Image courtesy of Net-a-Porter France
On 6 February 2018, Dr. Agnès Rocamora gave a lecture on the mediatization of fashion e-commerce to the first-year MA Fashion Studies students.
Rocamora is a Reader in Social and Cultural Studies at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London. Most notably, she has co-edited pivotal titles that have shed light on the field of fashion studies, namely Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key Theorists and Fashion Media: Past and Present, and authored Fashioning the City: Paris, Fashion and the Media. Her work has also been published in journals such as Fashion Theory and Journalism Practice, and she is the co-founder and co-editor of The International Journal of Fashion Studies.
The morning began with Rocamora explaining the notions of mediation and mediatization, the latter of which identifies how fashion practices are being shaped by the media, for the media. This enabled an exploration of how contemporary fashion shows such as Chanel’s Autumn/Winter 2014 show, are produced to be best consumed and circulated online.
Subsequently, the class looked at current e-commerce practices like the hybrid ‘shoppable’ magazine which epitomizes the blending of commercial and non-commercial spaces – a commercialization of the media, in Rocamora’s terms, which inhabits a wider phenomenon of commodification. As the commercial is collapsed into the everyday, the role of actors in the fashion industry came into question. Significantly, the blending of roles between journalists and public relations professionals, and the integration of products in creative content pose an issue of discernment on the consumer’s part.
Lastly, Rocamora touched on the moral and ethical consequences of intensified mediatization, and its blurring effect on the consumer. Her lecture provoked a dynamic discussion on the impact of social media and technological innovations on fashion production.
Written by Angelene Wong
Featured photo courtesy of UAL
