Everywhere you look there is a community of fashion whether it’s a fashion brands community, an influencer creating a community or an app, you will never be alone in this industry. This is the beauty of fashion, you can have your own individual style but be apart of something bigger.
Most of it you will find online, especially during the weird times of COVID however, Social media has been a life-saver of communication and has kept fashion thriving.
Fashion communities can evolve from certain styles, ethical communities and their fashion or following a campaign such as the ‘Black Lives Matters’. Missguided have their own community of Missguided babes, anyone and everyone can join as long as you’re empowering and positive.
Social media changing the game
Social media is allowing communities to get themselves discovered rather than someone discovering them. Reaching a larger target audience and getting more involved has never been this easy and apparently if you’re not on social media you’re not in the know.
Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are just a few media outlets that are allowing fashion brands to expand their communities. You can’t turn your phone on without seeing a notification from a fashion brand, this is them making themselves known.
Nike is the most followed brand on instagram with over 90 million followers. They integrate themselves with other communities, they inspire young athletes and create a community for them to aspire too. It’s no wonder they have such a huge following with how influential they are.
Without social media, would Nike still have such a big following? Even though they are well recognised brand would they have a big community like they do without Instagram? It goes to show the power media has.
Is it changing for the right reason?
Our presence seems to be more online rather than in person and that’s not totally down to the Coronavirus. Beforehand we were spending around 5 and a half hours each day on our phones but sometimes didn’t have time to meet with friends. Maybe if we spent less time on our phones we’d be more present.
Communities are different now. We talk to each other via WhatsApp or double tap a picture to show you like their style but is this a false sense of a community? Back in the day communities had to meet up to get the latest gossip and physically get themselves known.
Now a days on social media we can portray ourselves to be whoever we want. We can make ourselves fit in where ever we want. It sounds desirable, right? But is this creating a false community?
Which community are you apart of?
The wonderful thing about the fashion industry is that it’s forever expanding and evolving and there is no right or wrong way. There is a community out there for everyone whether you’re into eco-friendly fashion, a certain style, or following an influencer, you are bound to fit in somewhere.
And all these communities cross over and bounce off of each other and make something new. Fashion communities can help you discover who you are. For example, LookBook allows different people to show off their different styles for different occasions.
This way, you can get ideas and get creative with your style. This sort of fashion outlet has a positive vibe to it, its just about sharing fashion ideas and building on the ideas you’ve already got. You can always be on trend with communities like this.
What will happen next
With the recent events of the pandemic the way we shop for fashion and style our clothes has completely changed. We were forced to shop online and show off our style on Instagram. A style that changed to the ‘working from home’ look, consisting of joggers and over-sized jumpers. This will be an iconic look for the history books and will probably come back in fashion in the next 5 years.
Online shopping became high in demand to the point where brands couldn’t keep up with orders and constantly ordering more stock in. Consequently, it caused environmentally-friendly communities to raise their concern of an increase in carbon emissions.
Brands fought back by bringing in recycled materials for clothing. Another example of how communities can benefit each other and improve each other.
Even despite a global pandemic fashion communities have kept the world connected virtually and completely changed the fashion scene. A lot of us prefer it this way, but will it stick?
We shall find out in the next year or so, but if it does change I hope it brings positivity and goods vibes.