Instagram is the social medium of choice for the fashion industry. It is also the technology of choice for our company IDEA Books. We were by no means the first to adopt it but when we turned up late, in 2012, we did at least immediately see the potential for what we do. We didn’t have to adapt to the technology or the format. Instagram already did what we did — just better.
My partner Angela and I have been sharing images and describing/selling them in the least amount of words since the mid-nineties. It is what we do. When we are in our office with an appointment, we pick up books and open them to certain images that we know just work. These are the images that inspire, and to which people aspire to.

The customers we had before Instagram are the same customers who follow the account now – albeit there are now a lot more of them. Fashion designers, stylists, art directors and photographers didn’t have to adapt to the technology either. They were already visually super literate. They always did communicate in images – between each other, as well as to the world at large.

In some ways what is being created now is a new visual currency. Images have a value (numbers of likes/new followers attracted) and can be swapped and traded (regrammed). Having a good eye can now bring popularity, and that in itself has a real value. Of course everyone has the same technology and the same opportunity – whether that makes success more or less likely is hard to say.

If I were 15 now and following the IDEA account, I would be fairly certain that I would see more diverse and remarkable visual references in one day than I would have seen in a year when I was actually 15 and growing up in the suburbs. A quick look back at the last 24 hours on IDEA brings up Joseph Tricot with Herb Ritts and Michael Roberts using Greek iconography and jumpers worn as skirts on men; Kate Moss for Margiela in the white collection of 1993; Andreas Gursky’s photographs of Prada stores; Diane Keaton’s 1980 photobook of hotel interiors; Bill Cunningham’s 100 page plus collections specials for Details; David Hicks circa 1972; and a lot of River Phoenix books from Japan. That’s one day! We can’t say what effect this will have on anyone but surely it is a good thing – as it’s unlikely the new visually super literate will use their powers for evil doing!

‘Everything’ as in ‘This is everything’ is the highest accolade an image can attain. The truth is that the edit is everything. It is a little bit mind-bending, but our collective appreciation of visual culture is actually shaping what that culture is. It is best explained by example. To start with, consider that of the 100,000 plus followers of the IDEA account, 99.9 percent of them will see three pictures of a book on Instagram but not the book itself. The book may have 200 pages of images, but they see three. We always show the cover and two images from inside the book. We choose the images we think will sell the books – these are the images we think are ‘the best’. So the edit begins with us.
Of course, if you take Kate Moss as an example, images of her are far too prevalent for us to really shape anyone’s understanding of who she is or what she looks like. But take Charlotte Rampling, and it is quite possible that a 15 year-old’s idea of her is entirely shaped by our choice of images from her 1987 book With Compliments. Obviously, there is a whole world of Charlotte Rampling they can then go and explore for themselves.

However our edit is not everything. It is influenced by two other factors. Firstly, we sell certain books again and again but don’t like to repeat ourselves too much on Instagram, so we vary the selection. And secondly, it is beneficial for us to be popular. The most liked images are the most shared and attract more new followers. So when we vary the selection we respond to the popularity of the images and we will return to those that are most successful. This means that it is not just us that determines which pictures of Charlotte Rampling anyone sees, but it is everyone who determines which pictures of Charlotte Rampling that everyone sees. And that is a weight off our shoulders!