How has Hidden.ny turned a large and active Instagram page into a multifaceted brand?

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What started out as an outlet for this unknown creative to show clients their inspiration, has turned into one of the most hyped lifestyle brands in 2021 market.

They have done this by building a very large and active instagram following that includes people such as Virgil Abloh & Drake. They have then taken this platform and then started to drip feed merchandise into it, whilst not losing sight of the reason why people follow them.

This British 20 something year old, has created two pages on the back of the wildly successful hidden.ny moodboard. They have now created @hidden.ppf(77.7k followers) and as of 13 weeks ago, @hidden.rsrch (56k followers).

This is where I think it gets interesting. Instead of diluting the original moodboard with their branded product related imagery, they have created hidden.ppf which acts as a stand-alone page for the lifestyle brand. The recently formed hidden.rsrch is a publication.

“HIDDEN.RSRCH is a publication informed by the past, grounded in the present, and excited for the future. It is a newsletter, community, and digital platform that mixes the niche knowledge base of forum culture with in-depth narratives and an enthusiastic appreciation of inherently good product.”

Hidden.Rsrch is a subscription-based newsletter ranging from $15 per month to $200 per year which includes Article Access, Monthly Early Website Password Access & Exclusive HIDDEN Members Only + Monthly Raffle. And given the demand for the .ppf products, probably the only way to ensure you are going to cop their products when they drop. It’s genius when you think about it. They have people paying a monthly fee, to hopefully get the chance to spend more with them. Although I don’t believe the .rsrch page is purely a cash cow, it looks to provide in-depth research articles on anything related to the culture.

Hidden.ppf is treated like a more ‘typical’ brand page. We see a mix of celebrities wearing the product, lifestyle photoshoots with models, product shots and behind the scenes imagery of future products. As the webstore is not constantly open, this is the page where you can see the products that you probably wouldn’t have been able to buy due to popular demand anyway. I really love the fact that they don’t use these highly stylised lifestyle photos on the hidden.ny grid. They simply post photos that could be fan-created content that match the aesthetic of the rest of the grid. This is incredibly refreshing to see.

Is the secret to the hidden.ny success the mystery behind who's running the page? Is it in the fact they have posted over 15,000 times? Is it the mid 2000s tumblr content they share? Does instagram naturally love them because they post approx 20 times a day? or is it a little bit of this mixed with the fact they have carefully curated a brand?

I believe that hidden.ny has gone to the effort of properly creating this brand. Sure the brand strategy might have changed when they received a DM from Drake asking for their help with his personal styling but they still know what hidden.ny is all about. They know who their target audience is and they know what they like.  They seem to know what the internal brand, like the back of their hand and as a result, they have created two other pages that can now work as stand-alone pages and businesses.

Hidden.ny told Highsnobiety in an interview that it’s a community effort. They have eyes and ears everywhere. As a way to promote and encourage up and coming artists, hidden.ny often has t-shirt design competitions, that gives creatives the chance to be featured or have work produced on their page.

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