Back to school: how the new term is shaking up fashion

From celebrity kids on Instagram to fresh outfits for the school run, the return to class is big business

On Tuesday, children in Niagara, Canada, arrived up to 30 minutes late for class on the first day of the new academic year due to delayed school buses. The region’s head of student transportation services laid the blame not on traffic or lost lunchboxes, but parents taking back-to-school photos of children boarding their buses. “It’s a lot of parents and drivers greeting each other – but also the photo opportunities,” Lori Ziraldo told the Welland Tribune.

Along with Halloween and the first day of the summer holidays, back to school has become a photo moment to share on social media. The phenomenon is bringing other countries in line with France, where la rentrée marks the end of a long August holiday. This week, the television presenter Holly Willoughby and the actors Jessica Alba and Busy Philipps all posted images on social media of their children on their first day back at school. In the US, the spectacle extends into the college years: last month, the rapper Busta Rhymes posted an image of his goodbye kiss to his 18-year-old son, Trillian, in the corridors of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.