How Tik Tok is tapping into Generation Z - and why luxury brands are jumping on board

Clearly some brands think TikTok is the next big thing - Balenciaga, ever the early adopter, 'teased' the launch of two new bags on the app in December For luxury fashion and beauty brands trying to tap into the spending power of Generation Z, TikTok may hold the secret Cosmetics giant Mac launched a 'transformation' challenge on TikTok during New York Fashion Week last September, encouraging users to share beauty transformations using its products.

Brands could harness that potential to build hype around fashion shows and collection launches, although they may find content hard to control: in February, TikTok footage of the new catwalk collection, apparently taken by a Dior seamstress, was circulated on the app a month ahead of the show - the type of leak no fashion house would welcome Anyone with access to a camera phone has the potential to go viral on TikTok, whether a brand wants that content seen or not, whereas Instagram is more carefully regulated, and a post's visibility depends on algorithms that seem to favour paid-for content In the meantime, even as TikTok refines what it does, and brands work out how to harness its potential, it is visibly creeping into fashion boardroom strategies right through to model casting.

'Portrait of a Teen Idol: Noen Eubanks', a series of photographs shot by the brand's creative director Hedi Slimane, starred an 18-year-old TikTok star from Atlanta with 9.8 million followers. . Source