Over a decade ago when the first fashion bloggers arrived on the scene, the main players in the fashion industry didn't immediately grasp their potential. Things developed quickly, though, and soon from the street and the backstage, bloggers infiltrated the front row, becoming a major sensation. Sadly, any potentially anarchic intent they may have had to disrupt the fashion industry was soon eliminated when some of them became more high profile than others, were co-opted by the fashion industry and started collaborating with brands. Yet the biggest revolution to come was represented by the new wave of influencers (and bloggers turned influencers…): helped by the power of social media, influencers became the next big thing, while Instagram turned into their favourite digital platform to visually engage with their fans.
Influencers brought with them a new style, collaborating with brands and fashion houses, but also receiving gifts, trips or money in exchange for endorsing a product. An influencer's endorsement can definitely generate both media and real revenues that's why companies started allocating large parts of their advertising budgets to influencer marketing campaigns. Yet such practices have also mined the integrity and objectivity of influencers, ending up generating confusion in those consumers who may find it difficult to distinguish between lifestyle posts and advertising messages.
Authorities around the world, studied the phenomenon and the US Federal Trade Commission, explored the consequences of the promotional/professional dichotomy in the life of influencers, issuing conduct guidelines to make sure consumers became more aware.
Italy has been slower than other countries regulating collaborations between brands and influencers, but Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (Italian Fashion Chamber) is trying to catch up and has just issued a document entitled "Guidelines and Interpretative Rules for Influencers".
"Influencers have turned out to be one the most effective marketing tools thanks to the immediacy of the message that they convey and to the fact that they have integrated promotional activities within the ordinary day, thus making them essentially indistinguishable from the everyday life activities," states the document.
The short document, written with the support of attorneys at Deloitte Legal and based on the US Federal Trade Commission guidelines (a deliberate choice since, as the CNMI explains, many Italian brands deal with American consumers) and on Part 255 of Title 16 of the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, then suggests which best practices fashion brands should embrace when collaborating with social media influencers.
The guidelines make a distinction between celebrities and influencers (even though boundaries blur at times as influencers can be celebrities and vice versa…), then they highlight how the #ad/#adv hashtags may be confusing and misleading, especially when they refer to a product or garment supplied for a particular occasion that the consumer may think is actually available in shops. Besides, it may be difficult for a brand expecting a celebrity or influencer to post about a product they may have sent to them for a special occasion (think for example a red carpet event). 
The Italian Fashion Chamber suggests therefore four good practices to implement: suggesting companies to draft a policy "specifying the rules of conduct that influencers should comply to when promoting its products, providing, i.e., specific disclosure obligations in case the brand has paid the influencer to wear its product, hashtag positioning, etc…"; drafting a contract with the influencer or the agency that manages their images; asking the influencer to sign the policy and, last but not least, in case of gifts to influencers, insert a "Thank you" card, referring them to the policy and asking the influencer to post a content which specifies – "Thank you [brand] for the gift of the [product]."
Besides, the Fashion Chamber also adds that it could be appropriate for brands to discuss with national and international authorities other issues such as the inclusion of a different hashtag for gifts (#gift followed by the brand name), and consider a possible hashtag for loans of clothes and accessories. Other suggestions include specifying in more detailed ways when and how to use the hashtag #ad/#adv/#sponsored (only in the first post? What about follow-ups? Should brand employees also use it?); establishing that, in case of low value, it may not be necessary to insert any hashtag if the brand only pays the influencers the expenses for participation to specific events.
While the Fashion Chamber guidelines are the first document of their kind compiled in Italy, they are still too basic and a bit lazy as well, being mainly based on what the US Federal Commission suggests regarding to influencers. In a way they represent a missed opportunity to regulate things better (should they have added the case of influencers "failing to influence" and should company self-regulate themselves and limit the numbers of influencers they employ to avoid brand dilution?) while hoping that one day a proper legislation will be drafted. At the same time, the guidelines are a step forward in this field and actually remind us that in a globalised world there aren't internationally agreed-upon laws regarding influencers. More changes may come in future, but in the meantime high-profile influencers may not be so worried by such rules and regulations as they are too busy rebelling to the experimental removal of "like" counts on Instagram.
In April Instagram accounced it would start testing the possibility of hiding "like" counts on posts. The feature has so far been tested in different countries including Australia, Ireland, Canada and the US. While "like" counts generate a terrible competitive culture, especially among young people who are often led to believe that quantity is better than quality, quite a few celebrities and influencers were outraged as such a feature may lead to a reduction of Instagram engagement and damage their chances of getting more brand deals.
At the moment there aren't huge changes for the main influencers and most of them still seem to have an engagement above the norm, but, who knows, maybe in between digital influencers on the rise, guidelines regulating collaborations with brands and the removal of the "like" count, we will see a decrease in the actual number of influencers as trend forecaster Li Ederlkoort predicted a while back.
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