Why Fashion Week Still Matters

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – In an era of social media, where the internet brings far-flung places closer and makes location an almost secondary consideration, there is a week when being in the right place – New York City – still matters. It’s Fashion Week.

“It is precisely because of social media that Fashion Week has become so enduring,” says Yajin Wang, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Seated along the fashion runways, beside A-list celebrities and reality-television stars, are the people whom designers are working harder than ever to woo. They are the stars of Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, the fashion influencers from around the world with followers by the millions.

“By going to Fashion Week, these bloggers and social media influencers are showing that they are in the ‘In’ group,” says Wang, whose research explores consumer behavior and social influences associated with luxury brands. “It is a status symbol for these users.”

With so many voices shouting from social media, it can be difficult for audiences to determine which voices are most worthy of attention, Wang says.

“It’s about the honesty of the signal,” she says. “Anyone can put style together and post some pictures. But what signals are there that would suggest that one blogger is in the know? One is that they are invited to these shows.”

Wang follows many fashion influencers on social media, including SongOfStyle, an Instagram star who regularly draws 30,000 likes – often more – for her fashion-related posts. 

“She is in New York now for Fashion Week,” Wang says. “And she is posting about being in New York, and letting people know that she is there for Fashion Week.”

SongOfStyle, who is based in Los Angeles, has been posting about her Fashion Week journey since before leaving California, including pictures of what she was packing for the trip. Once in New York, SongOfStyle, like many such influencers, was busy posting “street shots,” often professionally taken photographs that show her casually walking in carefully coordinated designer clothes.

“She is showing off that she is actually attending this,” she says. “Given how popular she is, if she were not attending Fashion Week, that would be not a very good sign to her many followers.”

Social media personalities like SongOfStyle have emerged as highly influential, for their popular takes on modern fashion, for their ability to mix styles and designs, and to take fashions from runway to city streets.

Today, designers are courting these luminaries, offering them clothes to wear, just as they would a high-voltage celebrity or a high-profile glossy magazine editor.

“It’s like the red carpet,” says Wang. “They might not be movie stars or singers, but they receive similar treatment and admiration on social media.”

And it shows, Wang says, how fashion’s top names are reaching out more broadly and collaborating with more people than ever before. 

“In fashion, reaching those people with influence, wherever they are,” Wang says, “that has become the most important thing in the social media age.”