A Thread about the fashion historian who cracked YouTube

Meet Understitch, the anonymous fashion creator with a devoted following of nearly 200,000 fans

Sometimes I think of YouTube as the tortoise from that Aesop’s fable, ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’. As new products and platforms race to optimise user attention and capture market share, YouTube is the steady constant; moving at its own pace, but continuing to dominate the field.

In the fashion world, the platform plays host to some of the most interesting researchers and creators - one of which is understitch, an anonymous historian who’s amassed 190,000 subscribers, who tune in to watch their meticulously researched digests of some of the world’s biggest fashion and beauty brands (underskin, is their sibling beauty channel). As one commenter put it: “this is my fashion university”.

Here’s understitch, on what it takes to run a successful YouTube channel today:

When did you start your YouTube channel? What was the thought process behind it?

I started because I was watching Great Art Explained and couldn’t find anything like that about fashion. I had no idea the first few videos would blow up in the way they did. I just wanted the information to be remembered in the same way.

How do you choose which topics to cover in your videos?

Mostly I pick topics that I find personally interesting, or that there is a lot of misinformation about. Loewe, for example, had almost nothing online about their heritage. I’m about to release videos on Baby Phat and Phat Farm, and equally their history is really watered down online. There’s so much more to fashion retailing than people know, and so I try to clear the air and provide academic-level research in an entertaining way. If my videos are good enough to be added into a university syllabus (and they have been), I know I’ve done a great job.

Can you tell me about your research process? How do you go about it, and how do you know when you’re ‘done’?

I’m never really done. Some videos can take months on end. My McQueen series took over a year, for example. I don’t think anyone would truly believe how much research and effort goes into it.

How long does it take you to make a video and what are key steps from idea to upload?

Length of research really varies depending on how old the brand is. I basically read, listen and watch every single piece of media I can get my hands on, in or out of print.

I then find gaps in the research, contact the relevant people who have inside knowledge (as long as they’re still living) and try to answer the questions that come up naturally. It's really a long process, but it is one I truly love.

How do you structure your time when you’re researching?

It’s different for every project, but it is hard to find a balance. I can’t cut from any of the research, writing or editing stages very easily so I end up working 12+ hours a day, every day, most days. Even on Christmas and my birthday there is work being done.

You’ve had a lot of support from luxury houses - for example Loewe, who you worked with during the research phase of a lot of your videos around the house. How do those relationships start?

These days I know the brands and they know me. I was connected to Loewe by Cathy Horyn, Stella McCartney reached out to me directly, and I’m working with my next big brand currently. Where I draw the line is when they want to read the script before. I won’t compromise on the information.

Do you ever encounter pushback from brands who don’t like how they’ve been portrayed?

Yes, it has happened. I don’t care.

What have you learned over the years of being a YouTuber?

It’s significantly more work than you’d believe to do informational videos. I recently just started doing more personal videos for Patreon and channel members and that only takes days, compared to the months of research that my biographical videos take. If I wasn’t so in love with information, it would make my life a hell of a lot calmer!

What are your favourite topics to cover? Are there any themes you find recurring in your work?

I love innovators. The Body Shop video on underskin, (my beauty channel) was a dream to make. Gentle Monster too, I adored making. I’m generally so passionate about fashion that I’m so excited to research each brand. The only time it gets boring is when there’s a lot of misinformation or the books are boring or languid.

What kind of content performs best, and why do you think that is?

Brands that failed always perform better. I guess people just like a complete story.

When did you decide to add your additional channel, Underskin, and why?

Oh that was within weeks of my fashion channel. I knew I wanted to have a secondary outlet for beauty so I didn’t have too many topics on the one channel. It’s just better for the algorithm.

I know they say don’t choose favourite children, but do you have any favourites from the videos you’ve made so far?

Honestly, no. I enjoy videos where I’m working with the brand, but fashion brands don’t generally love YouTube so it’s never as easy as I know it is for my short-form friends.

You keep yourself anonymous. Why is this important to you?

Because my channels aren’t about me.

We’re in an interesting time when independent creators are capturing market share from traditional forms of fashion media. What’s your view on independent creators vs. legacy publications?

I get millions of views a year, just me alone. I’m not a top level creator in terms of numbers by any means, because my target market is not the general public, it’s quite niche. So considering that, just in terms of numbers, creators far outweigh traditional media readership. We all have our niches too, which means we better target an audience than a generic magazine. Plus, generally, we don’t have to cater to advertisers because fashion brands rarely sponsor creators, which makes us more honest and reliable for the end consumer. All the things that make a better end product, creators simply can provide better.

There’s definitely space for magazines with a point of view (think Bricks or L’idiot Utile) but legacy publications are such pawns to advertisers now that it makes them almost irrelevant. I think they can make a comeback; there’s something of value in having these brands as curators, or good writers and photographers. But until they do it better, they will continue to be second string. If not to creators, then at least to magazines that curate taste instead of just serving one giant book of ads.

You’ve also branched into writing books. Can you tell me about this?

It came about when I realised I’m writing 60,000 words+ for some videos and I just cannot edit a 6-8 hour YouTube video and not go totally insane trying to keep on my upload schedule. My books really are genuinely how my scripts look as I read them to you in video form, just with a bibliography, and they allow me to disseminate reliable information without cutting.

Also, some fashion books are horrifically misinformed, so hopefully I can steal market share from those.

Who are other independent content creators you admire? Either on YouTube or more widely.

Fashion Roadman, Rian Phin, Chani Ra, BoringNotCom - all great thinkers and great communicators of their opinions.

If a new fashion creator was reading this, what’s one thing you’d tell them to focus on?

It’s a lot less glamorous than it looks on Instagram. Also, a shocking amount of people think everything is AI now, so if you’re good at what you do, prepare for endless comments about that - even if what you do is impossible to create using AI anyway!

As an independent creator, you have to be your own boss. Do you have any ‘rules’ or boundaries you’ve set for yourself to stay on track?

I don't have rules but I probably should. I cannot express this enough, I never, ever stop working. My research is 99% done behind a screen or in the pages of books, so I literally never leave my house, and I work around twelve hours a day researching. My friends regularly make fun of me for it.

Friends of mine in a similar boat try to work normal hours, but I'm not there yet. Maybe it will happen one day if I can afford a research assistant, but until then I feel like if I stop working everything will fly away from me.

It's not a very 'healthy' lifestyle and I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn’t unceasingly interested in fashion. But fortunately I am, and I'm thrilled to read and read and read.

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