In the most recent years, social media has managed to revolutionize virtually every industry in the world. In the fashion world, social media has brought connectedness, innovation, and diversity to the industry.
Social media has influenced the fashion industry more than any other industry. For the most part, fashion used to be a two-dimensional, one-sided industry. Models walked in fashion shows, and users hoped and prayed that part of it would be covered on television somewhere so they could watch. The fashion industry created the trendsetters and users followed the trends.. Social media has reframed this structure, allowing users to not only consume fashion but to also contribute to it.
Sherri Barna at Purple Bean Media, explains how social media influences the fashion industry.
“It just shows people lots of options, lots of different types of body images and like, figures basically so instead of like when you go to the mall, they’re all one shape one size, it’s like social media, to me shows a plethora of different types of bodies.”
She then explained how Instagram is the biggest social media network that influences fashion the most.
“Instagram is almost like an old school, a catalog or a magazine, where it’s like you’re constantly being shown the newest trends. What’s happening like today, you know, what people are wearing, whether it’s celebrities or the regular person is also now being used for designers to really showcase their trends and new fashion design. “
There’s an ongoing discussion amongst the peoples of the internet, that middle schoolers today look much less awkward than they used to. This is in part because pre-teens have more examples of how to be fashionable and are given access to hacks that show preteens that they don’t have to be rich to have style.
“I think it’s becoming really diverse. Like you don’t see one style, you see, like very many, a lot of styles, whether it’s just like the oversized hoodies and ripped jeans, or if it’s a little more preppy with the crop tops, or whatever, I think they don’t have one specific fashion sense. Whereas in the past, it’s kind of been like scooping, like, Okay, everyone wore the Doc Martens, the ripped jeans matooke. And then it was like, Okay, everyone went really, really preppy. And like, so everyone did the skinny jeans thing when it came in. Everyone could have a different style, and it’s all accepted.”
Justin Carrothers, Owner and Operations Manager for Loudstorms Social Media Marketing Industry, explains how our generation is influenced with the current fashion trends.
” I definitely understand that as influencers post certain things, other people will pick up on those, I like to use the analogy of you are kind of five people you spend the most time around. And that’s just because they have in the moment the most influence on you. And when you’re spending a lot of time on social media, those that are appearing in our feed have a lot of influence on us in general. And if we’re following specific influencers, they’ll tend to influence our decisions, whether it’s related to fashion or not. So if people are having to follow a lot of fashion bloggers, they’re definitely going to be kind of persuaded by those guys, specifically, depending on which area of fashion they’re following people in.”
He then explained how apps like Tik Tok showcase fashion brands that big influencers want to promote.
“It’s just going to be tailored towards who you’re watching, like, if somebody is if you have a big influencer, like Charli D’Amelio, like advertising for a brand, or doing kind of a collab with them on a new top, or just a new bathing suit line or whatever. You have those guys, doing something like that, they’re definitely going to get a lot of exposure, and people are going to follow along with that, and follow suit with their purchase decisions.”
Social media has had a radical effect on essentially every aspect of the fashion industry, and while that impact may change in the future, it’s clear that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
