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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Outspoken, your dose of the hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm Sophie Torbert and I'm joined by my sisters and journalists Kate and Amy. On today's show, Stax rolls out the red carpet as the influencer world comes together for its new collection launch. Brooke Hogan opens up about weddings, spon con and calls for calm after Love Island's Tash is met with a barrage of ablest abuse on social media. But first dinner parties are back in vogue thanks to the rise of so called dinner party influencers on TikTok. I am all about this trend because I love dinner parties. I'm often known as the host in our friendship group, and I really want to get around this trend. Amy, you brought it to my attention because there are literally six hundred and ninety three million videos currently showing up with this hashtag and I want to become one of these influencers. How do I go about doing it? Okay, You're gonna have to up your game because these dinner parties on TikTok and next Level some of these dinner party influences. They have hand written menus, they have five course meals, and you also have to have a very nice table scattering, so very esthetic is what we're looking for. What's a table scattering? Do you mean like fresh flowers? Because I saw a lot of these videos. The first step is actually going to the market and buying like a bunch of fresh flowers just for the table, which I've never done before. Some people do eucalyptus leave scattered all over the table. But there's actually businesses that you can hire in, so if you're not very good at, you know, doing your table scape as they call it, you can hire in a company to do it all for you. Some of these influencers are even providing Spotify music lists so you can have the perfect collection of music on hand. Do you reckon that this is just trending in our age demographic because I feel like once you enter your thirties, having a dinner party on the weekend is sort of a sign that you're sophisticated and grown up and you've got your life together. It just made me think about Bridget Jones's dinner party where she was trying so hard and served the blue soup. See, I'm not a very good dinner party host. I think I would flop in this category. Well, the reason I feel like this trend is going off now is because we've all been in lockdown, We've all been organizing our pantries, we've been redesigning our home. So it seems like everyone just wants to have people over to show off. And I feel like this is kind of a status thing as well, Like it used to be the cupboard in lockdown, but now it's look how organized and I am. Look what a great cook I am? Well, look what a good host here. It's funny because usually you'd only be showing off to the handful of people that you had over, but now you've got even more incentive because you're showing after all your followers on social media. Is it bad that it made me want to have a really pretentious dinner party. I want to have a dinner party where each couple brings a core, So we should organize one this weekend. I want to have a dinner party competition based off Oh we've done that before that didn't end up, but let's do one with a real I'm definitely up for the challenge. Once I mentioned to Brandon that it's a competition, he'll be down for it as well. Is there a price, Oh, we've got to do some sort of prize. I think the voting should be based on the guests that are actually there, so they need to vote on the food and the actual vibe the event, and then I think the outspoken's listeners can vote on the reel. It makes it it makes it difficult for friends. I think this is purely an aesthetic thing. We're going to judge on how it looks on TikTok and Instagram. Well, that's what it's all about. I mean, these dinner party influencers, their food might taste like shit, but it just looks good online. And also it's like how pretentious you make the reel, like down at the Central Market picking out your flowers and whatnot. Who's who of the influencer world converged on Sydney to attend Active where brand Stacks is annual collection launch. No expense was spared, with Stacks footing the bill for influencers flights, accommodation and gifts. With Australia's biggest influencers in town, tongues were wagging with new couple sightings and potential run ins. Now, so before we get into the drama, how has Stax evolved into one of Australia's biggest active wear brands. Well, the brand was actually launched in Perth in twenty fifteen by Matilda Murray and Don Robertson, and at the time the couple couldn't afford to hire professional models, so they instead gifted the clothes to local influences to share photos on social media and at the time in twenty fifteen, this was somewhat revolutionary. So the label experienced such rapid expansion that they moved to Sydney to better position themselves in the global market. And in the past two years, Stax's popularity has absolutely exploded after it was spotted on the likes of Hailey Bieber, Ashley Graham and Jennifer Lopez. So a really clever marketing move by Stax is that they only release limited edition collection, which of course creates hype and urgency to buy. And they seem to have a winning formula with their collections because they are known to sell out in under sixty seconds flat and their seamless legends are so popular that pre orders are being accepted eight weeks in advance, while sales for their black tights hit fifteen thousand per month and they raked in almost eight hundred thousand dollars within two days when they dropped a VIP sale. So in twenty twenty one they turned over a whopping thirty million dollars and it is safe to say they have really made a name for themselves as the active were choice of influencers, so it's no surprise when they hold these sorts of events that every influencer and their dog is invited. Now, no expense seemed to be spared, with Sofa Dofa revealing flights and
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accommodation were all paid for. In her recent vlog, Sofa Dofa revealed how she was shocked when she landed at the airport and received a tech saying a limo was out the front to take her to her hotel. She also revealed that all influencer guests were staying at luxury hotel Little National in Sydney, CBD. It was quite cute because Sophia said that when she was checking into the hotel, she met Michael Finch, Lily Brown and Sky Wheatley and had a little bit of a fangirl moment because she loves all of them. It's safe to say she obviously grew up watching them on YouTube. And I did find it quite refreshing because Sophia bought her mum along to the event and they admitted that they were both feeling quite stressed and nervous to attend. She said she was getting scared to go to events because she's quite introverted, which I think seems to be quite common for influencers now. Stax did the obligatory brand trip move of leaving a collection of presents for the influencers on their hotel bed, which included items from the new collection, a black rose and a two thousands digital camera which had Stacks written on it, and that just made me feel old, the fact that they're like, yes, retro retro digital camera. Now. The dress for the event was all black, and to show off the all black outfits, there was this spinning podium that influencers could take photos on, and it reminded me of that really gross Wago wheel. I don't know if you guys remember it, but they how did at the Brown Low about ten years ago. I think they came up with it. A year after Beck jud made a splash with their red dress and this podium at Stax. There was this camera tracking, so tracked in a circular motion and basically the influencers would be dancing and then it was pretty cool because it made all of the influencers actually want to upload content. It was a great idea. I saw Sky Wheatley shared vision of her and Tarliest Gains on this sort of wheel and Sky was really embarrassed because she was dancing and you could see a white undis hanging out from the back well. In the past, Stacks owner Matilda Murray has given some insight into how she gets inpo for her fashion shows, and this year it seemed very much to have a Kanye esque vibe. So it was held at Luna Park and the show was described as being very over the top, so there were singers group dancing, and there were also some familiar faces modeling in the show, including Lily Brown's mum Nat and influencer m Davies. Now we all know that the influencer world can be quite ancestral, so of course, with hordes of influencers converging on the event and also staying at the same hotel. People were expecting things to get a little bit awkward, so Sofa Dofer unknowingly exposed Jonathan Souer sitting with his new girlfriend Sky Moody. And it's quite funny because Sophia was zooming in on Michael Finch and Lily Brown who was sitting in the front row, and Lily was cheering and getting amongst it because one of the male dancers took his shirt off, and in the background, sitting in the second row, we clearly see Jonathan and Sky laughing along. And it was quite odd to see Jonathan hanging out with his old crew because he did spend a lot of time with Michael Finch and Lily when he was dating ex Shiny Grip. And it's interesting to note that Shanny did not attend the event, and neither did Madison Woolly. And that is despite the fact that Madison attended last year's event. She's also had Matilda Murray on her podcast. She is a big supporter of Stax, so it was odd that she wasn't actually there. It was quite clear Madison did not attend because she knew Jonathan was going to be there. I mean, who would want to go if your ex boyfriend's there with his new partner. On a side note, I did notice that Madison Wooley actually verified that her parents did not send her that bunch of flowers that we spoke about last week. Now, I'm assuming she might have heard the podcast she said that mister Bottles gave her though, so Amy, I just wanted to clear that up for you now. Despite the fact that Jonathan and Sky were seated next to each other, they both didn't appear on one another's Instagram pages, so there was no instant stories together or photos. I also did wonder whether Mitch Third would be making a trip back from overseas to attend this event, because he has been quite supportive of Stacks in the past two and I thought maybe there might be an awkward reunion with ex Talia Scaines. Thankfully, for Talia, that did not happen, and she spent most of the night with friend Steph Packer. Yeah, because Mitch's overseas at the moment, so I suppose it was good timing. It would have been interesting to see what happened, because, as we spoke about on Friday, there seems to be no love lost there between those two. My favorite, Anna Paul was treated like the influencer royalty she is. On the night, she was seated in front Road next to her brother Attis and her partner Glenn, alongside the owner Matilda, so these were the prime seats. Now, even the other influences seem to be a bit star struck in her presence, with many including her on the Instagram stories and also talking about how they were excited to meet her. And I do think it's quite rare to see Anna at these influencer events, and that's probably because she's always traveling overseas, but also because she recently admitted on her Instagram account that she has turned down every single promotion that she's been offered except for her partnership with Stacks. It was rather funny timing because Anna officially revealed that she is starting her own line with Stacks, which is a massive win for the Active Where brand considering her pool on the gen Z market. It was quite juicy because before the Stax event, Anna revealed that she had been offered one hundred and fifty thousand dollars up front for a sponsored deal. She didn't say which brand that was from, and she said she turned it down. Because her followers trust is worth more to her. She said, I
would never promote something that I don't actually recommend. No amount of money is worth lying to you. Ever. Ever, ever, ever, I would rather quit social media. Now. Many people were questioning whether she is setting a new standard for influences. However, I do think we have to remember that she is making a substantial income off only fans, so it's not quite the same to say, oh, all these influencers shouldn't be working with brands, that's their core income. Yeah, but it also bumps up your value if you're only willing to do brand deals with certain brands. Well, I do wonder if that's why she is so popular, because her content isn't littered with inane ads all the time on the topic of money. As for the event itself, a lot of people in our Facebook group were discussing how much it would have cost to actually put something on like this, because it was very impressive, and I do think Stax would have paid big time influencers like Anna Paul to attend the event. However, in the case of the smaller influencers, I actually just think they would have received a free lot of active wear. I think it would have been a contra deal. What do you think? So, yeah, I definitely think the smaller influencers would have been quite flattered to be offered free accommodation and flights and obviously the free activewear gear that comes with it in exchange for attending the event and posting. I also think that Stax works with so many influencers that it was also most likely to have been written into their contract that they also attend events and post about it. I also think it's a place to be seen. A lot of status that comes with going to the Stacks event because only the biggest influencers in Australia are invited, so there's probably some that just literally went because they wanted to be seen there. Well. I was actually surprised that this event was open to the general public, so on the day of the event, Matilda was promoting that she had tickets still available and she showed that general admission tickets were fifty dollars, where as a more VIP experience was two hundred to three hundred dollars. See. I would have thought this would be a great promotion to actually give those away to followers of Stacks and get fans involved rather than making a profit off it. But maybe it shows well they needed to recoup some of the money spent on the event through tickets, even though the event was open to the general public. Do you think these sorts of displays of wealth and money and status, do you think it actually makes people want to buy the clothes or do you think it makes people feel a little bit excluded and like they're not part of the cool club. Look for someone that's thirty three years old, it did not make me want to buy the active where However, I think for their target market of gen Zetas, I don't think they care. I think that if they see it on people that they're following, they're gonna go out and buy it. I think it would entice them to do so. We've seen the
Sofa Dofer effect play out where she promotes any clothing and it literally sells out within seconds. I am fascinated to see the Anna Pole effect, considering she hasn't actually partnered with any brands before. I reckon it's going to absolutely go within a couple of seconds. This new collection that Anna Pole's launching, the Father of Love Islands. Tasha Guri has called on the public to avoid making fun of his daughter's hearing loss following a barrage of ablest abuse on social media. Amy It's sad it's come to this point. It really is, Kate. There was so much excitement when Tash was unveiled as a contestant on Love Island because she's the first ever deaf person on the show. So Tash was born completely deaf, and when she was five she was fitted with a cocklear implant. She then underwent years of speech therapy and now refers to her cochlear implant as her superpower. Now I didn't realize this, but the sounds heard through a cochlear implant are not the same as what you'd hear through your ears. So cochlear implant wearers who have previously heard naturally often described the sound heard from the implant as being more robotic or tinny. However, they say as time goes on, the brain adjusts to the new signals and it becomes more natural. So whilst in the villa, Tash has been the center of a number of big storylines. She has been coupled up with Andrew from day one, but the perception from the other Islanders and also the public is that she's not really that into Andrew because every time a new bombshell came in, she wanted to get to know them instead of being focused on Andrew. And during her time in Cassa Moore, she recoupled with Billy. Andrew also controversially recoupled with a Cassa a More girl called Cocoa, and this of course led to the infamous tar Gate controversy, which we spoke about last week. Now, this week, Tash asked Andrew to be her boyfriend, which is a really big deal in the villa, and she got all of the contestants involved to help her. There was a lot of attention on them. Now, what you would expect to be a really happy time turned sour because hours later Tash was in tears after being put in the bottom three following the public vote. Now, Tasha's behavior copped not only criticism from inside the villa but also outside of the villa because everyone thought, well, she should be really happy that she's just made Andrew her boyfriend, rather than focusing on whether she's popular in the public. And this led to a lot of horrendous abuse online and it's something that she's been receiving quite a while now since she's been in the villa, and this actually prompted UK journalist Liam O'Dell, who is also deaf, to call out the comments now. He said he's been worried by the amount of abuse directed at Tash from the minute she was announced as an islander. Now. The abuse he's referring to includes tiktoks, mocking her voice, comments fantasizing about damaging her cochlear implant. Now some people have even gone as far as to express desires for her boyfriend Andrew to physically abuse her. Some of the tweets I have seen are actually too horrendous to read out now. The journalist has called on ITV to do more to protect Hash and said that the condemning of trolling isn't enough. He said that they need to be more specific and condemned the ableism. He went on to say that hearing people still can't understand that you can criticize a person who happens to be deaf without bringing their disability into it. Now. This backlash has also prompted Tasha's dad, Tarek, to speak out. Replying to a comment on Instagram, he wrote, part of a dad's job is to guide, but not drive their kid's ships. This mentality has got her to where she is today despite the negativity. She was successful before she went in and she will be successful when she comes out. We talked about the possible negativity and if you think you are prepared for it, you are not. Negativity is not what we do in this family. So it's a bit of a shock, but more so is the ablest comments, like last night when someone described her as a deaf whore. Tash wanted to do it to represent and show deaf kids, teenagers and adults that they have nothing to fear by embracing their deafness or hearing aids. It's why hers are bright white. It's also why she's the only Love Island contestant to publicly say she would donate half of any winnings to the Deaf Children's charity, a positive story that's been left behind as news does. It's mentally draining for her to compute what's being said lipbreading people whose lips aren't facing hers, or whose mouths are covered with drink bottles, staying involved in conversations when you can only hear robotic sounds in only one of your ears is mentally draining. This leads to tiredness and sometimes tears. It's a pressured environment, but she has an extra pressure no one seems to recognize, apart from anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing. I'm completely with her dad here. I don't know why there is such a dislike for Tash. I don't think she's done anything wrong. If any thing, she has brought entertainment, drama, and realness to the show. I'm sorry we're forgetting that these people have only known each other for a few weeks When she was a bit up in the air over you know, bombshells coming in, didn't really know whether she liked Andrew that much. That's pretty normal in the dating world. So I don't understand why everyone has just thrown all this hate towards her. I do wonder if it's because she's absolutely stunning and people are threatened by her. I do wonder if her negative portrayal on the outside has anything to do with fan favorite Luca always seeming to call her out when she's upset. Because Luca has been called a game player before, Dumi's called him fake and said that Luca really wants to win the competition. Now, while Luca has denied that, I saw bits of that in the episode the other night when Tash was upset and the first thing he did was call her out, because I think there's
nothing worse than you can do in Love Ireland than actually acknowledge that you're there for your career Luca's defense, I think that he actually said it to her as a friend because people like Eck and Sue and other day they were talking behind her back and rolling eyes and that sort of thing. I think he wanted to go up to her and say something to kind of make her aware of the way she was being portrayed or might be portrayed on her sho. I agree with what Kate's saying because to Luca, he probably sees Tash and Andrew as being a big threat. I don't think so. He's best friends with Andrew. Yeah, but they're the couple that have been together since day one. They're now girlfriend and boyfriends, so it does make sense that he would call her out. He also could have spoken to her privately. It was quite clear that he wanted to have that moment where he called her out because he knows that Andrew and Tash are not popular in the house. Therefore calling them out on their shit is going to make him even more popular. I also don't get why she's not allowed to be upset that she's in the bottom three. I get that she is supposed to be a happy day because she's now girlfriend of Andrew whatever. But at the same time, I think people are forgetting that this is an enormous show. It is a launching pad for your career. I know people say, oh, I've only come into the show for love. That's bullshit. You go on the show to make a career for yourself. And also, all of the Islanders are aware that they're being spoken about, whether it's on social media, on newspapers, on podcasts. So to be in the bottom three three times in a row and to know that everyone on the outside probably doesn't like you, I mean, the fact that they got put in the bottom three over people from Casta Moore set a lot. Yes, it's not even just that. It's not even us saying we're confused why people don't like her. The fact is people have been disgusting and vile commenting on her cochlear implants, like they need to understand Tasha's made such huge progression for representation both on Love Island and also in the modeling industry. She's also raising so much awareness around the world, and I feel like she should be applauded for it, I think, but also forgetting how draining and tiring it must be for her to have to lip read other Islanders or to not be involved in conversations in the same way. You know, she might be losing things that other people who can hear might pick up on, you know what I mean, like social cues and stuff. And it is interesting because the family and friends who were looking after the islander's account, they have actually come together to release a joint statement about the current trolling. So they said, Love Ireland is an interactive TV show where opinions, discussions, and debate are welcome in equal measure to displays of support, love, and kindness. Although we have never met, we stand together today, united against the hate, messages and insults that some viewers seem to
think is acceptable to throw at our friends, sons, daughters, and family members. Your hate has no place on our pages or in society in general. This post is being shared across contestant social media pages at the same time, and Love Island fan related pages as a sign of unity and denouncement of hate. And I just think it's shocking that in twenty nineteen we saw Caroline Flack die by suicide and we were reminded to all be kind to people on reality shows or those hosting them. We also saw a number of contestants take their own life, but the message of being kind still doesn't seem to be getting through. It seems like the abuse has gotten even worse following that, and I think people need to remember this is just a TV show. This is light entertainment for us. These are just snippets of a twenty four hour day that you're seeing. I was shocked to hear that one of Love Island's sponsors is Reddit. So they have a specific Reddit link for Love Island users, and I heard them promoter on their podcast. I've only just gotten into it. It's fabulous if you are into Love Island like me anyway. So they're promoting this Reddit thread where you can talk about all of your favorite islanders. They did say they try and keep it safe, but I'd be really interested to know how everyone's on tattle talking about them tearing to shreds. Brooke Hogan shared some interesting insights into her fashion brand, as well as the sponsorship status of her wedding in a recent Not Gonna Lie Q and a Let's start with the wedding Kate? What did she say? Well Brook revealed that her and her husband Miles, weren't keen on having a sponsored wedding, so she said she didn't want to feel pressured to post every element of her big day on social media. She did, however, confirm that small elements of her wedding were sponsored. So her two wedding dresses were gifted from designers Steven Kalal and Marana Hardwick, while her champagne tower was sponsored by MOI because she actually had a long term partnership with them. Brook also confirmed the wedding venue, Hotel Sorrento, was her husband's family business. So, I mean, I feel like a large chunk would have been sponsored, because when you do break down a wedding, the food, the dress, and also those champagne towers, they set you back a lot. Yeah. But the thing is, I actually really appreciate Brooke opening up and sharing what was sponsored and what wasn't, because as someone who is planning a wedding. It can be really overwhelming when you see an influencer's wedding all over social media because it does set the bar of what a wedding should look like. And obviously they're going to have the best of the best, because not only do influencers have really high paychecks compared to us normal people, but they also get a lot of things for free. I agree, I do think it was refreshing. It was sort of similar to when Olivia Rodgers said that both of her dresses were also sponsored, because Yeah, the average person sitting at home, you think, how are
these people affording different outfit changes when I'm struggling to afford one dress exactly? And I think the second dress trend has become so big because of influencers and celebrities often having more than one dress, and in reality, it's only because they're not paying for it, and that's how they can afford to have to. I think it would be good if they could start adding gifted to some of the photos initially, because it would clear things up. That being said, though, these wedding brands also clearly making a lot of money off gift these influences. The dresses I know now from looking at so many wedding forums and Instagram pages that Olivia and also Brook have featured quite heavily, and I'm sure there's a lot of people inquiring about what dress they wore. That's actually a really good point. Now, Brooke didn't go into whether she got to keep her dress, but I remember Olivia Rodgers was saying that it was more of a case of it being loan to her, so she couldn't even take it home after the wedding. She had to give it back. So I don't know how I would feel about that. I suppose a lot of people do go on to sell their dresses. Yeah, but what are you really going to do with a huge wedding gown? I know I already struggle for room in my closet as it is. I can't imagine this huge ball gown in there as well, or two huge ballgowns like most influencers have. It's funny because it actually seems like a bit of a positive that influencers are able to confirm what and wasn't sponsored for their own personal benefit as well, because there's this trend of influencers tagging all their suppliers in their wedding photos, and it can give off the impression that everything was sponsored. And I can imagine if you've paid for most of the staff, you will actually want people to know that you paid for it, not that it was for free. Yeah. I think that's why we copped a bit of heat from Sarah's day, because when she got married last year, we were having a bit of a joke about what we thought was sponsored or not sponsored, because she was one of those influencers who did tag every single person except the dress designer, which was a bit odd. Yeah, and she wasn't too happy with us and came out and said, I actually paid for everything. But as you say, Kate, I can understand if I put my hard earned money into something and everyone's like they got this were free, you might be a bit annoyed. Yeah. At the moment when I'm as I'm going through the wedding budget and paying deposits and all that kind of stuff, I'm like, buddy, how this shit's expensive? So yeah, I can understand that. I mean, I think she could have dealt with it a bit better and actually listened to the episode anyway, I digress. Yeah, that's the thing. As much as it would be great to reduce the cost of your wedding. I can also understand why Brooke couldn't want to feel obligated to post on a wedding day. And I've been getting into bride talk and there's literally some influencers who look like they've spent
their whole wedding day creating tiktoks for future content. And I've seen these and I literally think, did you actually enjoy yourself or you're just thinking about what's going to make a good TikTok? Because there's some that they start off in their wedding pajamas with their bridesmaids and then there's like a transition and they're in there, and I think it's kind of cool, But then when you start going through the feed and there's like, oh, and here's my special moment where I'm eating dinner with my husband privately, and here's our first look and everything's filmed. I get that people have a videographer on the day, but I feel like with these tiktoks, it's actually there's more work personally for you to come up with the tiktoks and create them. I wonder if this is a bit of a side business. Well, on this American wedding podcast I listen to, they said that you actually should hire a social media person or ask one of your friends to capture stuff on social media, and to be truthful, actually wrote it into my note section as that's a good idea, and that's not to capture tiktoks, but it's to capture vision of your table or oh when you're not there, what your guests are doing, because I think it would be nice to look back on. And for me, I always find it intriguing because at a lot of weddings they say or is a social media blackout. I don't want your filming anything, put your phone away, which I understand because you want people to enjoy the moment. But that being said, at my wedding, I want everyone to have their phone out because I want to see that vision. Yeah, exactly. And the thing is, I can imagine it's like when you go to any good event, you get home and you look through the photos and videos and reminiscent about it, and it takes so long for you to get your wedding photos and your wedding video that you want all that content. Look, Sophie, pull my hand up. I can be that person on your wedding day? Could you be mine? Because Sophie is very very good at filming Instagram content, I think as a part of your job as a PR manager. I feel like we could literally talk about weddings all day. But let's get back to the Q and A. So Brook also opened up about her fashion brand Lemon. The followers anonymously asked if Brooke earns a wage from the brand, and also asked how much she's invested in the company now. She confirms she doesn't take a wage from either Lemon or her pilates business, which I found quite surprising, and she instead said that she relies on her modeling, ambassador and social media jobs for her income. And as for how much she's invested in her fashion brand, she said she wouldn't reveal the exact figures because it's private. However, however, she admitted that she's made a lot of mistakes and with the pandemic on top of it, it has added up pretty quickly now. She also clarified that she solely owns the company and doesn't have any financial investors. She said she did want to clear that up because she had heard a few rumors around the place. Now. While there's a lot of flaws with this anonymous not gonna lie questions, I think they've been pretty great from a perspective of giving influences the ability to set the record straight. It's also given the general public the ability to ask what we really want to hear without getting blocked. And it seems like there's this been this real fixation on Brooks brand ever since it launched, and I feel like Brooks brand has one mile vibes because in the sense that she seems to be taking it really seriously and looking for brand longevity rather than making a quick buck. And I remember back when brook first launched the brand at the start of the year that some people were annoyed because she released a sarong that was really expensive. And I just think it's because people are so used to influencers lending their names to cheap, fast fashion brands that when an influencer brand has expensive items, it just blows my mind, like people can't seem to get it. And a lot of people seem to be overlooking the fact that Lemon has been launched as a luxury slow fashion brand made in Australia and brook is just one of many influencers that are now pivoting away from fast fashion, and I think that's something that should be applauded. I agree with you, Kate. When that whole Sarong incident happened, just like people were desperate to criticize something. It was a bit of tall poppy syndrome. And Brooke did reiterate during the Q and A that the prices she charges are actually too low and she hasn't made a dollar profit off the brand and won't for many years to come. So she explained that Lemon's items are low quantity and made in Australia with quality fabrics. The thing is, I think the prices are very on part with Australian brands like beckham Bridge and shown a joy like. I don't understand why people are going nuts about it, and I think it's a part of the marketing too, because when I went to have a look at her brand, I was like, oh, this stuff looks really nice because it has got my end expensive, high end feel about it and it has the price tag that makes you think, well, they must be good quality. L Darby has revealed she decided to cancel her lavish wedding to fiance Connor Swift. Instead, the controversial UK influencers are set to wed abroad in a simpler ceremony that she says represents their love better. Does something smell fishy to UK? It definitely does. It's all very odd, from the clickbaita YouTube title to the excuses provided so during the daily vlog style video, Elle casually dropped while unboxing parcels that everything in her life shifted when she went offline, which appears to be code for being canceled. So she explained. Originally that her and con wanted a big, party style wedding that everyone would rave about and never forget. However, the expensive wedding no longer fitted in with their morals or goals in life now, Elle said. After talking about what they wanted in life and the types of people they are, they realized
that their wedding wasn't going to be a good representation of their love. So seven months out from the big wedding, she ended up having to cancel everything and this included the venue, events, stylists, photographer, musicians, flores, church, even her dress, she said, got canceled. And this is all despite the deposits being paid. So it's completely wild for me to even think about. Now they've completely changed their plans and are getting married overseas in what Elle says is a sentimental spot. She said that the wedding will be small and only people they love and adore will be invited. She also revealed they'll be having a civil ceremony in the UK with people who can't attend the wedding overseas. Do you think it's because a lot of people don't want to come to the wedding anymore because of the association with the racism and negativity. I wonder if that's why they're like, God, we've got no friends left. We've got to make it a smaller affair. Ah, definitely. And the thing is she kept trying to pass it off as if this was the decision that they had made. But I feel like it's not entirely her choice because there was all of these little bits of her language indicating negativity. So, for example, she called it a first world problem and then kept talking with this mantra that everything happens for a reason. Now we've just spoken about how brook Hogan was sponsored with a gifted wedding dress. Do we think that perhaps Elle had a very fancy wedding designer locked in and she was being gifted the item, but that brand no longer wants to associate with her, So maybe that's a bit of a spanner in the works as well. Oh, I definitely think that this wedding had a lot of sponsorship deals in the work, and now that they are no longer desirable from a sponsorship perspective, these sponsors have fallen through, and perhaps LL and Con can no longer afford to put on the wedding without this boost up from sponsorship dollars. I mean maybe in general they've lost a lot of money and can no longer afford to have a lavish wedding. I do think they would have enlisted the help of a PR manager for their brand reputation, and perhaps the person has also said, look, a huge, flashy wedding is not a good look for you. I think it would have been a combination of things. The thing is, though everyone loves the wedding, like even the flashy are the better in terms of influences. I mean, I know she's had this negativity around her, but they went on some flashy am American trip and posted all about it. And seem to not get much backlash, So I don't think it has anything to do with it from a PR perspective, and I totally disagree Kate. I think people are looking for reasons to hate her at the moment, So her putting on this pretentious, flashy wedding as if nothing has changed, as if her life is still perfect, I don't think it would be a good look for her at all. Oh, I definitely understand that, and I agree. I don't think from a PR perspective, it's a great move. But the thing is, I don't think that's why they've canceled it, because they've had all these flashy Hen's parties and stag duos and stuff. It's not like they've not been flashy at all. I did think another reason, because they kept pointing out that it was seven months before the wedding that they decided to cancel it all. I thought there have been some cheating rumors. I wonder if maybe Lle got wind of some cheating rumors and was like, that's it, I'm canceling everything. Like you just never know what's actually going on behind the scenes. I am excited to see how this wedding does play out. Well, So if I have thoroughly enjoyed chatting about weddings with you. To finish off this episode, some dedicated listeners who can actually tell our voices apart will recognize that Amy dropped off in the end of that topic. She had to go finish off some work. Aka, we had a big fight. Things did get a little bit heated us our old catch used to say, And it's funny. We did get some of those anonymous questions through last week and one of the questions a listener wrote was can you please air some of your arguments? And I don't think we'd have a podcast anymore if some of these were aired they get Maybe we should do like gusting to each other. Maybe we should do that YouTube thing. If this podcast gets X amount of downloads, we will air all of the dirty arguments and fights. How about that. Yeah, that's a good idea. I do want to remind people, can you please subscribe and also like our podcast because it does really help with the charts. But yeah, thank you so much for listening to today's show. And it was recorded in the traditional land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Planes. We pay respects to Elders past and present, and if you want to join in on any of the conversations going in on our Facebook community, head over to Outspoken the podcast community, and don't forget to give us a follow on Instagram and TikTok. Our handle is Outspoken Underscore, the Underscore Podcast