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2016

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2018

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Magazine cover 2015

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Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy

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The Power of Influence_ Traditional Celebrity vs Social Media Inf

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Cannes Red Carpet look in 2018

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Cannes Red Carpet look in 2011

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Kaja J. Fietkiewicz

Isabelle Dorsch

Katrin Scheibe

Franziska Zimmer

Wolfgang G. Stock

Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 10913)

Abstract

Social live streaming services (SLSSs) are social media, which combine Live-TV with elements of Social Networking Services (SNSs). In social media and thus also in SLSSs, the so-called influencer and micro-celebrities play an important role, but to what extend are SLSSs' streamers motivated by fame or financial gain? We conducted a content analysis in order to investigate SLSSs' streamers (n = 7,667) on Periscope, Ustream and YouNow in respect to their general characteristics and streaming motivation being fame and financial gain. We have developed a research model referring to the platform used by the streamers, their gender, origin, age and streamed content (general characteristics), as well as the motivational aspects. Streamers of Ustream are mostly motivated by financial gain, whereas YouNow broadcasters seek to be famous. Considering the streamers age, older generations (Gen X, Silver Surfers) aspire after financial gain. With progressing age the motivation to become a star decreases. Mostly streamed content by streamers motivated by money is entertainment media. For streamers wanting to become a star chatting and making music are the preferred content categories.

Keywords

Social live streaming services Micro-celebrities Social media influencers

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References

1. Alamiri, D., Blustein, J.: Privacy awareness and design for live video broadcasting apps. In: Stephanidis, C. (ed.) HCI 2016, Part I. CCIS, vol. 617, pp. 459-464. Springer, Cham (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40548-3_76

2. Cohen, J.: Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edn. Psychology Press, New York (1989)

3. Gros, D., Wanner, B., Hackenholt, A., Zawadzki, P., Knautz, K.: World of Streaming. Motivation and Gratification on Twitch. In: Meiselwitz, G. (ed.) SCSM 2017, Part I. LNCS, vol. 10282, pp. 44-57. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58559-8_5

4. Kavka, M.: Celevision: Mobilizations of the television screen. In: Marshall, P.D., Redmond, S. (eds.) A Companion to Celebrity, pp. 295-314 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118475089.ch16

5. Muntean, N., Petesen, A.H.: Celebrity twitter: strategies of intrusion and disclosure in the age of technoculture. M/C J. 12(5) (2009). http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/194

6. Page, R.: The linguistics of self-branding and micro-celebrity in twitter: the role of hashtags. Discourse Commun. 6(2), 181-201 (2012)

7. Senft, T.M.: Microcelebrity and the branded self. In: Burgess, J.E., Bruns, A. (eds.) A Companion to New Media Dynamics, pp. 346-354. Blackwell, Malden (2013)

8. Zimmer, F., Fietkiewicz, K.J., Stock, W.G.: Law infringements in social live streaming services. In: Tryfonas, T. (ed.) Human Aspects of Information Security, Privacy and Trust, pp. 567-585. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58460-7_40

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Dreaming of Stardom and Money: Micro-celebrities and Influencers on Live Streaming Services

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Kaja J. Fietkiewicz Isabelle Dorsch Katrin Scheibe Franziska Zimmer Wolfgang G. Stock Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 10913) Social live streaming services (SLSSs) are social media, which combine Live-TV with elements of Social Networking Services (SNSs).

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#1 on Forbes' Top Influencer List in Fashion Category (2017)

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#1 on Forbes' Top Influencer List in Fashion Category (2017)

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There can't be a much better endorsement for a fashion blogger-turned-influencer looking to be taken seriously as a business person than a Harvard Business School case study looking into the success of her website.

That's exactly how Chiara Ferragni began to prove to naysayers that her blog, The Blonde Salad, was not a flight of fancy but a high-end brand, with partnerships and revenues to match.

In its 2015 report, the Ivy League school projected annual revenues of at least $9 million for the Milanese style blogger and her team.

Since then, Ferragni and The Blonde Salad have gone from strength to strength: she's launched her own line of apparel and accessories, and employs 20 staffers for a fashion site that competes with traditional media platforms.

The 30-year-old lands at #1 on Forbes' Top Influencers list in the Fashion category, joining other impressive entrepreneurs who've moved beyond the blogosphere to launch clothing lines and ink lucrative sponsorships, including Man Repeller's Leandra Medine and Gabi Gregg of Gabifresh.

"I think influencers right now are the new media," Ferragni said in an interview with Forbes from a penthouse hotel suite during New York Fashion Week in September. "In the past, people were so interested in reading fashion news out of a magazine, and now they get all this information from social media, through influencers."

Ferragni started blogging in 2009, when she was a law student in her home country of Italy. "I really started The Blonde Salad at the best time possible," she said. "That's when the world started talking about the fashion blogger phenomenon, and brands started approaching me from the very beginning."

While she's worked on sponsored content and ad campaigns with design houses ranging from Guess to Gucci, Ferragni always wanted to launch her own line.

She started with shoes, and her aesthetic is recognizable: cute, comfortable sneakers, loafers and flats, mostly, with an emoji-like eye as her signature embellishment.

Her wares are available in 350 stores, including in flagships in Milan and Shanghai. The Asian market is a priority for Ferragni and her team, with 20 stores scheduled to open in China in the near future.

In the meantime, Ferragni keeps her 10.3 million-plus Instagram fans interested by interspersing images of her stylish travels and chic outfits with shots of her out on the town with her fiance, Italian rapper Fedez.

She's also working on her legacy, grooming her younger sister Valentina Ferragni (1.3 million Instagram followers) as the next Milanese social media style star.

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Forbes Top Influencers: Instagram 'It' Girl Chiara Ferragni On Building A Fashion Empire

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There can't be a much better endorsement for a fashion blogger-turned-influencer looking to be taken seriously as a business person than a Harvard Business School case study looking into the success of her website. That's exactly how Chiara Ferragni began to prove to naysayers that her blog, The Blonde Salad, was not a flight of fancy but a high-end brand, with partnerships and revenues to match.

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The renowned Italian blogger Chiara Ferragni married the FedEx rapper on September 1st and the magnificent weddings received media attention all over the world. Only a few days have passed since the wedding, and Chiara has started making important decisions, such as the decision to dismiss her former boyfriend, Riccardo Pozzoli. Ferragni and Pozzoli have been linked for six years and have been the ones who helped set up her company, Tbs Crew.

Thanks to him was born the blog "The Blonde Salad", through which Chiara became known throughout the world. Ferragni has dismissed Pozzoli from all his duties in the company. It's not known whether this has to do with professional or personal reasons, but it was something that was already expected that the blogger is married and has a guy with Fedez.

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After marriage, Chiara Ferragni makes a drastic decision about the former boyfriend

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The renowned Italian blogger Chiara Ferragni married the FedEx rapper on September 1st and the magnificent weddings received media attention all over the world. Only a few days have passed since the wedding, and Chiara has started making important decisions, such as the decision to dismiss her former boyfriend, Riccardo Pozzoli.

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FASHION designer Stefano Gabbana is being blasted on social media for calling Instagram influencer Chiara Ferragni "cheap" on her wedding day.

The news comes just months after the Italian designer similarly described Selena Gomez as "so ugly" on social media.

Italian fashionista and style star Ferragni wed Italian rapper and "X-Fact Italia" judge Fedez in a glamorous ceremony in Sicily on September 1.

The Blonde Salad blogger sported three custom Dior gowns for the big day, and the Dolce & Gabbana co-founder quickly berated her first ensemble.

Soon after the 31-year-old new mum said "I do," the Instagram account @commentsbycelebs sounded the alarm that 55-year-old Gabbana wrote "cheap" on a Harper's Bazaar UK Instagram post of Ferragni in a voluminous, lace-detailed, long-sleeved Dior ensemble, reminiscent of Grace Kelly's iconic bridal gown.

The move evidently struck a nerve with many, and the designer was soon slammed online.

On today's edition of, 'Can't Keep It To Himself' - Stefano Gabbana. pic.twitter.com/GKimoAgllC
- Comments by Celebs (@cbycelebs) September 2, 2018

"Are you just mad that this beautiful girl didn't wear a dress designed by you? Fact: A woman can put on a dress she finds in a thrift store, David's Bridal, or one of yours and if she feels lovely in it than she is! Do everyone a favour and keep your negativity to yourself!" one Instagram critic clapped.

"That's really shocking to read that kind of comment from the great designer that you are Stefano. I don't know the level of professional relationship that you have (or not) with @chiaraferragni, but that's pity from you to act like that," another said.

"Not as cheap as those rhinestone D&G T-shirts you sell for $400," one Ferragni fan mercilessly quipped.

Though Ferragni has yet to publicly comment on the matter, she's no stranger to standing up to online bullies.

In July, she blasted a major Italian newspaper for reportedly fat-shaming her friends during her bachelorette party in Ibiza, Spain.

Back in June, Gabbana caught similar heat for describing Selena Gomez as "so ugly" on Instagram.

As noted by People, Gabbana and his business partner, Domenico Dolce, have been previously criticised for their vocal opposition to gay adoptions and IVF.
This article originally appeared on Fox News and has been republished with permission.

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Insane celebrity wedding branded 'cheap'

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FASHION designer Stefano Gabbana is being blasted on social media for calling Instagram influencer Chiara Ferragni "cheap" on her wedding day. The news comes just months after the Italian designer similarly described Selena Gomez as "so ugly" on social media.

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Chiara Ferragni Shoes FW 2013 - Video Campaign

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I used to love Chiara Ferragni. Well, I've never known Chiara Ferragni intimately, so to say I loved her is probably hyperbole - but I was a fan. I read her blog semi-regularly. I blame her for my obsession with Acne's blue silk platform court shoes that I still frequently hunt for on Depop, eBay and Vestiaire Collective* (to no avail). I stopped following Chiara quite so fervently at some stage over the past few years. The Blonde Salad changed from a personal style blog to a website that didn't interest me quite so much; her own style became even less attainable than it had been; she moved to LA and is dating a pop star and, in a way, the girl-next-door vibe I liked about the early Blonde Salad simply wasn't there anymore. (This is not to say that any of those decisions were wrong - her rocketing wealth is a testament to how right they were. Merely to say that I miss the days of un-self-conscious personal style blogs, featuring women who actually wear the clothes they're shooting.)

It wasn't until she posted this photograph to her Instagram this week - accompanied by the caption "10 days postpartum 💪🏼" that I realised she's an asshole.

There has been so much written about the pressure on women to "bounce back" post-baby that there is little demand for a thinkpiece from me, someone who neither has a baby nor a "pre-baby" body, on why we women need to give ourselves a break (both pre- and post-baby). I could witter on about the idea of the body being something separate to us, our selves; your body is not an entity entirely detached from your being. By that same token, your body is not your identity. You are more than your body but you are do not exist independently of it, just as it does not exist independently of you. Your body is not the enemy.

It would be wiser, in fact, to think of women such as Chiara Ferragni as the enemy. Women who - as Caroline Hirons highlighted on her Instagram Story - have nannies and money ( so much money) and assistants and access to trainers and chefs and, lest we forget, are naturally slim and always have been. Women who, instead of using their privilege and good fortune to help others less privileged and less fortunate than them, use it to show off about just how great their lives are.

There is nothing inherently "better" about women whose bodies shed all signs of pregnancy immediately, much as there is nothing "better" about women who are naturally thin - but we live in a society that says otherwise, and when we are feeling tired and emotional and self-conscious, it's hard to hold on to your body positive ideals and not to judge yourself against someone else's yardstick.

I'm not suggesting that Chiara Ferragni should only go out and about in hessian and sackcloth for the next six months, with mascara bleeding down her face and dried breastmilk on her top (although honestly, I'd love to see that), but that maybe - just maybe - she could have chosen a different caption for her photograph. Something about the weather, or the day, or what she was up to, or a joke about escaping from her baby (I don't know a single new mum who wouldn't appreciate those jokes).

The thing is, there's always going to be somebody who's self-conscious about the very thing you're subtly showing off about (and I'm thinking of myself here, and the good skin I got from my Mum, posting "hashtag nomakeup" pics and thinking I'm only deadly) - but, of all women, those who have recently given birth surely deserve a little more consideration than normal.

TL;DR. I'm perfect and - despite never having given birth - know that if I ended up doing so, I would hide my incredibly slim post-baby-body from the world so as not to make anybody else feel bad about how fab I looked. xoxo

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Chiara Ferragni's 10-day-postpartum body, woman-shaming and the subtle art of showing off

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I used to love Chiara Ferragni . Well, I've never known Chiara Ferragni intimately, so to say I loved her is probably hyperbole - but I was a fan. I read her blog semi-regularly.

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(2017)

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Chiara Ferragni is now CEO and president of The Blonde Salad

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From Instagram to finance: "It girl" Chiara Ferragni is now CEO and president of her company The Blonde Salad.

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Introducing the new face of Pomellato: Chiara Ferragni. #PomellatoForWomen #Pomellato

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(2015)

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How Chiara Ferragni turned her fashion blog into big business

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The social influencer turned shoe designer launched her first stand-alone U.S. pop-up store in L.A.

It may be small, but thanks to wall-to-wall silver glitter, it's pretty hard to miss Chiara Ferragni' s new pop-up store at The Grove in Los Angeles.

Though her eponymous brand, which is currently stocked at Saks Fifth Avenue, Shopbop, Farfetch and more, has popped up in department stores before, the new shop at The Grove marks the Italian fashion influencer known as The Blonde Salad's first-ever stand-alone U.S. store.

"I just love L.A.," Ferragni told Pret-a-Reporter of why she chose the city for her introduction to the world of brick-and-mortar retail. "I actually live here now, and I love it so much, especially The Grove."

The Chiara Ferragni retail space is located at the heart of the shopping center, near the stage and just across from Santa's village, in the same pop-up space that recently hosted Obsessee's "IRL" shop. "During Christmastime, it's so magical," added Ferragni, whose storefront will be open through the holiday season (Nov. 19 through Jan. 2.). "My family always comes here to visit for Christmas, and last year they were like, 'Oh, my God, Chiara, you have to open a store here, it would be a dream!' Then we started working on it, and it actually happened. It's insane!"

Pieces from the designer's fall 2016 collection, as well as a preview of six styles from her spring collection - currently exclusive to the pop-up - will be available for purchase inside the sparkly space. Shop espadrilles and glittery loafer slides embellished with her signature winking-eye motif, as well as snow boots to match the glitter-covered snowboard perched at the entrance.

"I'm obsessed with music, and David Bowie is my favorite, so we had to have this music-inspired collection, too," added Ferragni of the pair of white leather slip-ons featuring the eye with Bowie's Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt blazing through it.

A capsule collection of oversized tees and sweaters, as well as backpacks bearing the kitschy blue eye, are also available in a variety of colors and, of course, sparkles. "I think when you wear Chiara Ferragni shoes, you really want that to be the center of your look," she said of the collection's healthy dose of glitter. "I love that it's a pop and that it's fun, but that it's also easy to wear." Prices range from $40 for a phone case to $112 for a choker to $365 for slip-on shoes.

Moving forward, the 29-year-old plans to open a permanent store in Milan in 2017, hopefully followed by permanent outposts in New York and L.A.

When asked if she's concerned about the current tumultuous political climate affecting her plans - both from the standpoint of being an immigrant, as well as a business woman - she didn't seem too worried. "I have a green card, and even though I am living half here and half in Europe, this is my home base. It's great to be a European here, I feel very welcome," she said. "Hopefully everything stays kind of the same. But I'm excited. I feel like, for business purposes, there is so much for me to do here in the U.S."

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Chiara Ferragni Brings Sparkle to The Grove

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It may be small, but thanks to wall-to-wall silver glitter, it's pretty hard to miss Chiara Ferragni' s new pop-up store at The Grove in Los Angeles. Though her eponymous brand, which is currently stocked at Saks Fifth Avenue, Shopbop, Farfetch and more, has popped up in department stores before, the new shop at The Grove marks the Italian fashion influencer known as The Blonde Salad's first-ever stand-alone U.S.

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Chiara Ferragni's Wedding Dress Fitting | Vogue

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Influencers on Instagram: Antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership

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(2019)

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Going to meet Chiara Ferragni, social media meteorite, is like going to see the queen of a small realm. In fact, not so small a realm.

The 31-year-old is founder of theblondesalad.com, a fashion blog that has turned into a global retail business, with 17m followers on Instagram, equivalent to the population of the Netherlands. Add in her husband, the Italian superstar rapper Fedez, and their combined followers (25m) equal the population of Australia. The equivalent of the UK (67m) watched, shared or read about the #Ferragnez three-day wedding extravaganza in Sicily last September as it unfolded on social media: she wore three custom-made dresses by Dior.

The capital of her world is Milan, where Ferragni grew up and where she first started taking photographs of herself outside fashion shows and sharing them with friends. Today her office is across the road from Italy's famous Palazzo dell'Informazione, the national press tower that once housed some of the country's best-known newspapers. Ferragni's face, she tells me later, will be plastered all over the building as a hoarding during Milan's upcoming fashion week, which seems an apt metaphor for what digital has done to traditional media. But this meeting is not to talk about Ferragni's rise as a media star. Instead she wants to talk about her desire to be recognised as an entrepreneur.

It is 10 years since Ferragni started writing her blog, in Italian and English, while studying international law at Milan's Bocconi University. The Blonde Salad began as an irreverent take on fashion. It was all about mixing it up, like a salad, she says, and playing on the cliché of the dumb blonde. (As it happens, her hair colour isn't naturally blonde, but a reddish brown. She dyed it when she realised being blonde would make her stand out among the ranks of wannabes then swarming the entrances of the shows. She was correct.) She never finished her degree as her fame in Italy grew fast enough to earn her a decent living. She quit studying just three exams short of graduation.

She moved to Los Angeles in 2013: the Milan stage had become "too small". She wanted to internationalise herself, learn English and lose her Italian accent. Soon after, Forbes named her in its "30 under 30" list of power brokers and Spanish Vogue put her on its cover. Harvard Business School used her as a case-study in how to monetise the dual streams of a blog and a personal brand as a business.

She returned to Italy in 2016, as the world's most followed fashion blogger with the international recognition she wanted and endorsement deals worth thousands of dollars.

Three-quarters of her followers are in Europe, first of all in Italy, followed by France, Russia and Spain. Another 15 per cent are in Asia and the rest are in the US. The clothing and accessories line that she launched in 2010 sells on her own websites, in flagship stores in Milan, Paris and Shanghai, in pop-up stores, such as in Selfridges and Le Bon Marché, and on Alibaba's Tmall and JD.com in China. Last year she made €30m in combined revenues from her retail site and from selling herself as a clotheshorse via her talent agency, which is forecasting a 20 per cent uptick this year. That business broke even at an operating level last year. Via the talent agency she books herself out to brands such as Lancôme, Dior and Intimissimi.

Her latest project is an online beauty masterclass called Beauty Bites and this year she became chief executive of all her companies. Further to that, she has just been named ambassador of the LVMH Prize, which lends her some longed-for credibility in an industry that has sometimes held her at arm's length. And she will attend the Oscars for the first time this month.

In person, she is brassy like Dolly Parton and wearing pink sparkly heels, pink jeans so tight I wonder how she got into them and a pink sleeveless top, as fluffy as candyfloss. But Ferragni's Barbie-like demeanour is deceptive. She's very much focused on business.

To that end, she recently hired a designer from Off-White to bulk up her chiaraferragnicollection.com designs, the line of contemporary streetwear she sells alongside theblondesalad.com, which offers a more europop evening aesthetic. The streetwear is very girlie, glittery and pink. Her signature motif is a stylised winking blue eye emblazoned on ballerina shoes, swimsuits, wallets, sweatshirts . . . It is pricey stuff. A backpack retails for €395.

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Her business plan is a blend of tech entrepreneurship and good old-fashioned Italian business sense. She namechecks Emily Weiss, founder and chief executive of millennial online beauty brand Into the Gloss, as a friend and influence. Weiss, a former fashion assistant and intern at Teen Vogue, has built her beauty blog into a business with $100m in revenues and raised $86m in venture capital funding. Ferragni, whose age is smack in the middle of the millennial generation, would like to emulate that model. But while Weiss has always kept herself at some distance from her brand, Ferragni has made her face the focus. She is gradually introducing more family members to work for her talent agency: her younger sisters Valentina (who has 2.4m Instagram followers) and Francesca (728k followers), and her mother Marina (380k followers) have all secured brand-sponsored deals to showcase their lives as well-heeled Milanese.

"I would like to create something that I can wear and my mother can wear and my younger sisters can wear," Ferragni says of her interest in the family brand. Are we talking about a desire to emulate the Kardashians here? She laughs. "Maybe - in the future".

She is also completing a documentary about how social media and the internet have changed the rules of fashion. It is due out in September. "I had a need to talk about myself, to find myself a public to tell my story to and to talk about what I was doing," she says. "It was a way to make me feel good about myself. It is egotistical in the end."

Ferragni is a rare thing among a sea of ageing, gerontocratic men. Power is still very much in the hands of men in Italy

Ego is the root of Ferragni's existence. She blames her mother, Marina di Guardo, who writes thrillers, for her obsessive photo taking. "My mum used to come back with 10 rolls of film from our holidays," she says. "She was always taking photos and videos of me and my sisters to show my aunt, my grandmother. I do the same but with millions of people. I consider it exactly the same thing," she says.

Her focus on being hugely famous for just being herself seems preternatural. Two years after launching her blog she was offered a job by Silvio Berlusconi's media group to be a fashion reporter on Italy's biggest private TV network. She said no. "I didn't want to do TV. That wasn't my dream," she says. "I wanted to be known internationally. TV would have given me fame much faster, but fame only in Italy. And in Italy, sooner or later your potential audience is going to end," she says.

She has since found that audience, but even today, she has her detractors. Early on, when she went to fashion shows, industry insiders would ridicule her, literally slamming the door in her face on some occasions. Ferragni says it made her "put on armour". Her response to the critics is: "To keep going. When people try to put you down, it's the best response you can give," she says. "I let it slide off me."

Sabina Belli, chief executive of jewellery brand Pomellato, which used Ferragni for an advertising campaign last year, says Ferragni's vision and drive to become the most powerful fashion influencer in the world is an "admirable feat" for any entrepreneur. "Chiara speaks directly to the digital generation," she adds.

Another veteran Milan fashion executive is more critical. "I doubt she has real substance," he says. "I don't think anyone sees her as cool. She is mainstream. For a brand that is not just trying to sell handbags she is not the right kind of person". Nevertheless, the same person did acknowledge that Ferragni was in "the right place at the right time, and did a lot of the right things".

Her recent marriage has made her a superbrand. She and Fedez have their own hashtag, #Ferragnez, although she is the more famous internationally. "He is better known in Italy," she says of her husband. "He is known by everyone; he is very recognisable. And he is very envious that I am international but there is a language gap," she says.

Ferragni insists that she doesn't have a social media strategy. She says she posts instinctively. "If I feel I want to do something, I do it. This is a strength in this world where to be authentic wins," she says. Her posts can be surprisingly candid or excruciating depending on your point of view.

She posts about six times a day and, like other influencers, who are predominantly women, she prizes being able to do many things at once. But sometimes something gets lost in the mix. "A thousand times you feel that the image you have taken of the event is stronger than the experience of the event itself, and that is when you realise you were not present enough in the moment," she says. Her new year's resolution was to learn to meditate.

And what about boundaries? Ever since his birth, her son Leone has been a regular feature on her feed: his debut post saw him being washed after birth. Does she worry about exposing him to so much scrutiny? Ferragni argues it would have been strange for her not to share the most positive thing in her life given she shares so much else. But she does admit there is an ethical discussion to be had.

"Small children cannot choose anything about their lives. They cannot choose their religion. They cannot choose how they are educated. A child unfortunately isn't free to do many things because its parents set it on a path, and then the child when it is older has to make the choice whether it is its true path or not," she says.

By posting images of her son - in the bath, in the first-class airport lounge, on his tricycle - she argues, not wholly convincingly, that she is making a broader, feminist point. "We are a modern family. I can be a woman with two companies, and also be present as a mother. I do not have to make a choice between being a mother or a working woman. It does a lot of good for a lot of people to send this message," she says.

Nevertheless, it also must be exhausting, constantly globetrotting in search of new backdrops. Although she gives away few signs of fatigue there are hints she is looking to step back from the limelight. "I am trying to evolve the brand that will go ahead by itself without my continuous support," she says. "I want to be more behind the scenes. And that people will like it because they like the product."

For a time, she says, she had a crisis about being Italian. When she first went to the US in 2013 she was struck by how, if she had been born American, "I would not have had to strive so hard".

But she has since rethought and now sees her strength is being "an international Italian". In a country with a significant brain drain of its talented young, this is a specific category. It is also an indictment of Italy's political class. In particular, it strikes me that Ferragni is one of only a handful of high-profile Italian businesswomen - a rare thing among a sea of ageing, gerontocratic men. Power is still very much in the hands of men in Italy.

The equivalent of the UK's population (67m) watched, shared and read about the #Ferragnez three-day wedding extravaganza as it unfolded on social media

Ferragni's newness and embrace of internationalism is invigorating, in contrast to the mood in Italy, which is bleak. When we speak, Italy's far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini, a man who would be prime minister, has caused an international outcry refusing to let a boat of migrants disembark. Recent data suggest the country may be heading back into recession. Everywhere the talk is of decline, a very beautiful country calcified by the past, fearful and unable to renew itself.

Ferragni and Fedez are already positioned on one side of the divide that is ripping up the country. Fedez has emerged as a critic of Salvini, attacking him on Twitter for racist and xenophobic statements.

As I walk out of Ferragni's office, past the old Press Tower now filled with luxury design stores, I see a poster for Satispay, a new fintech started by another of those international Italians. Then a tram rattles past blazoned with advertising from Algebris, a hedge fund turned alternative investor started by yet another.

Certainly, Ferragni is part of a global media story about influencers, the fall of media titans, about young women storming the barricades. Like her or loathe her, Ferragni is also undeniably part of the small green shoots of renewal in Italy.
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Chiara Ferragni - the Italian influencer who built a global brand

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Going to meet Chiara Ferragni, social media meteorite, is like going to see the queen of a small realm. In fact, not so small a realm. The 31-year-old is founder of theblondesalad.com, a fashion blog that has turned into a global retail business, with 17m followers on Instagram, equivalent to the population of the Netherlands.