Relationship Between Fashion Culture and Social Media Essay

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Fashion Culture and Social Media

Given its role in defining people’s self-image and culture, fashion is regarded as one of the most important facets of today’s society. Throughout history, fashion has been utilized as a tool for shaping culture by defining people’s self-image and how they interact in the society. The role of fashion in defining people’s self-image and culture has grown tremendously in the digital age because of enhanced access to information. Of late, society is being progressively orientated towards consumption. The chief driver in this regard is goods utilization for their applicability as well as the perceived attitude or imagery or story associated with it (this entails image desirability as well)[footnoteRef:1]. The above situation is growing more pronounced on account of the benefits of social media, especially social media reach. Hence, this paper will scrutinize the subject of fashion culture within the social media era, using the example of hair-care products brand ambassador and influential social media personality, Negin Mirsalehi. Additionally, the scrutiny will include the use of articles that have been published on the subject of fashion culture and social media. [1: Alexandra Howson, The body in society: An introduction, 2nd edition. (Polity press, 2013) 115.]

Social Media

Social media is a concept that refers to the assortment of online communication platforms and applications that enable users to engage in community-based interactions and information sharing. This concept also refers to applications and website that enable users to participate in social networking. Social media has not only emerged as a “buzz” word in today’s society but also plays a crucial role in modern communications. The proliferation of social networking websites and applications has made it easy for people to communicate and interact beyond physical boundaries. Therefore, social media has revolutionized modern communications to an extent that it’s used to shape modern businesses and organizations.

Social media has a significant standing and function in contemporary everyday life. It has grown into a key instrument of social networking and communication. In the fashion industry, social media is utilized by brand influencers as a crucial tool towards accessing target markets. Brand influencers employ it as an efficient, powerful and handy instrument in individually accessing their target markets.[footnoteRef:2] For instance, Mirsalehi unsurprisingly maximizes her everyday physical activities’ impact by posting regular updates on social media. This gives rise to a credible and desirable story in favor of whichever brands she promotes; furthermore, buyers relate to her, share in her tales, and buy the products she uses. [2: Brooke Erin Duffy and Emily Hund. "“Having it all” on social media: Entrepreneurial femininity and self-branding among fashion bloggers." Social Media+ Society 1, no. 2 (2015): 2056305115604337]

The significance of social media in modern communications is attributable to the fact that it provides a platform for people to connect with millions of others worldwide regardless of the existing physical boundaries. For brand influencers and marketers across various industries, social media provides a wide-reaching platform for them to reach millions of people with their products and/or services. The capabilities of social media in reaching huge audiences implies that it’s a tool of promoting socio-cultural change. In this regard, social media is utilized as the platform for influencing trends across different societies in the world. These trends in turn shape how people interact with each other worldwide and socio-economic status. Therefore, social media plays two major roles in today’s society given the proliferation of social networking sites. First, social media plays a significant role in modern communications through increasing connections between people from various parts of the globe. Secondly, social media is a tool of socio-cultural change since its used to influence trends and shape opinions worldwide.

Fashion Culture

Fashion is a concept and industry that has existed as long as clothing has existed in the history of mankind. Fashion culture is a concept that refers to the use of clothing to alter the body and give people social value.

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Since clothing is considered as a second skin, the development of different clothing styles and trends has contributed to the emergence of the fashion culture. In essence, fashion culture refers to the creation of different clothing styles and trends to alter body image and give people social value. Fashion culture has continued to change across every generation because different generations and time periods are characterized by the development of new or improved clothing styles and trends.

The social value associated with different clothing styles and trends is attributable to the link between fashion and identity. Fashion and clothing have a relatively complex relationship or link to identity. [footnoteRef:3] Fashion is utilized as a tool to express identity since the clothes people wear reveals something about their class, socio-economic status, and gender among other factors. Socio-economic status and class are two major factors that have dominated the fashion culture because of the class differences in the society. People choose their clothing styles depending on their position in the social world with respect to being members of certain groups, cultural communities, and classes. This implies that fashion is strongly linked to the demands of the social world in terms of social grouping and classes, personal desires and preferences, and the social class/group where one belongs. Through this process, fashion acts as a tool that connects people in mutual acts of conformity to social structures and groupings. [3: Joanne Entwistle, The fashioned body: Fashion, dress and social theory. (John Wiley & Sons, 2015)]

Since fashion is a tool for social value, an individual’s dressing or clothing affects how he/she is perceived by others and how they respond to him/her. Given its impact on how people view themselves and how they relate with others, fashion has traditionally been utilized to promote sociocultural change and push the boundaries of creativity and innovation. The use of fashion to promote sociocultural change is attributable to the fact that clothing has continued to be a powerful social tool that materializes social value.

As the society develops, fashion culture evolves in terms of development of new clothing styles and trends with different meanings. The meanings associated with the different clothing styles and trends in turn determines social value of the fashion items. Additionally, fashion culture is determined or affected by the existing cultural communities in the society. This is primarily because different cultures interpret and give meaning to different clothing styles and trends in different ways. Therefore, social and cultural factors play a crucial role in determining fashion culture.

Link Between Fashion Culture and Social Media

As previously mentioned, social media has a significant standing and function in contemporary everyday life. It has grown into a key instrument of social networking and communication. Given the significance of social media in contemporary daily life, it has impacted nearly every facet of the society including the fashion industry. Social media has emerged because of rapid technological advancements that have contributed to the emergence of the digital age. The impact of social media on fashion culture is the fact that social media has been utilized as a tool to change fashion. In today’s digital age, fashion has changed and continued to evolve, particularly because of social media and networking. [footnoteRef:4] [4: Azhar (Ali) Fateh, “How Social Media Is Changing Fashion?” The Huffington Post, last modified January 19, 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-social-media-is-changing-fashion_us_587edd29e4b06a0baf64918f]

Social media influences fashion culture through shaping people’s opinion, which in turn becomes the basis for development of clothing styles and emergence of different….....

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