Social media has significantly changed the fashion industry by allowing two-way participation between brands and consumers. It has shifted power dynamics away from top-down trend-setting by magazines and fashion shows alone by empowering users to both consume and contribute to fashion trends. Popular platforms like Instagram have huge engaged audiences for fashion content and influencers, driving inspiration, trends, and sales. Social media also enables faster response to trends and greater individual expression in fashion.

1. How has social media has changed the fashion industry?
In this essay, I will be answering the question of ‘How has social media has changed the
fashion industry? Over the past few weeks I have been conducting research all about social
media and relating it to the question. The fashion industry has been altered many different
times due to specific factors like fashion trends, fashion magazines and fashion influencers.
To do this I am going to look into the history of fashion magazines, fashion trends and the
role of influencers as they play a big part with social media and the fashion industry.
“Social mediahasinfluencedthe fashionindustrymore thananyotherindustry.Forthe most part,
fashionusedtobe a two-dimensional,one-sidedindustry.Brandsputtheirclothinginmagazines
and usersconsumed ideasandinspirationbyflippingthroughthe pages.Modelswalkedinfashion
shows,andusershopedandprayedthat part of itwouldbe coveredontelevisionsomewhereso
theycouldwatch.The fashionindustrycreatedthe trendsettersandusersfollowedthe trends.Users
didn’thave a sayin whattheywere consuming,theycouldonlyoptoutof trendsthat theydidn’t
like.Social mediahasreframedthisstructure,allowinguserstonotonlyconsume fashionbuttoalso
contribute toit.”(The FashionNetwork,2018).
Social media as a whole has changed so many aspects of the world so far and Fashion is a
big one of them. In the clothing industry, social media has already brought so much diversity
and change to the way we view the fashion world for example without social media we
wouldn’t be able to online shop and a big part of online shopping with there being so many
different retailers and companies and a major part is the advertising of the brand, with
many online clothing retailers using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and many others
to attract a wider range of customers.
Another aspect of advertising using social media is using different celebrities which has
always been a big hit as magazines and newspapers would using well known names to draw
more people into buying it whereas now we have a lot more fashion icons and social
influencers where social media is their job therefore companies use this to their advantage
and ask well known influencers to advertise their product or company.
“Of Instagram’s total audience, 200 million users follow at least one fashion account,
45% of Instagram users in Britain say they follow these fashion accounts to gain inspiration
for looks they can buy or create themselves. Sharing their own looks is a part of this process
too, with #fashion mentioned a huge 13 million times a month and #ootd (outfit of the day)
featuring in 140 million posts to date”
In my opinion I think a very large change that has benefited the fashion industry because of
social media is that it gives the customer more of a voice which they can use on social media
for example specific companies have to deal with a lot of wrong orders or where something
hasn’t gone how to the customer wanted it to therefore the customer has all these options
to share negative responses on their social media and giving them a low rating and further
giving some negative light on the companies name. In these times where a lot of social
media users rely on social media influencers to give their opinion about a brand or item of
clothing this can all become a lot more severe for the company as if a influencer with 2
million followers says that they think a company has the worst quality they clothing
company will most likely substantially have a more negative outcome whereas if they said

2. something really positive its more likely that you will have 2 million more people positively
looking at the product therefore sales will increase.
“Instagram researched 800 million monthly active users in September 2017 and these
users have the highest level of engagement compared to other social media sites”
From this quote we can see that Instagram is becoming one of the worlds most active social
media therefore lots of clothing industry’s and companies have their own Instagram
accounts where they post new clothes and social media influencers wearing their clothes
which can generate multiple different audiences from people that follow and support the
social media influencer who then get influenced to potentially buy the item of clothing of be
influenced by the style and people that are already an existing customer who then may be
interested in the image and the Influencer, having this social media platform for clothing
brands is very important in this society as why would you not when all the other
competitors are on social media.
Fashion as an industry is growing day by day and I think a big key to this success is the
individuality that is becoming more popular as there is so much range and diversity in these
days compared to when clothing was worn to keep covered and warm whereas now
everyone has their own individual style and this is a big part of there not being as many
boxes that people like to be categorized as with people making their own individual styles
and new trends coming and going all the time, specifically, people of colour and plus-sized
people who are more inclined to have trouble fitting into mainstream ideas of fashion and
how you should look whereas now there are a lot more range for different people and
different styles and they are able to find online communities through social media.
Fast fashion has become a large part of the fashion world with more people wanting quick
and cheap trends rather than focusing on the quality and production of the product. People
are not looking to wait 6-months for a trend anymore and usually this trend is related to a
celebrity or social media influencer therefore the quicker the company recreates this trend
and advertises it the better for the profitably for the business, a lot more people that are
interested in the fashion world and keeping up to date with the newest trends can’t
necessarily afford designer prices so this is a good opportunity for fast fashion retailers like
PrettyLittleThing and ASOS as they are still giving the same style of trends just without the
name brand and the large price that would normally come with it.
“Elle, women’s fashion magazine was founded in France in 1945 by Pierre Lazareff and his
wife Helen Gordon and owned by Lagardere group of France. Its name is the French word
for “she.”
Fashion magazines are an essential component of the fashion industry. They are the
medium that conveys and promotes the designs vision to the eventual purchaser. Balancing
the priorities has led to the diversity of the modern periodical market. The oldest fashion
magazine is the Harpers Bazaar which was first published on November 2, 1867. it was
published by Hearst Communications and it became one of the most famous magazines in
the 19th century.”

3. The Fashion magazine used to play a big role in the trends and what we bought and were
recommended but dating back to the 1600s, The Treasure of Hidden Secrets was a
publication that was created for “honest matrons and virtuous virgins” it provided the
people with information like how to avoid the plague and food recipes. It was until the 18th
century that fashion magazines really became a thing however it was predominantly aimed
at the richer women as these were the only people who could relatively afford the
magazines and more so relate to the information inside the magazines as it would feature
things like seeing images of ladies like themselves who are involved in everyday leisure
pursuits, although most of the focus from the fashion side was more so to please men since
the social status of women was heavily represented by a home where the male goes to
work to earn a living and the women would stay at home looking after the children and
cooking the meals. It wasn’t until the 20th century that magazines and social change offered
women a larger platform and more of a voice in magazines and in life.
Relating to the fashion magazine alongside comes fashion photography, in the 1850s there
was use of fashion photographs to advertise clothing and people to the nation but it wasn’t
until the early 20th century where fashion photography started to have a bigger impact as
fashion itself became a lot more attainable for a wider audience.
To conclude social media is one of the most influential platforms for the fashion industry
and the popularity of it would be nowhere near as close to what it really is without social
media and some specific things like using influencers and fast fashion trends to attract more
people has really evolved the fashion industry. In my opinion I think that it is a positive
impact on social media and the fashion world as they go hand in hand with each other,
social media gives the audience and customers a hierarchy of voice and a lot more power
than they used to as we get to share our opinion and voice our views worldwide therefore I
think that the fashion industry will just keep on growing with all new trends and new people
that it can use to advertise.
anon. (2018). How Social Media Has Changed the Game in the Fashion
Industry. Available: https://thefashionetwork.com/how-social-media-has-changed-the-
game-in-the-fashion-industry/. Last accessed 21/04/2020.
anon. (2011). Elle FRENCH FASHION MAGAZINE. Available:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Elle-French-fashion-magazine. Last accessed
21/04/2020.
Autumn Wilberg. (2018). How Social Media and its Influencers are Driving
Fashion. Available: https://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social- media-
marketing/how-social-media-and-its-influencers-are-driving-fashion/4871. Last accessed
21/04/2020.
PATRICIA SARKAR . (2018). The History of the Fashion Magazine. Available:
https://vocal.media/styled/the-history-of-the-fashion-magazine. Last accessed
21/04/2020.