Fashion Photography on Social Media: Insights from Hong Kong Fashion Image Producers

Abstract

This study draws on fashion and culture theories to explore the influence of visual sharing culture on social media in fashion. The objective is to interpret the perceived creative values and the meanings of such cultural phenomenon from the perspective of fashion media industry in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews, in the exploratory semi-structured format, were adopted in which 20 fashion image producers in Hong Kong were interviewed regarding their increasing involvement in professional fashion image making and blogging. Among the 20 respondents, 12 respondents were younger generation of image producers with experience around 3 years, while 8 respondents have been in the industry for 15 years in average. The findings of this research indicated that the nature of visual oriented social media platform supports a new communication model between the new generation of fashion image producers and image audience. It is evident that there is a new trend for young fashion lovers to become successfully engaged in the industry as career bloggers who can create their styles and express their ideas through fashion imaging and sharing. On the other side, the professionalism and authenticity of the young generation of fashion bloggers are sometimes in questions. The finding is significant to further academic studies on the value of fashion visual communication on social media, and to business sectors, in which this study provides insight for young fashion lovers for career development.

Social comparison in fashion blogging: “creative self” as the new genre in fashion communication

“…Duffy and Hund (2015) suggested "creative self-enterprise" as a mode of creative work in the new mode of self-branding among fashion bloggers. Similarly, Choi (2016) interpreted the identity construction that emphasizes on creative visual production as the "creative self"; and argued that this creative self maneuvers particular well in the context of fashion communication in social media. The blogger carefully calculates the tactics when constructing the fashion blogging.…”

“…This notion of "self" portrays a form of artistic expression in particular focuses on the fashionable representation of the bloggers, in order to achieve an ideal beauty to gain acceptance and recognition from the fashion circle (Choi, 2016). While ideal beauty portrayed by professional fashion models has often been criticized as a source of distortion on the self-esteem of readers, especially female teenagers, bloggers acting as their own models in their daily display of fashion looks challenges the perception of the ideal body shape (Rocamora, 2011); thus creating the notion of alternative ideal self by bloggers' expression on aesthetic values (Choi, 2016;Swale, 2017). However, in some cases, the extreme effort of self-promoting creative self becomes an obsession that may draw negative response, and often leads to another extreme, online narcissism.…”

“…Numerous social media studies have stemmed around the notion of the "self" by interpreting the identity expression of self-expressive user-turned-producers. Scholars coined different terms to interpret the different natures of the "self", such as the digital self (Miller, 2011), the narrative self (Tierney, 2013), the celebrity self (Marwick, 2013) and the creative self (Choi, 2016). Choi (2016) proposed the notion of "creative self" on fashion blogger's self-modeling practice (2016), and illustrated Social comparison in fashion blogging 651 that fashion blogosphere enables individual to express one self's creative identity by the creation of a fashionable representation of the self.…”

“…Scholars coined different terms to interpret the different natures of the "self", such as the digital self (Miller, 2011), the narrative self (Tierney, 2013), the celebrity self (Marwick, 2013) and the creative self (Choi, 2016). Choi (2016) proposed the notion of "creative self" on fashion blogger's self-modeling practice (2016), and illustrated Social comparison in fashion blogging 651 that fashion blogosphere enables individual to express one self's creative identity by the creation of a fashionable representation of the self. This notion of creative self represents the collective attributes of achieving ideal beauty, having desirable lifestyles and being popular in blogosphere; hence provides the ground for the discussion of the social comparison influence on the digital generation in this study.…”

The Effect of Using Instagram Influencers in Building Conseva’s Brand Awareness

“…According to Hird (2013), Instagram is different from other social media because Instagram is putting emphasis on visual strategy, thus in order to make people engage more with a content, it should have visual appeal (Syrdal & Briggs, 2018). Audience also looks for fashion style variety in a content created outside traditional fashion media (Choi, 2016).…”