In many ways social media was a boon to the fashion
industry, helping it to grow and bringing many new and interesting designers
and trends from around the world to the front. Supriya Ghurye, fashion designer
and brand consultant at Fuel4Fashion, writes about whether this boom has led to
irresponsible and unsustainable growth impacting the long-term viability of the
fashion industry.
As social media became an important communication platform
for connecting people, brands immediately began to recognize their value in
presenting their products and reaching their audience. Few have made it more
effective than fashion brands, which recognize that their marketing is mainly
through the visual medium. Print and television have been the mainstay of
fashion marketing for decades and have evolved into various forms of
expression, from fashion trends published by popular fashion magazines to live
broadcasts of major fashion weeks in London, Milan, Paris and New York. With
the advent of the Internet and social media, the ability to share and
communicate brand images has exploded and has even given niche brands and
emerging designers much greater visibility and visibility. This was seen as a
blessing for the fashion industry. With the increasing adoption of web and
social analytics, designers can also better predict style trends, leading to a
faster cycle of creation and the concept of fast fashion.
Another important aspect of social media was the advent of
fashion bloggers expressing their opinion on fashion and industry trends on the
Internet and in social media, and fashion commentary from the field of
experienced and elite fashion editors for teens and twenty-year-old displaced
youngsters Adults with hundreds of thousands of followers. Recognizing the
influence of the voice of this new tribe, the industry actively engaged in
promoting their brands and continued to improve their celebrity status. Brands
agree that these bloggers help them reach a much wider audience, creating new
opportunities.
Social media platforms have also offered the opportunity to
show their own sense of style, clothing and fashion awareness. The flip side,
however, was the reduction in the frequency with which a garment is worn. Once
clicked and published on social media, users no longer want to be seen in the
same outfit, which reduces the likelihood that they will be worn again. This,
in turn, has led to explosive growth in fast fashion as customers scan clothing
more frequently. While this may make people think that the fashion industry is
doing well, the picture is not so rosy.
People now opt for cheaper clothes that look stylish and
look good on photos, but are not necessarily durable and can be thrown away
after a few uses. This, in turn, creates the pressure to produce more cheaply,
using materials that are cheaper and not necessarily environmentally friendly,
and dramatically increases the carbon footprint of the industry. The industry
is witness to this tremendous growth of fast fashion in the form of increasing
pollution from manufacturers and often discarded clothing. The current
ecosystem can not sustain the recycling of clothing at these levels, and steps
must be taken to improve people's attitudes to the use and recycling of
clothing. While various brands are taking steps to reduce the impact of
plastics on the environment, such as: As the use of recycled PET fabric in
jeans and sportswear, this effort is extremely small compared to the size of
the problem.
On the one hand, the growth of social media has fueled the
growth of fashion, but has also created a bigger problem that needs urgent
attention. Sustainable fashion must be supported to counteract the effects of
fast fashion on the growth of social media. The best way to promote awareness
of the problem is the medium that contributed to the problem. Clarifying the need
for customers to adopt sustainable practices, recycle and wear clothes, and
explore ways to redesign their existing wardrobe is a priority for the
industry, given its reach and impact on customers be driven forward. Well-known
fashion brands, designers and retailers can support these efforts by using
their own social media voice as well as their followers.
It's easy to conclude that social media for fashion is a
double-edged sword. But even if the long-term effects are taken into account,
it is still an important catalyst for the growth of the industry and can also
be important in promoting the industry. Through the use of social media
platforms, new designers and talents are discovered on every continent every
day, new ideas exchanged and a truly global fashion perspective developed. This
will help fashion to reach all sections of the population in the long term.
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