Fashion Communication in the Digital Age

The French luxury brand, Balenciaga, recently faced its most important communication crisis. On November 16th 2022, the brand released its holiday gifting campaign featuring children surrounded by sadomasochism-inspired teddy bears/handbags and received immediate backlash from the public, who accused the brand of sexualizing children and promoting pedophilia. The outrage went viral on social media - mainly on Tiktok - with the hashtags #burnbalenciaga and #cancelbalenciaga, which have accumulated more than 300 million views. Balenciaga suffered an incalculable damage on its reputation, having two flagship stores vandalized and a viral online boycott. This investigation follows the case study methodology, by analyzing the timeline of events, the brand’s statements and response, the viral effect of the boycott on social media and the ultimate affectations that the brand underwent due to the crisis. The conclusions reveal that on one hand there are some social anethical boundaries that not even well-positioned and beloved brands can afford to cross, and that slow, unclear and unaccountable answers compose a terrible strategy of crisis management, and on the other hand, the power of consumers on social media has gained enough strength to damage brands like Balenciaga.

Social media has become an essential brand communication channel for fashion brands through interaction, engagement and personal communication. Instagram is one of the most important social media platforms for communication and marketing for the luxury fashion industry and is a key marketing tool for brand equity, brand loyalty and brand preference. This study examines how luxury fashion brands relate to their consumers on Instagram through seven quantitative variables (engagement, fans, interaction, number of likes, number of comments, number of publications and publications per day) and ten qualitative variables (account description, link analysis, quality of comments, stories, highlights, reels, photos in which they are tagged, feed, texts of publications and integration between Instagram and the webpage). Four luxury brands were selected as case studies: Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, and Gucci. The results show that luxury fashion brands tend to be somewhat unidirectional in their interaction.

This article reflects on the future of artisanry in the context of the Metaverse in Brazil, considering artisanry relationship with fashion. Hence, the Metaverse is described through NFTs, blockchain, as well as avatars and cyborgs. Then, artisanry, especially in Brazil, and its relationship with fashion in contemporaneity are described. This study aimed to answer the following research question: considering the profile of Brazilian artisans, how would their artisanal production adapt to the Metaverse? To achieve the results, we used bibliographic, descriptive, and qualitative research to analyze the literature and to develop discussions based on distinctive ways of building objects in virtual universes. We concluded that artisans will have to develop interdisciplinary skills linked to computerized technology to remain competitive in the market, added to investments and stimuli from public and private institutions.

This text analyses the metaverse: its definitions and concepts, its meaning and impact; digital art, fashion and their communication; its performance issues, its failures, and criticism. It compares existing metaverse definitions and concepts, evaluates of their advantages and disadvantages, their chance of coming true, their present degree of evolution. Closer looks are dedicated to the influence of a virtual space on art and fashion, their communication and dissemination and to the metaverse failures, problems, and criticism. Not only the metaverse technology, but also its intended innovation of communication, work, education, healthcare, business, products, and social interactions, suffer from performance, quality and security issues. Today, irreconcilable visions of the metaverse coexist: a valuable, socially useful metaverse and a consumer and entertainment metaverse. It is impossible to predict the future, but any virtual world concept will have to solve these critical issues. Not the metaverse, but the greatest crisis of our times (with climate change, pandemic, war, economic crisis) is altering the products and their communication, undermining the luxury, fashion and art sector. It is changing the value of identity and producing a paradigm shift. Something must end, to allow the growth of something new: because change is life.

The fashion industry is progressively investing in technology, and the benefits of Extended Reality (XR) are not going unnoticed. Despite widespread interest in the topic, the literature is limited and the topic is poorly understood. This study brings XR in fashion to the forefront. Based on a review of several sources (latest news, reports, and literature), it describes the current landscape, presents the advantages and downsides of immersive technologies, and provides useful advice for practitioners. The results suggest that brands can leverage XR to establish close connections with consumers through personalised experiences and compelling stories. Moreover, some of the intricacies of XR are discussed, namely, costs and unresolved technical issues. Crafting meaningful XR experiences requires expertise in multiple domains, adding value to consumers through enhanced features and striving for quality.

Dress is an embodied, physical experience which the touch-deprived sensory affordances of today’s screen technologies can only simulate. However, advances in haptic and virtual technologies suggest a re-embodied experience of dress might be possible in increasingly immersive digital fashion environments. These developments are explored through postphenomenology, which posits that technology mediates and co-determines relations between humans and the world, helping to shape the socio-cultural normative and value frameworks within which such phenomena occur. A model is proposed which conceptualizes these developments and serves as an interpretive framework of dress (dis)embodiment and technological mediation in digital fashion.

The digitalisation of fashion supply chain transparency has gained increased attention in recent years. Technology solutions that have arisen based on advanced technologies and Web3 include smart tags, forensic tracers and blockchain platformisation. Whereby current reports discuss supply chain transparency from the perspective of the data, technical solutions and policy [1, 2], little attention is given to the fashion firms that are to adopt these technologies. Finding themselves in the midst of the supply chain transparency polemic, small to medium brands are still at a loss as to transformation and communication strategies [3]. This paper examines the standpoint of the small-scale brand, its challenges and needs in the face of digital transformation and lays the groundwork for the development of Web3 technology adoption guidelines–that can ultimately form, not only part of their implementation but also their communication strategy. Applying the theoretical framework of organisational theory, it provides evidence of successful practice through case study methodology. The study contributes to knowledge of organisational theory in the context of adjusting to rapid and complex change triggered by both external and internal demands for adopting advanced technology.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have witnessed unprecedented dynamism over the recent years with only few luxury brands experimenting with the technology albeit the very personal characteristics of NFT ownership. Little is known about how luxury brands use NFTs to develop their brand image and what opportunities luxury brands anticipate from NFTs as a new technology, digital product category or customer relationship channel. The present research note offers an applied research design to tackle these questions and systematically understand the potential of NFTs for personal luxury brands at large.

Country-of-origin indications, also called “made in” labeling [35], are utilized in marketing strategies by companies to distinguish themselves from others, trying to associate their products with positive characteristics [9].

Swiss watchmaking companies have an iconic status that is essential to their reputation - mainly due to their high quality, precision, innovation, and craftsmanship [7]. They are also using country-of-origin information as a competitive advantage in their communication strategies [11].

Although people have become acquainted with the “Swiss-made” label, and numerous studies have been dedicated to diverse Swiss watchmaking field topics [26], a significant research gap exists regarding the understanding of what are the “made in Switzerland” communication strategies and how Swiss watchmaking brands are using them. This study aims to examine how country-of-origin symbols - considering Swiss made related terms - and watchmaking-related words are employed by analyzing the official communication of thirty Swiss watchmaking brands.

In recent years, several studies have attempted to trace the evolution of the fashion system in a globalised context and pluralized societies. This paper follows in the footsteps of similar research, focusing in particular on Afro-Italian fashion, i.e. on garments created by designers of African descent who have chosen Made in Italy - its rules, structures and conventions - as a tangible and symbolic place to give form to their creativity.

Through qualitative research, the paper discusses the storytelling of Afro-Italian fashion within the Made in Italy imaginary; it focuses on communication practices put in place by the actors involved and by the networks they activate. Specific interest is dedicated to self-defining strategies in terms of values and images proposed as narratives that are both authentic and not other-directed.

In doing so, the study highlights how Afro-descendant creatives promote a new model of Italian-ness, and critically nurture a new Made in Italy by being relevant social and economic actors within and beyond the African diaspora on the national territory.

European fashion companies – especially luxury ones – have been struggling to enter the Chinese market because of this market’s financial dimensions. However, in order to do so in an effective way, they need to localize their practices and messages, so to address such a different market in an adequate way. When it comes to digital media, different channels, players, and practices are to be considered, due to the Chinese policy of banning most of external social media players. Also, when it comes to the choice of Chinese social media influencers, European brands need to find the right characters, able to embody them in front of Chinese consumers. The case of online live stream sales and of Huang Wei – also known as Viya – has recently demonstrated both how powerful such influencers can be, as well as how their status can change in a few days – she moved from being a “Queen Midas” into becoming a tax evader – with possible negative impacts onto the companies she is working with. The paper presents in-depth interviews with managers of European companies from the luxury sector, responsible to run their online communication in the Chinese market, presenting and discussing their choices of Chinese social media influencers and the reasons for those.

The research examines global fashion, with a special focus on cultural appropriation and inspiration in the contemporary fashion industry. The issue of cultural appropriation is quite new in the scenario of cultural studies. In its early stage, the project will consider new perspectives on the analysis of fashion production with a multidisciplinary approach. By collecting and studying material from international frameworks, the research aims to understand how the concept of appropriation develops. By outlining an approach for a conscious production process, even cooperating with other international realities, the present work might be of help in decentralizing the market.

The fashion weblog (blog) emerged as a space on the Internet to disseminate colorful visuals and complementary stories to chronicle individual musings and promote brands. Fashion and beauty trends, retail news, on-the-street candid shots of personal style, and shopping hauls appeared on homepages and hamburger menus. Content creators connect viewers to matters of taste and socio-cultural implications of style and dress as a way of expression. Scholars look to understand its connection to gender; its cultural production practices; and its legitimacy in the print and digital journalism and media field. I aim to expand the discourse of fashion communication knowledge production of these cultural products and examine English as a lingua franca connecting bloggers from countries such as France, Brazil, and Japan across the digital landscape. This discourse analysis employs Braj Kachru’s model of Global Englishes to identify content and relies on theoretical frameworks of Gramsci’s hegemony and Bourdieu’s cultural capital to interpret rhetorical choices made. I argue English enables bloggers to make definitive statements about identity and culture and contribute to the international discourse about matters of taste.

Nowadays, with the Internet and the algorithmic machines, not only has fashion advertising become ubiquitous and engaging, advertising media has also become a paragon for other communicative languages. The relationship between fashion and advertising has certainly implemented the sales and visibility of lots of brands but it has also boosted consumerism as a guide for our buying decisions. Such consumerism-centred phenomenon has paved the way to the development and success of fast fashion, making people free to experiment with their own identity and suggesting new choice criteria. Such a dimension will be brought into focus by exploring the advertising of (fast) fashion for the promotion of psychophysical wellbeing. Post pandemic crisis and the strengthening of people’s central role and responsibility in personal and collective health, a lot more attention has been paid to wellbeing and therefore to body care. Some areas of fashion have tapped into the new vulnerabilities of today’s consumers and have boosted not just the consumption of goods and activities that promote psychophysical wellbeing, but also a lifestyle that is about not “consuming” the body and opting instead for long-term wellbeing, thus prompting people to reflect on the role of fashion experiences and on their own choices in a conscious, self-directed way.

This paper analyses Ryunosuke Okazaki’s designs in relation to understandings of the Human within both 18^th Century ‘Western’ philosophy as well as contemporary theories of the feminine sublime [1]. Positioning the human in this way, Okazaki’s work comments on mankind’s relationship to nature as well as technology, referencing his own spirituality to conjure notions of the sublime. Fashion here becomes an ideal medium through which to challenge contemporary understandings of humanity and the human form in relation to gender and sexuality, as well as question the human desire for mass production and consumption. Beginning with an exploration of Okazaki’s material work and their construction processes, I go on to examine visual representations of their work within magazines (Metal, attitude) as well as on the runway. This application foregrounds Okazaki’s emotional connection to their work, which promotes a revaluation of fashion as disposable and suggests instead that we, as viewers and consumers, adopt an appreciation for the natural world, elements of which are almost always referenced within Okazaki’s designs. This paper, through consideration of Okazaki’s spiritual approach, investigates tradition alongside developments in technology and the role that fashion plays in this symbiosis.

This study examines Bilibili, a leading video community for Generation Z in China, known as ‘B-site’. The paper proposes a conceptual framework to explore how the platform provides entertainment features that enable Gen Z users to establish digital connections with the internet. The study aims to explore that Bilibili's unique features, such as barrage culture, user- generated content, interest-based communities, and differentiated content, have facilitated the formation of a strong sense of community among its users. This has influenced their cultural decision-making in fashion aesthetics and beyond. The paper draws on qualitative data generated culturally from, statistical information, and digital-field surveys to provide insights into Bilibili's rise and impact on Chinese youth culture. The study found that Bilibili grown from an ACG niche video channel has become a prevalent application in the daily lives of Chinese youth, forming a Gen-Z cultural community and defining ‘their fashion’.

The problematic is given by the questions: how are the most relevant trends and identities of young centennials shaped? How are their clothing practices?

This research is qualitative and interpretative, a semiotic perspective was taken to identify tangible or intangible objects that reveal how identities and trends are shaped, as well as their narrative.

In this sense and under the theory of Susan B. Kaiser on identity and the theory of symbolic self-completion of Wicklund and Gollwitzer.

This study analyzed how dressing is an element of self-completion of identity and diffusion of the trend, in this sense, identity is mediated by the interaction that makes an effect that replaces the face-to-face look, so the result or effect of this helps to shape or confirm the aesthetics of identity, reception, revealing the vulnerability, conflict, and influence of this generation of nomadic identity.

Fashion sustainability is promoted and is slowly developing in modern Russia; however, this concept used to be popular back in the USSR under the notion of “saving”. The research objectives are: 1) to give an overview of social and ecological practices in the USSR and modern Russia; 2) to determine the current awareness of youth about fashion sustainability, and (3) to define what actions young Russians take to follow this trend. For these purposes an online survey was conducted between October and December, 2022 among Russian students. It showed that the respondents do know some of the practices of fashion sustainability, even without following fashion trends in general, and they practise them; however, their priorities, while buying clothing, are price, quality and comfort. To conclude, the communication of social and eco-agendas in fashion should be enhanced in Russia, brands should prioritise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Conscious consumption and ethical attitudes to fashion should be encouraged and maintained at all levels, including businesses (brands, mass markets, etc.), Non Profit Organisations (NPOs), bloggers or influencers on social media, educational initiatives, and cultural and historical events (fashion shows, museums, etc.). The broader the coverage of the issue from different perspectives, the more engaged consumers will become.

This research project aims to investigate the symbolic and cultural meanings behind an underwear targeted to women in order to analyze the glamorous elements of a garment which is often presented in scenarios that allude to sexuality and transgression. The focus is on the underwear production of the last ten years, as the fashion world has lately been hit by discussions around the need to make fashion accessible for non-normative bodies. Now that fashion is called to play a role in terms of inclusivity on the symbolic as well as on the material level, the question behind this research is: what kind of relationship can be found between an inclusive underwear and glamour? The first part of this research will provide a complex definition of glamour, an ambiguous phenomenon that can either be conservative or subversive. The study will then proceed with an analysis on the relationship between glamour and underwear in the case of the two mainstream lingerie brands Victoria’s Secret and Calvin Klein. Finally, such relationship will be then investigated in the realm of a newborn inclusive lingerie brand named Chitè through an in situ ethnographic investigation.

Fashion shows are one of the most important communication and marketing tools through which fashion brands their brand image, personality, values, and culture. Also, Fashion Shows give brands high visibility online and offline. This study presents the evolution of Fashion Show studies through the literature review and proposes to return to the four elements –model, location, theme, and final– that make up a great show and the spectacle effect explained by Duggan, 2001, with the aim of proposing a systematization of the analysis of Fashion Shows from the perspective of communication and marketing. Therefore, the research presents the analysis of the Balmain Spring Summer 2023 Fashion Show, studying the validity of the four elements and how these elements are developed nowadays.

The mediatization of fashion explores the ways in which fashion practices (production, consumption, distribution and dissemination) are articulated and depend on the logic of digital media. The aim of this research is to show that in addition to the changes that the traditional fashion show has undergone due to the influence of mediatization, other effects are emerging, such as the appearance of autonomous audiovisual productions on YouTube, characterized by a narrative expansion of the curatorial purpose of the collection. The paper analyzes the case of Virgil Abloh’s film productions for the presentation of Louis Vuitton’s men’s collections.

The Covid19 pandemic forced most companies to impose teleworking from home. Although individuals have access to many platforms in order to collaborate and to communicate with others, telework during the pandemic brought to light many challenges. Among these, personal appearance, and the setting in which videoconferences are conducted emerged as critical elements when working from home. Very few studies have researched the role of fashion in video-meetings. To address this gap, a survey has been executed, providing relevant insights into workers’ videoconferencing practices. Findings show that individuals’ appearance when doing online meetings with the camera on is very different from when they are in a professional setting. Furthermore, the desirability and prediction of use of digital elements/filters such as clothing, make-up, accessories, hair/beard, and home décor for professional settings are high. The implications of this study are twofold. Firstly, it provides novel insights on the role of digital fashion in the context of teleworking. Then, avenues for future research on digital fashion for videoconferencing in a post-pandemic setting are presented.

The aim of this research project is to investigate how fashion brands and their online communities begin a co-authoring process in fashion films. Since the early days, fashion market has always enriched its dreamlike imageries with garments and images [1], with the advent of internet, those dressed bodies could move, tell stories and spur deeper engagement. In fact, fashion films are the direct digital evolution of the static fashion magazine images. Transposed on the web, such images can now reach online brand communities who often start a debate on both the fashion film and the brand, thus nurturing the brand contents. This results in a typical communicative flow that we can commonly observe on social media, which has also been object of study by some academics [2‐4]. However, the dynamics and inferences produced are not fully clear: the OBCs are often similar to black holes. In order to gain more clarity on the topic, this study compares different types of fashion film with OBCs profiles. The final goal is to outline several classes of engagement and verify the contribution this process has in generating (cultural) contents.

The Italian fashion system is represented by a wide and valuable heritage that needs to be properly preserved and experienced by everybody, from fashion students to scholars, artisans and designers, etc. Although in the last decades there have been many attempts to create a museum dedicated specifically to Italian fashion, in the end, institutions or museums have not been able to carry out a valuable and accomplished project. One fundamental reason is represented by the Italian specificities in terms of the fashion-industry evolution and, more in general, by the complexity of the fashion system which has been built and continues to grow at the crossroads between different experiences, practices, and relations. As such, it has been studied from diverse disciplines and approaches ranging from art to design, from economics to sociology of culture, and so on. Moreover, when considering both the intangible and tangible fashion heritage, gathering them in order to preserve and share them becomes extremely difficult. The challenge is therefore to understand how to collect, preserve, and enjoy this heritage, combining the cultural pluralism of local traditions and their products, together with the creativity of artists and designers and the economic aspects of the industry, relating them all with the cultural and social features of everyday life-fashion. The aim of this paper is to address these issues starting from the preliminary reflections of the PNRR project (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, National Recovery and Resilience Plan) “Cultural heritage active innovation for next-gen sustainable society”, (CHANGES aims at promoting interdisciplinary research and inter-sectorial synergies to support the development of innovative long-term strategies for the interpretation, understanding, conservation, and valorization of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The extended partnership is composed of 11 Universities, 4 Research Institutions, 3 Advanced Studies Schools, 6 Companies, and 1 Center of Excellence (see https://​sites.​google.​com/​uniroma1.​it/​changes/​home).) in order to discuss in detail the Spoke 2, “Creativity and Intangible Heritage” thematic line on fashion preservation and its musealization as developed by the authors of this essay.

This paper contributes to the field of digital culture and fashion communication by presenting a comprehensive overview of publicly available shoe museums and collections worldwide, which have an online presence. To the best knowledge of the authors, this listing is the first of its kind on institutions that exhibit shoes. It shows what types of contents and services shoe museums offer online and to what extent they digitally enable access to their collections. Through a content analysis, museums’ websites and their presence on social media are examined. A scattered map shows how much the shoe museums rely on a digitally enhanced access to their collection in comparison to service and institutional information that they provide on their websites.

The case of the Louis Vuitton ‘maison de famille’ in Asnières-sur-Seine allows investigation of communications strategies implemented by Corporate Fashion Museums. It is argued these museum types are used by luxury fashion brands as marketing tools to retain their customers. The data relied upon are primarily qualitative: interviews and exploratory observations were specifically conducted between January 2020 and November 2022. It is suggested that the process of commodification of the family patrimonium as well as the enhancement of for-sale products within the museum is made possible through the wise use of various techniques mainly related to the artification and the heritagization processes. The combination of those techniques – linking fashion brands with the art and museum world(s) – enables fashion firms to produce a coherent corporate narrative while pursuing seemingly oppositional goals.