Fashion

CFDA Instagrammer of the Year's Food-Heavy Feed

by Arielle Dachille

Yesterday, the CFDA announced the winner of their first ever “Instagrammer of the Year Award.” And the victor is? Drum roll, please—Patrick Janelle, aka @aguynamedpatrick! Bully for you, Patrick, you prince of filters, you king of hashtags. Out of 8 candidates picked by a panel of judges including Rachel Zoe and Alexander Wang, Janelle received over 100,000 likes from the public, winning him this award's inaugural title. What you need to know about him: Janelle has over 119,576 followers; he already has an endorsement deal with Thom Browne; and he takes many pictures of food that fashion people order at restaurants, but don’t consume.

As the Instagrammer of the Year, Janelle will serve as the official Instagram correspondant for this year’s CFDA awards. From looking at his feed, it’s obvious that Janelle is very good at what he does. His shots are reminiscent of Bon Appetit or Travel and Leisure editorials. But given the fact that this award is fashion-geared, there is a curious lack of clothing in his gallery and a surplus of serious food pics. If we didn’t actually believe that he may have at least tasted of these meals/ snacks/ hors d'oeuvres pictured on his 'gram, we’d call him the poster child of the @youdidnoteatthat principle.

Considering that his day job as the Director of the Spring Street Social Society (a lifestyle-geared event planning organization based out of New York), Janelle is in the hospitality industry and a large part of his life centers on food. He’s a citizen of the world and a cosmopolitan Bon Vivant, with a deep reverence for culture and aesthetics. In his website bio, he takes us deeper into his roots:

"From street performance in Los Angeles to sampling artisan spirits in the south of France, Patrick's relationship with entertainment, food, drink, and culture has evolved into a lifelong passion…"

So, that's all well and good. He’s carried this passion for all things hedonistic into social media and made them drool-worthy, with only an iPhone at his disposal. In this post from The Cut , Janelle outlines his Instagram philosophy:

“I take every aspect of a shot into consideration: color, composition, context of the image to the message, and even the way the image will look in my overall feed. At its core, the perfect Instagram will both look amazing and connect in a meaningful way to my followers.”

While I believe that Patrick may have eaten these things as he 'grams—it’s in his job description after all-- this win epitomizes the fashion world’s obsession with staring at food that they won’t consume beyond a single dainty nibble. Also, there's no way he joined the clean plate club. Food porn via Instagram enables fashion people to broadcast the fact that they're not as body-obsessed as their profession would connote. They're relaxed and they enjoy the finer stick-to-your-rib fare of life. For instance, they liked this picture of scrumptious-looking fried chicken:

Image: Instagram via @aguynamedpatrick

Crisco-fried soul food just somehow doesn't scream resort-wear diet. Still, 5,065 of Patrick's followers liked the idea of putting it into their bodies, so that's something!

Image: Instagram via @aguynamedpatrick

I mean, come on... We're not that gullible.

Image: Instagram via @aguynamedpatrick

An ice cream cone fit for a black-and-white tattoo on a beautiful person's body, but not something a beautiful person would actually finish.

Image: Instagram via @aguynamedpatrick

Orgiastic brunches happen every day in the world of a fashion Instagrammer, but how much is fed to the dog?

Image: Instagram via @aguynamedpatrick

This ice cream truck soft serve cone may have garnered over 6,000 likes, but chances are, it ended up in the trash after 5 licks.

Still to come on Janelle's Instagram-- coverage of what is sure to be a sumptuous CFDA award ceremony, and the food that the fashion elites consume post-facto. Who's down to go leftover hunting?