people in the news Archives

She was wearing designer clothes, jetting around the globe to one event after another, posting hundreds of images of the perfect family in endless settings. This was the life for the Princess of Instagram, Chiara Ferragani. Her 30 million followers saw every aspect of her social media existence. The former Italian blogger and model had a reality show based around her life with husband Fedez and two children.

Advertisers paid up to 100.000 euros for a posting on her account. Ferragani’s glamorous life hit a brick wall with an apology viewed around the world posted in an IG video. Prime Minister Meloni weighed in on the scandal saying, “The real models to follow are not the influencers who make a lot of money by wearing clothes and showing bags … or even promoting expensive cakes that make people believe they are charitable,.” OUCH!

The Cake

Chiara’s company and Italian cake maker Balacco were fined 1.1 million euros and 480.000 euros respectively for deceiving the public. Authorities in Rome uncovered the Children’s Charity donation was fraudulent. 50.000 euros went to the hospital, while the Chiara pocketed over 1 million euros. Claiming “a communication error”, the influencer sporting a cashmere top vowed to make it right while at the same time crying her unfair treatment.

Billy McFarland and Fyre Festival, Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, Sam Bankman Fried and FTX, now Chaira Ferragani all have many behavioral patterns in common. This group lived larger than life lives in the spotlight, an incredible sense of entitlement with unmatched compartmentalization skills not wanting to understand the consequences of their actions. The Italian IT Girl’s new multi million euro Lake Como Home has been pinned to the top of her Instagram feed.

Fraud pays, was this 36 year old’s first questionable charity project? According to media outlets, there are swirling questions around similar charitable collaborations from 2021.

Having been featured in Forbes and Fortune magazines, the “Girlboss” term applied to Chiara, a business woman in charge. There is a class at Harvard teaching her style of branding. Perhaps these gatekeepers should have looked a bit deeper than beyond a filtered image. Eyewear brand Safilo cancelled her contract due to moral lapses. You think!

For influencers, the lure of the spotlight is too hard to resist. Who imagines Mrs. Ferragani going away quietly?

Edward Enninful, Vogue’s first person of color Editor-in-Chief has moved to another position at the publishing house. It was a sort of a shocking announcement, with the usual “thank you for your support” and other clichéd niceties. The Ghanaian born’s new title is “global creative and cultural advisor” for the publishing house. That is a big title to swallow, imagine on a business card. Starting in 2024 Vogue UK will no longer have an EIC, but an Editor of Content. That means less money, less power, with all final decisions made in the United States.

For some time there has been an open secret of a rift between the Queen of High Fashion Anna Wintour and the British title head. Rumours of cold shoulders were rife, Edward not appearing at Vogue World in New York. Mr. Enninful has been the face of the fashion world’s move to inclusivity. Placing many no so typical faces on the cover. My questions, beyond the bubble hype, did these issues sell? Do readers buy fashion magazines for “activism”? The paradox of wearing a $10,000 dress while screaming a social cause is not exactly the same as Gandhi crisscrossing India demanding liberation from the British Empire.

Parent company Conde Nast has struggled over the digital years. Once fashion’s standard-bearer, today, the glossy pages come across as the faded opulence of your once glorious yet struggling aunt who has not come to terms with modern times. Instagram sets the fashion clock today.

The other hint of tension happened on June 1st when Wintour announced her plan for a London Vogue World event charity benefitting the arts scene. Enninful’s name was conspicuously missing from the announcement, a big slight for the ultimate UK based fashion insider. Even predators on the Serengeti respect each others’ territory, not New York’s Queen of the Magazines.

Edward learned what others knew. Those Prada’s will walk over anyone to stay on top of the rag trade press.