The wedding that broke the internet

0:07This episode of Stylish is brought to you by QV's face range for sensitive skin. QV Face, powerfully sensitive skincare for life. Hello guys, happy Wednesday. Welcome to Stylish, the podcast for all things fashion, lifestyle, brand and beauty. My name is Rhiannon Joyce and today my co-hosts are the lovely Joanna Fleming and the wonderful Naima Fatima. Hey guys. Hi. Happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. Quick, quick pivot away from our run sheet because TikTok is giving us a lot to digest at the moment. I had to bring it to the table. Acquired style. Did we see The Bachelorette? How could we not? How could you not?

0:49I have never seen so much content surrounding a bachelorette party. Say Hens. Hens is so much easier. So much easier. I have to acknowledge the bias. I've come on this microphone before and I would say I've been pretty forthcoming with my opinions about how much influencers are really commercialising their weddings. I will say a little caveat, weddings specifically, I do feel weirdly less offended by sponsored hens parties, bachelorettes or, you know, the surrounding events. The wedding itself, definitely a bit on the nose, but for some reason, guys, I kind of loved it. Well, I guess the bachelorette's just about you.

1:25So get your bag, to be honest. It was like fully sponsored and I had never heard of the brand. Oh my God. I'm trying to remember the name of the brand. Oh, Swan Beauty. I never heard of them. Okay, I'd never heard of them, and I went on their TikTok, and they don't have that many followers. It's an AI-backed business. They have, like, these amazing, like, mirrors that you get ready in, and then they recommend different products or different skin combinations backed by a dermatologist, but it's very, very AI, very techie. Yeah, they can do, like, skin analysis, which was one of the videos that she did with her mates on the plane.

1:55Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing. We're going to be talking a lot about AI. And also in other TikTok influencer news out of the US, Taylor Fritz and Morgan Riddle split up. Huge. This has been carrying on for a few weeks, but it's official. Official. Nymer and I were just talking about off mic that a creator on TikTok posted a video that Morgan then commented on to essentially confirm the fact that they had split up, even though she had posted a carousel with moving boxes and very much alluding to a breakup. It wasn't quite confirmed by her. But I'm disappointed by this because I don't know what that means for AO Fashion next year.

2:32A little tangent there, but I think worth it. Who wants to go first? You agree. Go on. Okay, I'm swapping in a book, a bit random, and there's no relation to fashion, beauty, lifestyle or brand. Can I interrupt you before you say that? Go for it. I bought Emma Greed's book because of you. It got delivered today. I'm so excited to read it. Stop. That makes me so happy. You'll love it. And can you please send me little voice notes of what parts you really love? I will. Or I could highlight the bits I like and then I'll bring it in and you can have a look. Yeah, we can exchange notes. Oh, that makes me so happy.

2:59I'm also listening to the audiobook. Audiobook's really good. She's got a great voice to listen to. Yeah. Okay. My book, completely unrelated. It's called Bodies of Light. And I will say it is on the heavier side of a read. Definitely delves into some more deep topics. But one thing I'm finding at the moment is I'm really trying to turn to reading as a way to switch off online. I did mention this on my Instagram stories the other day when someone asked me, how do you switch off when your job is so intense and so present online? I read, guys. And I block out time to read and really, really, really try and avoid my phone.

3:29Not to flex, but I have gotten quite good at it. phone in the other room do not disturb I'm permanently on D &D so like sorry if you've ever tried to call me in an emergency but body of light very dark themes one of those books though that really takes you out of the world and gives you perspective though it's a really really good book so if you're looking for something that's a bit deep bit heavy set in Melbourne originally and then it bounces around a few other places I don't want to spoil it but it's on a must-read list for me may I ask a question go for it you've said how you go to bed at like 8 30 uh-huh what time do you start reading?

3:59Okay. So Annabelle Lee, who is the deputy head of podcast at Shameless Media and co-host of Everybody Has a Secret and on air producer of Shameless Squad. How did that run shape? Annabelle actually asked me this today and I told her, she's like, I get really sleepy when I start reading at night. So I actually read when I get home from work. So I get into my comfies, have like a shower and then I spend half an hour reading before dinner. That's usually my weekday roster of reading. And then on Sunday, I always, always block out time on Sunday to read for like an extensive amount of time. So it might be either a couple hours or like an hour minimum.

4:34Okay. Yeah. But I've really got to carve it out. This is so impressive from someone whose screen time is, I'm not even going to say what it is. I actually, I'm going to make you show us your screen time. No, but also it's funny because it's, I've got two phones. So she'll trick you. Yeah, I'll trick you. No, I want to see both now. It's all right. Mine's probably the same as your timer. Don't worry. Okay, who's going next? I can go next. Go, go, go. So I'm going to preface this by saying I know nothing about basketball and all of this might be incorrect, but this is a player that popped up on my feed.

5:08His name is Tyrese Halliburton and he's an Indiana Pacers player. Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. My favourite basketball team. And he's injured, so he's been watching a lot of the games from the sideline. His style, fantastic. Describe his three words. Preppy, tailored, but then also a little bit like 90s casual. Okay. So how I described it was giving librarian slash substitute teacher vibes. And I think he's going to be my winter wardrobe inspo. So lots of ties, cardigans, knits, caps, light wash, like rigid denim, loafers and like leather bombers. Okay, brand that's coming top of mind, or front of mind, I should say.

5:51Whatever, they're both kind of the same thing. Em Leon Dior. Yes, that vibe. Yeah. Yeah. That is the vibe. Here's a photo I prepared earlier. Thank God we have a picture. Sorry, for those of you who can't see because this is an audio medium. Yeah, sorry, everyone. He's wearing straight-legged, kind of like a light-locked denim. Levi's rigid denim. Bomber's cool. Is that brown? Yeah, like a brown leather bomber. Yeah, love. And then a brown tie and a backwards cap with a button-off shirt. Very cool. 90s dad. Yeah. And that is my aesthetic. I was expecting a little more modern than that, but that is very 90s.

6:23It's kind of like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air vibes. Cool though. Love. I've asked the social team to put up a, the social team, me. You. Yes. Speaking in third person. Making myself more important. We all do it. There'll be a carousel of my favourite looks. Great. That you're putting together. Yeah. Good. Can't wait. Yep. Jo, what's your rec? Okay, so mine is one for the corporate girlies who are going into an office. I know we've spoken on this podcast before about how hilarious some of the office edits are for different retailers. Revolve. You get an email from Revolve and it's like a mini skirt and like a cropped shirt.

7:05Anyway, this is for actual like corporate or office wear inspo. So this creator, her name is Noti Mofiko. She is, I think, Sydney based. She is so chic. I absolutely love her style. I honestly could see like all of her clothing items in my wardrobe. Love. I think that's why I love her. So it's all brown. Well, pretty much. Yeah. No, it's not all brown, but it's like very much the types of formulas I would dress in myself. So I see a lot of my own style in her, I think. Her outfits are perfectly curated for office wear, but in a more, I would say like a casual corporate. It's not like full suit.

7:41Well, she does wear some suits. She had this really cool Scanlon navy look on the other day. I think it was like almost a cashmere top with a collar on it. She was wearing a navy tie with it as well and some high-waisted pants. Ties. She just looked phenomenal. So I'm swapping her in. Swap her in. I love when you find like an Instagram account and you're like, yes, I would buy everything you're wearing. Perfect. Great. You're doing all the work for me. Exactly. And we also have a swap from Annika today too. So we'll play that for you now. I am obsessed with all things Phoebe Philo, but I'm not that obsessed with the price tag and I have been lusting over their bomb sunglasses which are a really cool aviator style and what I love most about them is that the lenses are like a dark brown colorway the frames are also a really cool dark brown which I think is really beautiful for this kind of transitional weather that we're currently in.

8:36Browns are just so on trend at the moment I don't think we can get enough of them and they're going to be a key staple color I think for the year ahead as well as into 2027. I have found what I think is a really good alternative from Mango. So if you jump online I'll link it in the show notes as well but they have released a really cool aviator sunglasses and they're in that brown color which I'm obsessed with and the price tag is$69.95. So I don't think these are going to stick around for long because if anyone is obsessed with Phoebe Filer like I am I'm sure they'll be adding these to cart but they are such a great spot.

9:11They're super cool and they really embody that whole other size trend that we've really seen in our accessories. I feel like Annika was low-key flirting with me there. Yeah. She went around so many times. I'm surprised she didn't shout you out though. Yeah. She's coming for your gig. These glasses look really cool. Yeah. Kate, our producer, just pulled that up for us so that we could have a look. Have a little visual cue there and that price tag, very happy because the Phoebe Philo is just slightly out of my range. Guys, today we have a big episode. We're going to cover two main stories. The first being the rise of AI influences and what it means for fashion and beauty content.

9:47We're going to be anchoring that in the recent post that we did see on Sheerlux highlighting their four, or rolling out, I should say, their four AI influences. Then we're going to be discussing how Riley J became Australia's it girl. Guys, I've never seen anyone go crazy like I did on the weekend, or when was it? It was last week. No, Thursday. On Thursday about Riley's wedding. So I'm really, really excited to deepen that. But we'll get into it right after a word from today's sponsor. In this job, we're lucky enough to try all sorts of skincare brands and products. So it goes without saying it takes a lot to impress us.

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11:33Okay, last week on social media, Sheerlux, which for those of you who don't know, big UK lifestyle and fashion publication actually introduced AI influencers. Well, they introduced the first AI influencer, Reambot, in 2024. I had a bit of a habit of calling her Reambot. I don't know why, but the girls would always be like, it's Ream. And I'm like, anyone who knows me knows I'm absolutely shocking with stuff like this. In their bio, they call it the AI tastemaker and broadcaster powered by ShearLux. So originally when they launched Rainbot, it was met with massive backlash. They've actually defended it before later releasing an apology.

12:11And in that apology, they said, since the start of ShearLux, innovation has been central to what we do. As we enter a new era of tech and AI, we wanted to stay at the forefront. It is clear we didn't explain it properly and we're sorry. Earlier this month, they did what I would interpret as like double down on this AI strategy. So they added three more AI influencers. They've introduced Brooke, Gigi and Eden. So they announced it via a reel featuring the four influencers. If you didn't know already, there are now four of us here at Sheerlux Labs. We're Sheerlux's AI avatars, each of us bringing our own perspective on fashion, beauty, travel and careers.

12:47So if you're wondering which one of us you should follow, here's a little introduction. I'm Gigi. I'm the beauty obsessive of the group. Think skincare routines, makeup discoveries, and the products actually worth adding to your routine. I love testing new launches, sharing glow boosting skincare, and finding those everyday beauty staples that make getting ready feel a little more special. So if you're into beauty tips, product recommendations, and effortless glow, I'm your girl. So this reel got, it was over a thousand comments at least. Most of them were critical, saying things like, this is incredibly sad.

13:22Nobody wants this. How can you recommend skincare products when you have no skin? Joe will have comments on that later. Great point. Clothes when you have no body. Travel recommendations when you've never been anywhere. So there was a bit of discourse, to say the least. Nine months ago, they also hired an AI creative role. So what that says to me, this is very much an area they're investing in. They have, by all accounts, doubled down on this AI strategy. What did you guys feel when you first saw this video? I mean, I saw the reaction to Reambot. And I remember going through all those comments at the time being like, oh, that's not going down very well.

14:00No, it's not. It got picked up by so much mainstream media, like the BBC. Globally, it was like a big deal. Yeah. And then it kind of like softened off a little bit. Like there wasn't as much negativity. But then I was really surprised to see them double down, as you said before. I was not expecting that from them. I really thought it would be like a soft move away from Reambot and instead have gone very hard into the AI influencer. Yeah. I think I had quite a visceral reaction. I think most people did. Like I just was like, oh, like I think it was like quite a surprise, especially I guess after the feedback.

14:33It's interesting to have like a two-year gap. Yeah, but it wasn't really a gap. because ReamBot would creep in every now and then. So she would feature on the podcast. They'd have sporadic posts here and there that she would actually be included in. So I would say that they didn't just like introduce her and then be like, bang, two years later, she's back. They'd just sprinkle a few posts here and there. But I would say still sentiment was not warm. And even when you look at the individual ReamBot account because she has her own Instagram account, I think she doesn't even have 4 ,000 followers.

15:05Yeah, it's like 3.1 or something. Yeah. So the consumer response has been pretty slow. Let's talk about the visceral response, though, because everyone did go, I would get jump scare. I'm being fully honest. Every time I open my Instagram page and I see any AI influencer model or anything, I go, ah, like it just freaks me out. And I think that's because as a consumer, I'm just not there yet. And I'm not seeing a lot of these people in my page. So I find it a little bit jarring. I do want to call out that Sheelux as a business is really fucking impressive. Yes. Like they have had longstanding success.

15:37And this You know, a lot of people think Shear Lux just like kind of popped up overnight. They didn't. They've been around since 2017 and they were founded by Georgie Coleridge-Cole. And it's completely disrupted the media landscape. So longstanding success as a business, this has all really come into fruition this year when they were actually acquired by Future PLC. And that included both Shear Lux and Blush Talent Management. So that's the PR, not the PR, that's like the personal talent agency that they have where they manage some of the staff at Shear Lux, but also external talent. According to the Business of Fashion, the initial deal went through at 39.9 million pound, which is 53.9 USD.

16:15The value of this business is astronomical. I do want to acknowledge that because I think it's really important. They're very innovative. I don't ever want to sit here and have a conversation about this business or about this business's decision, I should say, and not consider the fact that they're absolutely dominating. I also don't want to shit on them for trying something. No, because we know that the world is heading in the direction of AI. and I think they're experimenting. And while I don't necessarily think that it's the best thing ever and I'm not really on board with AI influencers. Yeah, we're not there yet almost.

16:46Yeah, I do appreciate that they're trying something new and they wanted to test the waters and see how it went and how they could use AI to their benefit. Something that I noticed in the, like, explainer post after the Reambot thing went live in 2024, they posted an Instagram, like Carousel, basically saying, like, we didn't explain ourselves clearly enough because a lot of the commentary was like, why wouldn't you just hire a woman of colour instead of creating one? So for those of you who haven't seen Reem Bot, it was assumed that she was of Middle Eastern descent because Reem is an Arabic name, I believe.

17:18So that assumption was then left there for people to make and they kind of were just filling the narrative as well. So they had to come back and directly acknowledge that. Yeah, and they said in that post that her opinions and choices come directly from the diverse team we're so proud of at Shearlux. And I wonder if that was a way for them to like amalgamate all of their internal contributors because they do have a lot of staff. They did also tell the BBC in 2024 that no jobs were compromised in any way as a result of her creation and we would never publish any content that hasn't had human involvement.

17:49The disappointing part for me, I guess, is that I really like look up to Shearlux because it was probably one of the first media companies that I saw that really had people of colour front and centre. And it was quite inspirational to me like they had Supna in their c-suite like that's so cool I kind of hadn't seen that before and of course like no company is perfect but I actually do think they had quite a breadth of people of color and diversity in there so I found that their recommendations were diverse and I could go to them for things like makeup and skincare so that was actually really that is really exciting for me and I don't want to take away from the fact that they actually like have really done a lot in this space they've done a lot in this space in saying that as a person of color in the industry I don't see a lot of me and I don't see a lot of people of color and I think instead of hiring someone getting someone to mimic a person of color it does feel offensive to me yeah yeah it's like you know we're here and we can just be hired so just do that and also they have such a diverse talent pool within their office yeah that represent that diversity so It's like, why did we need this?

18:59Yeah. Do we need this? Yeah. Well, I think that's like at the heart of Sheelux's strategy, right? Like I would say you would ask any social media manager and like Sheelux would be on their like vision board of like what they've created. They were one of the OG, EGC, like employee generated content. Like they were the OG. They're the blueprint. Yeah, 100%. So I think it's like it's a business built off these personalities of their, you know, staff members. They've really like championed them or, you know, like that's kind of what they've built their entire content strategy off. And it's that humanness that I think people have related to.

19:36So I think creating recommendations based off an AI bot, it takes away that humanness. And that's, I guess, at the core of their entire business. Let's look at the consumer, right? I think the consumer right now feels really under threat. You know, people feel really sensitive towards AI because the reality of it is there is this unknown and this fear that the AI robots are going to take our jobs. And I think some industries, that's very valid. You know, the use of AI creators, this doesn't seem to be resonating because to your point, Nima, it's looking at it going, well, you have this amazing team, you have this wealth of people who can give recommendations.

20:10Why are you forfeiting that? I think people just aren't ready for it yet. And when you look at the broader industry, it is really interesting seeing this trend of big businesses almost trying to challenge this AI slop or this visceral response that people go, is this AI? Like everyone's living in a doubt now, like online, I'm looking at something going, is this AI? That's what I'm asking, right? And I wanted to bring up this Instagram page that I follow. I don't even know if I follow it. I think it was actually just fed into me because I'm consuming so much marketing content, but it's at breaking and entertaining media.

20:41And there was an IG post on it. And the headline was brands are releasing behind the scenes videos on their ads to prove they didn't use AI. And the caption was, is human craft the new luxury? And in that post, they actually included a recent campaign. It was on YouTube. Apple released as like a little YouTube short, which is basically a small video. Like a reel. Yeah, like a reel, but on YouTube. And it was a behind the scenes of how they made their MacBook Neo campaign. Super interesting. Super, super detailed in the sense of how much human interaction was required. How much tech, visual, photography, you know, video edits and all of those things that went into it.

21:17And it was so deliberate. And the caption was a peek at some handmade magic. So, you know, even the big brands are looking at the industry going, we need to start challenging this visceral response or assumption that everything is AI. And instead we need to double down and back. No, we're still depending on people. Yeah. And I think in terms of the expansion of the AI entities that they've introduced at Shealux, like one glaringly obvious oversight is the fact that there is no diversity in body shape or size. I just don't understand why that wouldn't have been, like, I'm sure it was a consideration.

21:53Like how many people did that go through? That's not just one person's idea and it's gone live. Yeah. And this is the thing. I think one of the bots or the AI influencers, they've tried to position as a size potentially like a 14 to 16 so I think they've made I did not see that yeah I think it's a feeble attempt at trying to make that feel like you know oh we're covering the inclusivity piece but yeah it definitely yeah definitely not great and I think like even if that was included I think the question still comes up of not why not oh yeah you know it's like it doesn't actually yeah you try to have this conversation and you just come back around exactly Jo as someone who's in the beauty landscape how does this make you feel in terms of like having these robots yeah recommending products like how does that sit with you i mean i'm not worried about losing my job like as that person's comment said at the top they don't have skin so how can how can an ai like entity tell you oh this retinol was too strong for me because i got sensitive skin because that's not yeah reality but i also think there's an element of this that it comes back to deception because a lot of people would scroll past this content and not realize they're watching AI.

23:01And I think that happens time and time again. And sometimes I open the comments of videos and I'm like, this is AI and people don't realise it. And so that's kind of my concern is that you might be consuming this beauty led or skincare led AI content and not realise that it's actually not a real person giving you that information. I think there are instances where AI may be helpful in terms of seeing what a swatch looks like on the skin or what a lipstick colour looks like or an eyeshadow color like I can see where it could be used as like a way to improve the shopping experience online but in terms of like describing your experience with a product and how a foundation lasts on your skin throughout a work day how do you get that from an AI entity it also just feels like if it is fueled by other people in the office or other people in the team why don't you just use them yeah it's obviously coming down to like a cost yeah I don't want to assume but I do think there is a layer of cost efficiencies here where it's like maybe we don't want to also rely on talent internally.

23:59There's also a brand risk, which we've spoken about before, when you are dependent on internal staff. Maybe it's also a way for them to mitigate risk. Well, yeah, I was going to say de-risk because a lot of their staff have massive profiles and they are doing partnerships on their own platforms. And if they go off and do their own thing, you're like losing talent that people really liked that worked for Shealux. And then suddenly they're working elsewhere and they're taking that person or audience member with them. Yeah. And as I guess a business that does a fair bit of employee generated content or, you know, that we like, we also do a lot of recommendations.

24:33I think there was a thought that I had around the amount of content that they put out that is employee based is a lot. High volume for sure. Yes. And it's like, that's a lot for the staff to continue to put out, to continue to find and come in every day and feel like they want to be on camera. Like just to, I don't know, break the fourth wall a little. I don't always want to be on camera, right? So I think maybe there could be an element here where they're kind of safeguarding themselves. They're finding this, maybe they're finding a problem where it's like there's too much content that we need to have with our staff members in it.