Etymologies and Definitions of Fashion Communication and Clothing
Fashion can be defined in different ways. ‘The original senses of fashion, then, referred to activities; fashion was something that one did, unlike now, perhaps, when fashion is something that one wears’. There are nine ways fashion is described; ‘the action or process of making’, ‘a particular shape or cut’, ‘form’, through ‘manner or demeanor’ to ‘conventional usage in dress’.
Daily, we often form opinions based on what others are wearing which is referred to as ‘ social hieroglyphics’, by Marx (1954:79). The clothes people wear frame the differences and prejudices in our society. It is stated by Simmel (1971: 301), that for fashion to function in society, ‘individuals must possess the desire to be part of a larger whole, society and they must also possess the desire to be, and to be considered as, apart from that larger whole.’
People’s need to be considered as a part of a society or group is portrayed through fashion especially though advertising using celebrities and social media. As much as people want to look as individuals through fashion, they at the same time want to associate with something or show social hierarchy.
Advertising became a prominent way of communication where celebrities were popular feature in these adverts on televisions from 1955. ‘Perhaps the most effective place to start in the history of the creative style is with an advertising problem that the modern agency in its infancy faced ; namely to find an appropriate form of communication that somehow mediated between its creators (white, middle class and highly educated) and the intended target audience (a mass, urban population). Powel H, Hardy J, Hawkin S, and Macrury I, (2009), The Advertising Handbook, Third edition, Oxon, Routhledge
The celebrity’s value in advertising a fashion brand is measured through a specific image like lifestyle, look, skill or personality that other people want to associate with by dressing like them. People use what they know about a particular celebrity and end up buying into whatever fashion style they advertise or wear.
The founder of Voket, a digital marketing agency, Domenic Venneri states that he only choses who to lead a certain campaign depending on their social media profiles. “We won’t do a photoshoot that goes on a billboard somewhere unless everyone involved has some sort of [social media] following and some sort of leverage,” says Mr Venneri.‘ BBC, 2016, How Social Media is Transforming the Fashion Industry, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35483480 , (Accessed 5 February 2016). The more social media followers a celebrity has the more chances of them landing an advertising fashion campaign because it means more people will want to buy and wear whatever they are wearing which to them sometimes symbolizes a high social status in society.
Television presenter Holly Willoughby has a following of 2.8 million people and she has been known to sell out clothes in minutes of her posting them on their social media despite some of them going for as high as £1400. Anthropologie’s sequin palette skirt that she posted on her social media was sold out within the hour for £118.
Fashion keeps changing and the compulsion for this is people’s need to express the individual personality in different social and cultural groups using clothing. Clothing can be a nonverbal way in which people define their place in society and distinctiveness. Fashion advertising using celebrities has created the longing for people to pick sides with which celebrity they prefer to associate with.
Bibliography
‘BBC, 2016, How Social Media is Transforming the Fashion Industry, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35483480
Powel H, Hardy J, Hawkin S, and Macrury I, (2009), The Advertising Handbook, Third edition, Oxon, Routhledge
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5002712/holly-willoughby-outfits-sell-out-in-hours/
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/lisa-b/evolution-fashion-clothing-means-class-distinction