Disruptor Designer and Her Model

Famous

2. Famous

Had you told a teenaged Marinette that by age twenty-three she would take the fashion world by storm, she might have stared in awe but ultimately hoped to believe it.

However, she never thought her storm would take this form. She wasn’t exactly working as some big label designer. She wasn’t exactly known for her pieces on the runway. Instead, she’d somehow metamorphosized into Ladybug: fashion icon, blogger, critic, and all-around web sensation.

It hadn’t been easy. She’d wanted to quit more than once. But now, she was loved by millions of followers on several social media platforms as being the sweetest, most genuine, most down-to-earth fashion icon.

Funny how the trait that Audrey said would be her ruin was the cause of her success.

When she had arrived home after Audrey had dismissed her as a protégé, she let herself have a few days off to recover and readapt to life at home. Then, she started a blog, learning how to write good posts. She called herself Ladybug, hoping to not only be an easy to remember name, but to give her a little luck as she started out on the endeavor. After a few months, she transitioned into vlogging with the encouragement of her friend Alya. And within six months of that, she started doing tutorials on random things, like sewing and designing and fixing clothes.

That had been huge for her, and she saw a massive influx of growth. Meaning tutorials began getting put up more often and she began asking her followers what they wanted to see.

But what really made her strike it big was her “Budget Runway” series. It had been a whim of a video, but it was loved by her fans. It transitioned to a weekly thing where she’d find herself with only a certain amount of money in hand and a high-end look she was aiming to emulate. It skyrocketed her fame to a million subscribers, which was one killer eighteenth birthday gift.

It also came at the price of getting her hated by some of the fashion designers whose fashion looks she copied. She had to shrug it off. She had fun doing this and loved being able to talk with people like her—aka: people with good fashion sense and small bank accounts.

She then, just for the heck of it, started doing complete looks, meaning hair and make-up tutorials as well. Soon, she found herself cranking out three videos a week and interacting with her fans heavily on all forms of social media.

Then came the opportunity to travel to Milan for a fashion show. Travel, hotel, and up-close seats were all paid for, and Marinette was positively beside herself.

She critiqued everything, which was what she was sponsored to do. And then ruined her standing with even more designers when she took those runway outfits and played “Budget Runway” in Milan, which her fans actually liked more than the actual runway show. At least, she could say she wasn’t exactly copying the designs, but they were similar enough that everyone wanted her knock-off versions over the original.

Because, in the words of her fans, why pay for the real thing when hers looked just as good? After all, they could afford her versions. Because that was her audience: the I-need-to-shop-on-a-budget group. Which was, if she thought about it, a huge group of people to market to.

Her favorite collaboration was when she was paid to play that game in some big-name department stores. At least they loved her, even if the high-end designers of the fashion world didn’t. And those stores loved her enough that by the age of twenty-one, she had her own affordable fashion line in a handful of them.