Rhetorically Listening to Vogue’s Coverage of Sustainability

Abstract

Apparel and fashion scholarship and industry have demonstrated interest in sustainability through the entire production, care, and divestment of fashion products. Recently, interactions with apparel and fashion media have been of interest to identify how sustainability is presented and communicated with consumers, specifically exploring popular press magazines. The purpose of this study was to perform a rhetorical analysis to identify and describe themes with explicit and implicit coverage of sustainability within Vogue over the course of a publication year and recommend interventions for strengthening the communication between the fashion industry and fashion consumers. Rhetorical listening provides a means of understanding how the consumer is positioned in a conversation in fashion and apparel media and what role(s) are open to the consumer those that positioning. A page-by-page analysis was performed on the 2018 publication of Vogue magazine to identify themes. Results outline that Vogue does provide coverage of sustainability, the coverage follows a pattern of consumptive fulfillment, where the consumer needs onto to shop following the recommendations of industry experts and media who will do the determining regarding sustainability. Coverage of sustainability is often implicit and is presented as a choice or accessory with competition claims without argument or evidence. Three interventions are recommended to improve media coverage of sustainability: 1) Demonstration of argument and evidence, 2) rhetorical weaving of sustainability, and 3) rhetorical education for those seeking entry into the fashion industry. Overall, Vogue's coverage of sustainability is simplistic and should be challenged.