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Reproducing the Fashion System: The Myth of the Influencer

Logan-McFarlane, Ashleigh; Samsioe, Emma

Authors

Emma Samsioe



Abstract

Previous work in marketing has shown that the social media influencer plays an important role in attracting consumers to brands (Kapitan and Silvera 2016). The fashion ‘influencer’ appears in a number of consumer research studies that seek to understand how individuals shape and negotiate market dynamics (Dolbec and Fischer 2015) whether that be in terms of emerging within the established fashion field through amassing audience reach (McQuarrie et al 2013), establishing relatable person-branding (Delisle and Parmentier 2016; Khamis et al 2016), creating a counter space within the market to incorporate an un-catered for consumer group (Scaraboto and Fischer, 2013), bringing attention to the brand by acting as ‘microcelebrities’ (Luvaas 2017; Marwick 2013; Senft 2013), or by forming careers and becoming central actors in the fashion system (Abidin 2016; Duffy 2015).
While these processes highlight and work to legitimize the brand and actors themselves within the fashion system, they often do not directly acknowledge the role played by the fashion system itself in sustaining the idea and logic of the fashion ‘influencer’.
This paper takes an institutional approach (Scaraboto and Fischer 2013) to explore the influencer phenomenon and approaches fashion not as a material item, but as an idea (sustained by the continuous construction of ‘fashion’ in an institutionalised system) (Kawamura 2004). In this project, through ethnographic online techniques, we seek to understand and unpack what we perceive to be the ‘myth of the influencer’.

Citation

Logan-McFarlane, A., & Samsioe, E. (2018). Reproducing the Fashion System: The Myth of the Influencer.

Conference Name Consumer Culture Theory
Conference Location Odense, University of Southern Denmark
Start Date Jun 28, 2018
End Date Jul 1, 2018
Acceptance Date Mar 13, 2018
Publication Date Jul 1, 2018
Deposit Date May 10, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Keywords fashion; influencers; consumer culture; marketing; social media; market dynamics
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1792000