<\/p>\n
Go on any corner of the internet today, and you\u2019re bound to encounter a celebrity recommendation. You can keep track of Charli xcx\u2019s movie-watching habits by following her on <\/span>Letterboxd<\/span><\/a>. You can read like Dua Lipa by joining her <\/span>Service95 book club<\/span><\/a>. You can listen to Terrence O\u2019Connor\u2019s current favourite songs by saving his <\/span>playlists<\/span><\/a> on Spotify.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Today’s consumers are hungrier for recommendations than ever. Many are outsourcing the search to platforms like ChatGPT, where \u201cPractical Guidance\u201d \u2014 aka recommendations for retail, beauty, tech, travel, and other purchases \u2014 <\/span>accounts for<\/span><\/a> roughly 29 per cent of overall usage. Others look to the celebrity interview; now more than ever, celebrities are asked for their hyperspecific recommendations alongside the standard questions about their latest projects. In this context, shows and channels from Perfectly Imperfect to <\/span>Criterion Closet<\/span><\/a> have emerged, where hosts can go all in on asking celebrities what they’re into right now.<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s driving this change? The influencer era, for one. The influencer economy democratised taste \u2013 or the appearance of taste \u2013 alongside the apparent authority to package and share their opinions. But when everyone on social media can (and does) share recommendations, individual taste often collapses in on itself, with the algorithms feeding everyone the same pre-curated cultural diet.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n For a time, fitting in became more desirable than standing out \u2013 see: <\/span>that<\/span> Zara polka dot dress or Gustav Westman\u2019s curvy mirror \u2013 but now the pendulum is swinging back, and people are keen to reassert their own individual tastes and styles. <\/span>\u201cWe think that our aesthetic preferences and our tastes are who we are, and that’s our identity and our personality,\u201d Nathalie Olah, author of <\/span>Bad Taste: Or the Politics of Ugliness,<\/span> tells Dazed. \u201cWe all live with a certain amount of status anxiety, and there’s a fear of not being included, of not being in the know, or of being the clueless person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Staying \u2018in the know\u2019 and making the \u2018right\u2019 choices is a tall order in our hyperconsumerist society, where there\u2019s a seemingly infinite supply of products to buy and culture to consume. In his 2025 book <\/span>Empire of the Elite: Inside Cond\u00e9 Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, <\/span>Michael M Grynbaum writes that the Cond\u00e9 Nast of the 1990s \u201ctold the world what to buy, what to value, what to wear, what to eat, even what to think.\u201d He refers to the media company as a \u201cmerchant of fantasies and supreme arbiter of sophistication,\u201d dictating culture\u2019s ins and outs.<\/span><\/p>\n But in 2026, cultural authority has been decentralised. Instead of a single media house like Cond\u00e9 Nast setting the terms, we look to multiple different platforms for guidance: Criterion Closet<\/span> <\/strong>for movies, <\/span>I Like You!<\/span><\/a> by Isaac Hindin-Miller for city guides, Perfectly Imperfect\u2019s \u2018A Taste of Taste\u2019 for everything from <\/span>condiments<\/span><\/a> to <\/span>board games<\/span><\/a>. As well as tapping into the pre-existing cultural authority that public figures have, these channels enhance it: even if we\u2019re not already familiar with someone, simply being a guest in the Criterion Closet or being tapped for an I Like You! video provides enough credibility to make them a figure worth listening to. There\u2019s a huge prestige in being anointed by I Like You! as the definite authority on a city\u2019s best neighbourhoods, clubs and restaurants. The Criterion Closet, meanwhile, allows already established A-Listers to position themselves as erudite and sophisticated (much like Letterboxd\u2019s Four Favourites might allow an indie darling to present as surprisingly relatable and down-to-earth, perhaps by a judicious pairing of a Pixar film with\u00a0<\/span>Jeanne Dielman<\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Being at the forefront of culture grants certain public figures a credibility, which makes us want to learn what they like, what they know, and how their minds work. Importantly, the return of celebrities as trusted cultural arbiters come at a time when we, as consumers, are flooded with endless options, when everything on social media either is an advert or looks exactly like one. Because choice has become so boundless, consumers are determined to cut through the haze and discover what\u2019s really the \u201cbest\u201d, whether that\u2019s skincare products or athouse films. It makes sense that we\u2019d look to people who we already respect, who are typically charismatic and who, unlike most influencers, are distinguished for their talent in a creative field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But while the celebrity recommendation can <\/span>feel<\/span> like a friend sharing their enthusiasms, <\/span>commerce remains at the heart of it. <\/span>\u201cA celebrity and a corporate entity are now completely inextricable,\u201d Olah says. \u201cSo, a celebrity is now a front for a corporation and a consumer-based business.\u201d<\/span> Often, it\u2019s not so much about the recommendation itself, as much as what it reveals about the person making the recommendation or sharing the take, which is as true for celebrities as it is for us. \u201c<\/span>It\u2019s about trying to create a certain impression of yourself by curating cultural references or objects that you think will make you look cool or interesting, or distinguish you from other people,\u201d Olah continues.<\/span><\/p>\n These new interview formats usually come across as authentic: off-the-cuff, top-of-the-head, bordering on blas\u00e9. It\u2019s often charming to see what a celebrity reaches for when asked what they love, and most of them are no doubt sincere in their answers. But it\u2019s always worth remembering that we\u2019re in an era where taste itself has become a subtle form of branding \u2013 for celebrities and laypeople alike. Series like Letterboxd Four Favourites and Criterion Closet do not remove celebrities from the influencer recommendation machine so much as refine it, turning cultural preference into just another performance of selfhood. The result is not necessarily a return to authentic cultural authority, but a new kind of taste economy, where the recommendation matters less than the image it creates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n