When Fashion Left the Page
Over the last twenty years, fashion has made a seismic shift from the careful curation of print media to seemingly exponential digital streams — transforming not only who controls style, but how we define it.
Before the digital age, fashion was tangible. It had a lasting physical presence that was both materialized and commodified in print magazines. From the restrained stylizations of masculinity in GQ to the glittery femininity captured in Elle, fashion was immortalized on the physical page. Whether lying on a coffee table or propped in front of the grocery store line, these print issues placed new images of inspiration in our minds to be renewed monthly.
To draw new eyes each month, the top publications focused their attention on editorial and high-fashion images rather than depictions of the everyday. This meant that readers viewed these as material displays of their aspirations instead of easily consumed and attainable. While a reader may not search for a replica of the elaborate Rococo gown that Kirsten Dunst sported on the cover of Vogue’s September 2006 issue, they may choose to emulate the matte and contoured makeup she is styled in. Though these images may have been difficult for the average reader to replicate, they could find inspiration in minor parts of the full picture.
At the head of these magazines, a small group of editors, creative directors and other higher-ups held a lot of power. Down to minor decisions about fabric choices and text formatting, this small group controlled how aspiration would be painted to the masses. Though readers had some agency in their ability to choose what publication they followed, they still had to first sift through the curation of the editors when reading any major magazine. This placed some limits on their individual expression.
As technology evolved and the digital world came into competition with the physical, print media lost its dominance in the world of fashion. At first, many publications shifted towards digital magazines in addition to their physical issues. However, as social media emerged and influencer culture was developed, authority fell into new hands. Print editors no longer decided what style or trend was in. Rather, normal people, hailed as influencers, had the social capital to construct fashion for an increasingly wider audience.
On early platforms such as Instagram and Tumblr, so-called “it girls” acted as true influencers in determining trends. Unlike earlier inspiration from print media, these girls typically wore more everyday outfits that were easier for the general public to emulate. They captured small snippets of their day-to-day life rather than a highly styled editorial picture. As a result, rather than simply taking inspiration, people began to completely recreate the looks and style of these early influencers. Not only were these looks more economically accessible to the general public, but because they were so frequently replicated, they came to be overrepresented in the digital world.
The overrepresentation of internet fashion trends has reached a boiling point in recent years. For many, the abundance of “micro trends” and overconsumption as a result of replicating the styles of internet influencers have become major points of exhaustion. Whether it’s buying a faux fur coat to achieve the trending Mob Wife status or a mini pencil skirt to channel your inner Office Siren, social media has moved fashion toward complete emulation.
Influencers today act as archetypes for these rising aesthetics and encourage complete imitation in order to achieve their look. This issue is only further exacerbated with link-in-bio platforms such as ShopMy, which allow followers to purchase the exact item they see on their favorite influencers.
Exhaustion with the digital fashion landscape is evident in new trends that shift the focus back to print. Gen Z has brought hobbies such as journaling and reading back into the mainstream in a defiant stand against digitalization. Regarding style, rising trends such as book charms and the magazine clutch literally attempt to signal a return to print media and a new kind of outwardly-displayed fashion literacy. Most recently, Coach’s campaign “Explore Your Story” features full-length book purse charms, which are completely readable.
What remains unclear is whether or not these trends will begin an analog resurgence or if they are yet another example of overproduction in the digital world of fashion that are soon to be forgotten, fading from the screen before us.