Instagram is a portal of discovery for fashion obsessives. It’s a platform made of millions of accounts dedicated to highlighting brands, both big and small, as well as artists and designers that most of us have never seen or heard of before. It’s a place where unknowns can make a name for themselves without any financial or networking restraints holding them back. Now, in the midst of a pandemic that threatens to put many emerging brands and designers out of business, Instagram is becoming one of the best ways for them to market themselves and put their work out into the universe.
Ofri Cohen, a 30-year-old midwife-in-training based in northern Israel, has been supporting upstart labels like these for the last seven years. She grew up on a kibbutz, far away from major fashion capitals, poring over magazines from around the world and falling in love with global style in places like Mexico, Finland, and Japan. She launched her Instagram account in 2014. Spotlight Time is a page dedicated to under-the-radar designers and creatives from all points on the globe. Aside from the personal thrill of her own discoveries, the idea was to give these unknowns a stage, and to promote their work to the editors, buyers, and stylists who follow her. Today, Spotlight Time has more than 200,000 followers; among them are Naomi Campbell and Kylie Jenner.
“The turning point for me was early on when I came across a shoe designer from Peru,” Cohen explains. “Her name is Jessica Butrich, and I remember when I first saw her designs, I felt so excited and felt the need to get to know her, even if she was on the other side of the world. That’s really how Spotlight Time was born—out of a desire to promote and help young designers globally who are hoping to succeed in this industry.” A couple of years ago, Cohen also began posting images from the collection of local Israeli designer Shahar Avnet, which eventually caught the attention of Beyoncé’s stylist Zerina Akers. Her assistant reached out to Cohen via DM and asked if she could share contact information for Avnet, and as a result Beyoncé has worn Avnet’s confectionery couture gowns on more than one occasion, including on her last tour and for a scene in her music video for “Spirit,” from the remake of The Lion King last year.
Cohen has consulted for Italian Vogue as well, connecting the magazine with up-and-coming talents and writing profiles on some of the designers she’s discovered. Though Cohen devotes a great amount of time to her account and to discovering new names in fashion, she is also currently working toward a degree in nursing. She is hoping to be a midwife.
Hers is certainly not your average fashion career, but it’s one that reflects the changing nature of the industry and the opening of more doors for those like herself and like the designers she discovers, who may not have made their way as freely without the connectivity of social media. And while, of course, becoming a nurse and a midwife is not at all the same as pursuing a job in fashion, Cohen sees similarities in her pursuits. “It sounds cliché,” she says, “but the connection between fashion and nursing for me is that I can hopefully help and improve people’s lives. I want to make a difference.”
