This just in: Kylie Jenner was seen wearing her 2019 MET gala dress … in Ohio? Actually, that would be Micarah Teweres who completely remade Kylie Jenner’s dress from scratch. With a purple wig to match, puns and more than a few farm animals (birds, chickens and a bat), Tewers uses comedic voice-overs to narrate exactly how she makes iconic pieces of clothing. But the question is, how many of her viewers are actually there for the DIY tutorial. Did they come for the comedic content instead?
Emma Chamberlain Meets Bestdressed
Micarah Tewers isn’t your average YouTuber. Specializing in comedic DIY tutorials, she brings an air of homeschooled sophistication to your day-to-day fashion videos and the best part is, she’s 100% real. No, literally. She has videos that might seem like clickbait but never actually are. Such as “What It’s Like Having an Extra Mom” or “Cut Your Hair With Toenail Clippers.” For those who don’t know her, she’s a combination of Bestdressed’s thrifting and sewing tutorials mixed with Emma Chamberlain’s energy and editing. Amp that up to a thousand and you’ve got Micarah Tewers.
Although I don’t like to compare influencers and want to emphasize that while Ashley’s channel name is her brand (Bestdressed), Micarah Tewers is hers as well, despite the very niche content that she makes. People come to her channel to see Micarah, not necessarily the instructional tutorial video they might have been expecting. However, with media needing to adapt and change in order to appeal to different and younger audiences, Tewers still fulfills the role her channel sets to play.
Her DIY Projects
Tewers uses her advanced sewing skills to make complex outfits and costumes, such as “historically accurate princess and the pauper dresses” (for both Barbie princesses). She also shows things like her entire vacation wardrobe, made completely out of thrifted clothes. When describing how to make these items she’ll use phrases such as “I sewed some ribbon about a jolly rancher’s width apart” and “when sewing up the back leave a space that is about the length of two raccoon heads” to show that she doesn’t want to take herself too seriously. All the while she’ll show the sped-up time-lapse of her going through the process of creating the garments. During this process, she’ll make puns, feature her family, her chickens (of which she owns five) or a random clip of her doing something … quite random.
In one video she talks about being late to church so she brought her RV to sleep outside the building before the service. She shows during the service how her pastor had a chicken. Then she goes back to making the dress. But despite the chaos of her content, you’re subconsciously taking in the visual information as she narrates the process at the same time. Although you may not completely understand what’s going on in layman’s terms, you’re still enjoying the content and there are still many parts that are informational. She’ll teach you how to sew an elastic band into spandex for a swimsuit or how to make boning out of zip ties (which is how you help a dress maintain its shape and gives the illusion of a corset) for your Cinderella costume. Tewers also likes to emphasize how she can do all of these projects for as little money as possible. When most of the products come from her home or Hobby Lobby, she usually manages to meet her goal.
Why Should You Watch?
The main reason why you want to keep watching Tewers is because you never know what could happen next. Tiffany Ferg did a video analysis on her channel describing the rise of Tewers, noting that there’s an increased interest in secondhand, sustainable clothing, thrifting and DIY projects. The entertaining way that Tewers allows her audience to acquire tactile skills such as sewing is what gives the YouTuber her appeal. Ferg also explains the randomness of Tewers content by saying, “As a viewer, you are more enticed to stay watching the video if you think something unexpected might happen, just to make sure you don’t miss anything.” Which, combined with Tewers’ brand as a personality and channel, explains why her platform has grown exponentially in a short amount of time.
The Future of DIY Fashion
Even though Tewers is changing the way DIY tutorials can be made and what homemade fashion can look like, she’s not the first to do so. YouTube channels like 5-Minute Crafts show time-lapsed videos of clothing being made from unexpected materials with music playing in the background. There’s no verbal instruction though there’s sometimes typing on the screen. Channels like Gotcha Covered Fashion and Rosery Apparel also specialize in tutorial videos; however, they either use the traditional sit-down format or else use videos that emphasize just the instruction, the clothes and the final product.
Tewers’ videos allow a different level of interaction with her audience. She speaks to them in the traditional vlog-style while also breaking it up with time-lapses and voice-overs. Her “Holiday Barbie” video tries to best explain how she overdramatizes her voice to sound like a Barbie, but it’s the same tone in all of her videos, which adds to its satire. With her slice-of-life clips, it allows us to know more about the person making these videos and the reasons why she’s committed to doing so. This helps the audience become invested in her on a personal level.
Fluidity Goes Beyond the Fashion
As a result, I think Tewers’ brand goes a step behind trying to be relatable but rather tries to do the most to entertain. Her day-to-day fashion videos don’t do nearly as well as her DIY Met Gala Kendall and Kylie dresses did simply because they’re less sensational. Her “DIY Vacation Wardrobe” video is what helped her channel take off since she had to do it in a day, which made it more exciting. She challenges the idea of fashion in a comedic yet strategic and functional way.
And because her channel is about her and not only about fashion, she has the flexibility to make other content, such as when she bought an RV or reacted to her own birth.
I don’t think these more traditional how-to videos and DIY tutorials will ever completely go out of fashion, but as we see the rise of quirky YouTubers, we begin to notice that they’re so popular because they allow their personality to show. When people can connect more to those they’re watching, they’re more likely to watch. And if you’re also able to make clickbait-worthy content without it actually being clickbait, then that’s a surefire way to draw people in.
