Style Surfing & Changing Parameters of Fashion Communication: Where Have They Gone?

Abstract

This paper sets out to explore the changing face of fashion communication and its role in creating fashion ideas and promoting trends. The focus is on the generation that do not know life without the internet, looking particularly at the online material that they engage with and the influence this has on their style ideas. It draws on the theory put forward by Roland Barthes ‘The Fashion System’ and the importance of textual dissemination of fashion through specialist magazines and editorials. The authoritative voice of the fashion journal is being challenged by assertive fashion bloggers, so much so that even a blogger can gain international recognition for their own predictions on next seasons fashion trends. If the internet has changed the process by which an expert is declared, so too is it changing the way in which the discourse or message is received and the meaning conveyed. It is therefore important to consider the fashion content of the online communications that are engaging this generation from websites, music sites, You-Tube and social networking sites like Face book and Bebo. The internet allows time and space to be treated differently. The control has shifted from the sender to the receiver as audiences are no longer passive but actively seek information and engagement with ideas and relevant discourse. However, how does this technologically savvy generation deal with a communications network that gives free access to infinite amounts of information on fashion without editorial guidance. Can they really push parameters of fashion style without a concept of the boundaries they are challenging? Do the boundaries exist within themselves and their own conflict driven by the need to express themselves and assert individual identity opposing the need to belong to a collective. Does communicating fashion ideas on the internet give them both?