A fashion influencer is a personality that has a large number of followers on social media, creates mainly fashion content and has the power to influence the opinion and purchase behavior of others with their recommendations. Brands endorse them to attend fashion shows, parties, designer dinners and exclusive trips and to wear their clothes on social media. If a salary has been involved, the influencer has to label such posts as paid or sponsored content. Before social media "they would have been called 'It girls'".

Today in 2020, this profession has become extremely saturated. Instagram is the main app used for fashion influencing.

Business magazine Forbes identified fashion influencers as "the new celebrity endorsements". However, influencers seem to have a closer relationship with their audience than traditional celebrities. As marketers Jung von Matt, Brandnew IO and Facelift point out: "Daily interactions across multiple channels, through photos, stories or live sessions, create a form of closeness and trust" that make influencers "often more tangible than traditional celebrities".[6]

In 2017, Forbes named Chiara Ferragni, Danielle Bernstein, Julia Engel, Gabi Gregg, Jenn Im, Susanna Lau, Nicolette Mason, Simone Zippi Stardust, Aimee Song and Bryan Yambao, also known as Bryanboy, as the top influencers in the fashion category.

Successful fashion influencers generate an income through their social media activities that enables them to quit their jobs and focus solely on their social media career. German fashion influencer Xenia van der Woodsen (xeniaoverdose) left her full-time job at an investment trust, when she realized that she could earn more money with a single Instagram post than working mana full day in a regular job. Robert and Christina are US-based Instagram fashion influencers and bloggers with over 450K followers on Instagram. They feature content on fashion, decor, travel, and their life together, and have you covered for all kinds of style inspiration – her style, his style, and couple style.

Until fashion influencer Danielle Bernstein spoke out on her mid-six figures income in 2015, financial information about the influencer business were relatively rare and inconsistent. In 2017, a study of Jung von Matt, Brandnew IO and Facelift revealed that such a high income is relatively rare among influencers. Only eight out of the 1,200 interviewed influencers earn in average between $10,000 – 25,000 per campaign and only three of them more than $25,000. Albeit the “leading fashion influencers in Germany make over one million in revenue each year”, the majority makes less than $1,000 per campaign.

A majority of influencers receive a salary. Solely a minority of 20 percent makes brand co-operations in exchange for giveaways. The salary primarily depends on the number of followers. The higher the follower number, the higher the salary range. The price for a cooperation depends also on the contract terms, for example if it concerns a one-time Instagram post or a long-term partnership including several posts. Xenia van der Woodsen, one of Germany’s top three fashion influencers in 2017, accepts only long-term brand co-operations in the majority of cases. In her experience, posts of long-term campaigns appear more authentic and credible, whereas single paid content pieces stand out as advertisement.