This TikTokeur parodies fashion shows with hilarious and ingenious creativity

You may have already come across one of his TikTok videos, often reposted on other social networks like Instagram and Twitter. Shaheel Shermont Flair, aka @ Shermont22, has a knack for creating viral videos from rudimentary everyday items that he wears as one of the latest crazy and expensive creations on a high fashion runway. Parodies of the circus and the glitz of the fashion industry that seem all the more surprising because they have a penniless environment in Fiji as a backdrop.

On TikTok, Shaheel Shermont Flair aka @ Shermont22 parodies fashion

Shaheel Shermont Flair’s sense of irony has already attracted nearly 500,000 followers and 20 million likes on the Chinese social network. And if his videos are so popular, it’s surely because the conceptualism of some – a wealthy and often disconnected elite – can easily border on absurdity in the eyes of others.

Plus, other luxury satirical videos are a hit on TikTok. Surely because it is becoming more and more ridiculous and irresistible to make fun of this sector that enjoys in an increasingly visible and shameless way to imitate the most popular classes. Whether it’s the Ikea or Tati bag, jogging in socks, Crocs, trash bags or even pre-worn Balenciaga sneakers (yes, that’s a lot for a single home, but it’s the hobby of Demna Gvasalia, her current CEO) . Or Kanye West who sells the fruit of the collaboration between his brand Yeezy and Gap in construction bags.

Who really is Shaheel Shermont Flair aka @ Shermont22 on TikTok

As this industry becomes aware of the problems of cultural appropriation, it seems to have more and more fun with social class codes, like a new, less mined playground. And perhaps it is also this context that explains the virality of @ Shermont22’s videos, he who finds himself at the crossroads of issues of race, class, sexuality and even gender expression.

As reported by the media El País, Shaheel Shermont Flair is a young gay Fijian of Indian descent. His ancestors were the Indian Girmtya who were deported to British-colonized Fiji in the mid-19th century to become slaves. He has been having fun on social media for months, fumbling with clothes, including Indian-inspired ones, with toilet paper for the sari, a bottle cap for a nath on his nose and a tea bag for the maang tikka on his forehead.

Return the stigma of misery and aim for the double standard of fashion

In fact, it’s almost as if he’s overturning the stigma of misery in formal outfits worthy of a Western fashion catwalk.. Videos of her require a lot of imagination, creativity, talent and even know-how to make it all last for a fashion show, however parodic it may be.

That he can do all of this by himself or almost should arouse a lot of admiration, as well as laughter. But it also questions what is considered beautiful, in good taste, and worthy of admiration. Because it seems to exist a double standard of what is considered genius or not, depending on who expresses it. From what positions and social conditions.

So while he surely won’t be named creative director of a major fashion house anytime soon, perhaps the success of content creator Shaheel Shermont Flair will help support his loved ones and the islands, which are more than just tourist destinations for Western-seeking. of exoticism.