The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
“Boring.” ”Forgettable.” “Why?” “Feels dated.” “Something’s off.” “Too ‘pilgrim.’” “Literally, just punch me in the face.”
Nicky Campbell’s rapid-fire reviews of red-carpet fashions aren’t sugar-coated. There’s no time for that. Instead, the often-one-minute videos featuring up to 30 looks and hot takes, are catered to the TikTok generation.
“TikTok embraces big personalities, different points of view and humor,” Campbell told Glossy. “And, with my social media background, I know that people have really short attention spans. If you don’t have the viewer within the first three to five seconds, they’re gone.”
Campbell’s social media-focused career only started in February, when he was working a traditional NYC fashion job and decided to test the waters on TikTok. He saw a gap on the platform for authentic fashion reviews, and the videos he made to fill it took off.
“Everyone’s scared to critique anything,” Campbell said. “Fashion is such a political industry and there are so many relationships at play — but people can tell if someone’s being too nice or dancing around a subject. Ultimately, people want authenticity. And, with anything, once there’s too much saturation of one thing, people crave something else.”
For Campbell, that pent-up demand has translated to more than 320,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram. They encompass talent he’s featured, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kris Jenner and Charli XCX, as well as “fashion-, beauty- and entertainment-obsessed” Gen Zers, he said. A video he made about the red-carpet looks at this year’s Emmy Awards has earned 8 million views across platforms, while a post about looks worn to Ralph Lauren’s spring 2025 fashion show has attracted 9 million views on TikTok alone. Campbell posts 3-4 videos per week, on average. Red carpets attracting buzz and featuring “enough” interesting looks are deemed content-worthy.
“I’m not Joan Rivers-level cutthroat. I try to keep it lighter and funnier,” he said, “But I have had a lot of stylists and talent message me saying, ‘I can’t help but have you in the back of my head while I’m getting dressed.’”
Marketers across industries are also paying attention. Campbell has secured paid partnerships with companies including Amazon, NBC, ABC, Netflix and Elle magazine, with most focused on video reviews of their events’ red carpets. Campbell hinted that, come awards season, he’ll be working some red carpets IRL.
Prior to becoming a full-time creator, Campbell had stints in PR at Thom Browne and in editorial at Vogue, and spent five years as the digital editor at the CDFA. Moving forward, he plans to build on his social media stardom with hosting gigs, a fashion column and fashion styling work.
Fashion experts are well-positioned, he said. “More celebrities are realizing the power of fashion and how important these events and designers are to creating their look and their image and translating that to the public,” he said. “More than ever, they care so much about what they wear.”
As for those currently doing it best, he called out Zendaya, styled by Law Roach, and Demi Moore, by Brad Goreski.
