At the last fashion week, the 13 years old Tavi Gevinson was sited at the front row of the fashion shows, near editors and celebrities. The Guardian even called her « the true star » of the Fashion Week of New York in September 20091. This young girl from the suburbs of Chicago has created her blog in 2008 and since a year, she has became a true phenomenon in the world of fashion. Editors, fashion designers, journalists have cited her as an influence, and have admired her style, her curious eye and her talent. Her swift rise to fashion fame highlights the role the Internet has played in breaking down traditional barriers to entry. A real revolution in the world of fashion.
This story emphasizes the new role that social media plays in the world of fashion. To define social media we can say that it's a kind of media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible publishing techniques. An important phenomenon of social media is the democratization of knowledge and information that transform people from content consumers to content producers. Social media enables the implementation of a collective intelligence in the world of fashion. Fashion invention and creation is not anymore the monopoly of magazines, editors, designers and industry. Now real people can also produce and share information about fashion and trends. The result is that everything goes faster and above all everyone can have access and produce content. The « (wo)man » in the street can discuss the legitimacy of studded jackets, the right use of floral print, the new it-bag or some others passionating subjects, as well as Anna Wintour in Vogue Magazine. Everybody can know in « real time » what are the new trends of the last fashion week or how is the last collection of a designer.
This is the emergence of a collective intelligence in fashion world, which is, as Pierre Lévy described it a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. Users are now able to generate their own content. It is the capacity of human communities to evolve towards higher order complexity and harmony. Social media enables the emergence of a fresh view, a fresh approach to fashion. « The Internet — web 2.0 media and blogs, in particular — has been kicking down doors and fostering greater inclusion in most cultural fields. With fashion, the net has created unprecedented opportunities for fashion pedagogy, making old media look decidedly old-school »2.
This the example of this new trend: street style. Street fashion has recently made its way into the world of fashion. An increasing number of blogs now feature fashion on real people, and show how trends are applied on the street, how urban street people are inspired by avant-garde fashion. With street style fashion, is now more focused on people and how they appropriate trends and apply its to their own style. Scott Schuman a fashion blogger (thesartorialist.com) describes his philosophy as trying to echo how fashion designers looked at what they saw on the street: « I thought I could shoot people on the street the way designers looked at people, and get and give inspiration to lots of people in the process. My only strategy when I began The Sartorialist was to try and shoot style in a way that I knew most designers hunted for inspiration3 ».
Fashion blogs as thesartorialist.com, facehunter.blogspot.com or garancedoré.com now dictate new rules to the world of fashion. They show « real people » wearing vintage, handmade, ready to wear or designers clothes and not any more models wearing expensive clothes. People can react, comment and share information but also gets inspiration from those blogs. Street style had a tremendous impact on the world of fashion and brands views this new trend as a highly profitable new media business. A brand as American Apparel chose an advertising strategy largely focused on people from the street. Many of the models in American Apparel advertising are recruited on the street, or company stores. In 2009, American Apparel launched a contest with Lookbook.nu, « How do you wear American Apparel? ». People have to take pictures of themselves wearing American apparel clothes and post it on Lookbook.nu. One girl and one guy will be hand-selected by the American Apparel creative team as the grand prize winners and will get to model for an upcoming American Apparel ad4.
This strategy is an example of a trans-media storytelling, a strategy that brands utilize more and more. A trans-media project develops storytelling across multiple forms of media (TV, Film, Web, Mobile, ...) in order to have different entry points in the story. Each chapter is designed specifically for the media which disseminates. All to create a unified experience between media that gives the feeling of entering a universe. Trans-media Storyteller Jeff Gomez defines it as « the art of conveying messages themes or story-lines to mass audiences through the artful and well planned use of multiple media platforms »5. American Apparel advertising strategy obviously use trans-media storytelling to create a whole universe attracting for potential consumers, in particular through social medias as Facebook, Twitter, Lookbook.nu or fashion blogs.
One word on Lookbook.nu which is a community website, created by Yuri Lee in San Francisco and designed for users to post their own street-fashion photography with their outfits. Outfits uploaded to Lookbook.nu by its members are scored with points, known as Hype, to judge that outfit's popularity among the Lookbook.nu community. With more than two millions unique visitors each months, Lookbook.nu is fast gaining ground on the fashion industry's leading publications (UK Vogue's average monthly circulation is 221,090). Jasmine Gardner on London evening standard described Lookbook.nu as « a new tribe which is taking over the fashion world, and instead of middle-aged fashion editors, it's a super-stylish, international bunch of mostly teenagers who are showing us how to dress »6. Some of the images uploaded are so click that the fashion professionals are starting to notice. Managing director of Elite Model Management says: « we'll definitely put this site on our ones to watch' radar … It looks like a good source for both potential new faces and potential new stylists and other creative who we might want to work with »6.
Social medias change the world of fashion durably by creating communities which tells brands that they need to participate and create dialogues with people on-line. We’re beginning to see more genuine interaction between brand and client, using trans-media storytelling. Many brands are experimenting with development of their own social networks or even invitation-only communities to establish relationships with the next, younger generation of shoppers. Luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Burberry have launched their own social networks or added social components to their existing websites. While Facebook and Twitter allow brands to market to the masses in multiple ways, more exclusive social destinations within theirs site enable them to extend their brands’ stories and promises to customers. In doing so, they can maximize users’ online brand experiences.
Burberry's advertising and communication strategies are a very good example. Two events in particular are very representative. The first event is when Burberry decided at the time of the last fashion show to broadcast the fashion show online but also in some private places in cities such as New York, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo and Los Angeles. Guests had to put on retro red and green glasses to enjoy a simulation front row experience. Burberry wanted to make a fashion show, usually elitist, more accessible to everybody. The second event is when Burberry created a website called Art of the Trench where users are encouraged to upload images of themselves wearing Burberry’s signature item – their trench coat. Scott Schuman (thesartorialist.com) helped launch the project and have accepted to take pictures of them. Upon accessing the site, you’re taken to a collage of children, men and women in everyday, every walks of life, categorized into genders, popularity and style. Burberry wanted to connect with its consumers and to show the diversity of them. They wanted to create a community through this iconic piece that is the trench coat. And moreover it cost barely nothing because this is the people who create their own looks and then upload it on the website. Scott Schuman was associated and collaborated with Burberry on this project.
More and more, brands decided to collaborate with bloggers who have an enormous impact on the world of fashion. Everyone can decide to start a blog to share her/his personal style or views about fashion. Those blogs affect everything from print publishing to how brands market themselves on-line. Bloggers now participated in fashion design collection collaborations and received front-row, international Fashion Week seats next to some of the most notable figures in the couture world. Bloggers are at the forefront of content innovation on the Internet and have the know-how to use social media effectively. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s creative director, explains: « It’s important that the bloggers become well respected. They have a very articulate way of expressing an opinion. The difference between bloggers and traditional press is that [bloggers] are often talking directly to a final consumer »7.
And this is the key to social media and fashion. Thanks to social media, fashion, which was the most elitist industry in the world, became more accessible and easier to understand for people. Scott Schuman that: « Previously fashion was so alien and so hierarchical. Bloggers show the average person that they too can be part of it – that this is what it’s really like »7. And brands realized this collective power of customers and encourage it by authorizing fan contributions. Fashion industry utilizes user-generated content and takes part to the creation of a collective intelligence by focusing more on their customers' creativity. The dialog between designers, bloggers and social media gurus has opened up. Designers understand their customers are consuming media and adapt their strategies.
One of the result is that everything goes faster. Magazines realize that they have to share information to their readers in another way than printing it three months after fashion weekends. “I think it’s going to be more and more important to get stuff up on the web — images, reviews, interviews, etc. — as quickly as humanly possible,” says Lauren Sherman co-editor of Fashionista.com. “People read what they see first. I think magazines in particular need to figure out a way to cover the shows more uniquely in print because by the time the September issue comes out, no one cares anymore”8.
The demystification of fashion is another result of the democratization and the emergence of a collective intelligence in the world of fashion. But some interrogations remains. Maybe this isn't a good thing for fashion industry and especially for luxury houses to have their decisions determined by consumers and users and not by the creativity of fashion designers. Maybe consumers don't want to be too much involved in the creation of fashion. According to Hugh Devlin, a brand consultant at Withers LLP law firm in London, people love fashion because this is about dream and magic. He draws a parallel between such consumers and fervent followers of the royal family: “A royalist is unlikely to want to know too much about the Tupperware on Her Majesty’s breakfast table. Similarly, most consumers of luxury don’t want to see behind the curtain. They want to understand the effort that goes into their products but not all the nitty gritty,” he says. Luxury houses have to protect themselves not to loose the dreams that surrounded fashion. The question that needs to be answered is: how far should we embrace, or not embrace, the social medias? Antoine Arnault, son of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and head of communications for Louis Vuitton, adds: “It is not a question of whether online fashion media is a growing force but of where it will stop”7.
Another interrogation is to wonder if new “Fashion 2.0” is another marketing strategy to earn money and seduce consumers or if it is a real fashion revolution? The question of the independence of bloggers in front of those brands is also a very important issue. How bloggers will deal with their new relations with the brands? How much harder, for example, will they find it to hold independent opinions on designers when they meet them at the shows? Will they really find it as easy to write about a brand if it advertises with them?
We can say that fashion world has changed in a incredible way to become more accessible and less elitist thanks to social media but that brands can try to take advantage of this. This is a risk because if brands starts to take advantage of this new phenomenon to earn money this is no more a “revolution” or democratization of the world of fashion but this is only new ways of marketing and advertising. Those solutions appears to be really successful so they are going to be more and more used by the brands. In 2010, we’ll undoubtedly see more brands experimenting in creating their own social networks or incorporating social aspects into their websites. The thing is that we just have to pay attention carefully to those phenomenons to avoid any risk of intrumentalization.
Anouk Exertier, Friday 7, May 2010
REFERENCES
1. Eva Wiseman, Tavi Gevinson: the 13-year-old blogger with the fashion world at her feet, The Guardian, Sunday 20 September 2009
2. Imran Amed, Fashion 2.0 | GQ Rules opens a new fashion dialogue, on Businessofffashion.com, 28 october 2008
3. Schuman, Scott, Biography, retrieved April 6, 2007 from thesartorialist.com.
4. Show us your style and win an American Apparel modeling gig, retrieved November 11, 2009 from americanapparel.com.
5. Starlight Runner Website
6. Jasmine Gardner, Is this going to be the new route to planet fashion?, London evening standard, 14/09/09
7. Nicola Copping, Style bloggers take centre stage, Financial Times, November 13, 2009
8. Hitha Prabhakar, How the Fashion Industry is Embracing Social Media, on Mashable, the Social Media guide, February 20, 2010.
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