest is because it’s fashion for the people, by the people.
Pinterest is also a great way to build scrapbooks without the mess of scissors and glue. It can be for people with impending nuptials or even those who just want to try a new hairstyle.
Jessica Hanson, 23, a newlywed living in New Westminster says she used Pinterest to help her plan her personal style for her wedding. “They have so many good ideas for up-dos. I bought a bunch of wedding magazines for ideas but I ended up going with one I’d found on Pinterest,” says Hanson.
The accessibility and ease of the Internet gives everyone a voice in the fast-moving world of smart phones and tablets, and it would seem that Pinterest has become the style centre for the current digital age. “Pinterest is an easy way to decipher the most immediate fashion trends from anywhere,” says Aybars.
So if you’re short on cash this month, save the six bucks you would have spent on the newest copy of your favourite fashion magazine and try browsing endless pages of great ideas for free. Pinterest is online at pinterest.com, or available in a free app for your Android, iPhone, or tablet.
