20 FOR 2020
New year, new memes! Here are 20 of the best Instagram accounts to follow for 2020!
By Brigitta Taylor-Clements
Nobody could even begin to predict the spectacular rise of Instagram when it was first founded in 2010. Now worth more than a blinding, get this, $100 billion, it is more than just a visual diary. The algorithm-based photo and video sharing mobile application has become an indelible zeitgeist!
10 years later, it is where the news is broken and allegiances are created, and destroyed. As the saying goes, one day you’re in, and the next day you are being snubbed (gasps!). Who one follows is just as important as who unfollowed them. And being verified is the only form of validation you will ever need.
But with great power, comes greater responsibility. In a celebrated gesture for mental health, the Facebook-owned company announced late last year that they will start to slowly hide the amount of likes a post gets in hopes of creating a less pressurised environment for its users.
And here at THE FIFTH COLLECTION, we firmly believe in quality and curation – yes, even for your social media! With the Year of the Rat approaching for the Chinese New Year, might we also suggest a little purge for your Instagram – out with the accounts that promote anxiety and give you unrealistic expectations (don’t even get us started on courtesy-follows; we didn’t follow Karen from Finance on our own volition), and in with ones that will delight your eyes and mind!
De-cluttering is not just for your wardrobe, you guys! And like the En Vogue song advocates, free your mind and the rest will follow. From fashion to food, and everywhere in between, here are our picks of 20 of the best Instagram accounts to follow and love forever. Like your clothing, it should be all about longevity.
You are welcome.
Crunch, crunch! Munch, munch! It’s 2020! We want to have our fashion, and eat it too! One of the fashion industry’s favourite bakeries, this New York-based institution recreates some of the most, dare we say, iconic (read: uncanny) edible portraits of figures of pop culture.
2. @SORTORIAL
One’s an image consultant by trade, and the other is one of the industry’s beauty and skincare expert. Together, they help the fashionable set in Singapore #sortoutstyleup their lives. From workshops to personal shopping, the duo also do more than just provide solutions to your sartorial conundrums, they organising your wardrobes too! How’s that for sparking joy? Marie Kondo-who?
One cannot deny the influence of Korean-anything – from music; to television, and even beauty! So meet the latest addition to the rising King Tide that is the K Wave: K-candles! And need we say more – they are pretty, they smell great and the best part? They have the prettiest pink packaging.
From gemstones to flowers, everything from the natural world is immortalised on the skin by this Los Angeles-based tattoo artist. Using only vegan-friendly pigments, this brilliant artist’s works are often delicate and elegant; never ever overwhelming or aggressive.
One of New York City’s strapping enigmas, he is the Big Apple’s modern day messiah. And with good reason. This dude speaks right to our heart and says what we are all thinking: BE A BETTER HUMAN!
Is it just us or do you see Missoni too? Or the cutest Valentino camouflage? Or even the most darling Persian rug?? Yes? Good! This Los Angeles-based baker creates the most precious cakes. Like proper works of art that you can eat, Jonesmann’s Impressionist creations are like Pointillism with buttercream!
This Iranian fine artist is slowly capturing the art world’s gaze. His series called “White on White” feature what we can only describe as paint smears on canvas that resemble an unlikely portrait. Otherworldly, to say the least.
8. @LEFAWNHAWK
Haunting and occasionally extra terrestrial, this artist is 2020’s answer to a modern day Magritte. A brilliant display of white spaces, Fawnhawk-Maggiori’s works are often of faceless phantoms or geometry punctuating sweeping landscapes.
9. @SONIA_SHAO
It could be the nine heads, or the elegant lines, but there is something about fashion illustrations that really enable our fantasy for drama. The works of this New York-based Chinese artist is so realistic and hypnotising. Her control over her mediums is beyond brilliant – turning pigments to gold.
10. @HOTHOUSE.JUNGLE
Have you heard of the term “Jungalow”? That’s a marriage of the word “Jungle” and “Bungalow”. We think it is just brilliant. What is there not to love about a house filled with plants amirite? And the posts from this plant and home interior decorator is plucked from our literal dreams.
11. @DANIELROSEBERRY
Just like the colour the French couture house is best known for, Schiaparelli’s return to Paris fashion in 2013 is just as shocking. And now, thanks to the American designer Daniel Roseberry, we are falling in love with Elsa Schiaparelli over and over again. And can we just say that the Texan-native’s Instagram account is more than just his mobile moodboard for his collections, but also a selfie-dump? Praise be Roseberry’s facial hair! God knows we can’t resist a fashionable #DILF OK!
12. @MYTHERAPISTSAYS
This meme account is our literal vocabulary OK.
13. @KOOKOO.S
His transformation of Sam Smith into our favourite eight-legged aquatic sorceress had us in stitches. One of the British pop star’s favourite artists, Koo Koo’s works discusses the narrative of sex, gender and politics through their brilliant vocabulary of wit and humour.
14. @HANAKARIMSTUDIO
The works of this Slovenian clay and ceramic artist is so sublime, we cannot look at crockery the same way ever again. Smooth, soft and organic – totally unrelated – her works also make us feel nostalgic of a simpler time when Phoebe Philo was The Supreme at the magical French fashion house of Céline. Yes when it used to have an accent on its first vowel.
15. @FRUITASSEMBLY
We are calling this account the Caravaggio of Instagram. Think about it: You have the brilliance of pearls and the poetry from the shadows of rotting fruits. Is there a marriage more beautiful??? The fruit-themed posts not only provide enchantment for our eyes but also deliver us our daily dose of Vitamin See. Ba-dum-tss!
16. @SUBLIMING.JPG
Those who have worshipped at the altars of legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland and art director Alexey Brodovitch will fully comprehend the religious experience good typography can provide. And like its name suggests, this account is entirely dedicated to sublime art direction in the guise of helpful life quotes!
17. @BENSCOOKIES
Is it obvious that we love our cookies? OMG. There’s nothing quite like sinking your teeth into a warm and gooey soft-centre cookie is there? The pride of London high street; it is where the weary get salvation after a long day of shopping on Oxford Circus. And now, Orchard Road! Located in the basement of Wisma Atria, these gems from our local store taste the best and offer similar respite to shoppers.
18. @VROSSDESIGN
The couture illustrator’s creations embody everything we want in a fashion artwork. Often working with pastels and ink, he sometimes even breathes life into his works by bringing his illustrations to the third dimension with a pair of scissors and quick folds of origami! Talk about multi-dimensional!
19. @THEDUPONTTWINS
If you, like us, come from the maximalist school of thought (thank god), you will know that two is indeed better than one. And when it comes to blurring the lines between gender norms, no pair take the cake than Jake and Joseph Dupont. The American twins took the modelling by storm when they appeared in Our Lady of Pop: Lady Gaga’s Haus Laboratories make up campaign last year. Marvel at their cheekbones and come hither gaze…
20. @STEPPINGTHROUGHFILM
He recreates some of the most iconic cinematic moments by situating it in everyday life. Taking the familiar and making it fantastic, this multimedia artist and photographer cleverly reimagines scenes from film and television in settings we easily recognise.
And, of course, if you haven’t already, follow THE FIFTH COLLECTION on instagram by clicking here.
What are the @Instagram accounts you follow? Share them with us in the comments below!