The impact of social media: how Instagram & Snapchat are revolutionizing the fashion industry

Social media has been revolutionizing our ways of learning, engaging, and sharing information on the latest trends within the fashion industry. This research project focuses on two social media platforms that are highly relevant and influential in the fashion industry. Instagram, a social media application that was originally created to share photos between intimate social networks, has now become a powerful marketing platform. Now, one can carefully curate one’s profile and sell an aesthetically pleasing image of oneself/item, all through strategic techniques such as framing, editing, or simply using the filters provided by both Instagram (e.g. Sepia, Valencia) and Snapchat. Snapchat, a social media application originally used to share selfies amongst one’s intimate social group, intended to “express yourself, and reflect individuals based on a moment” (Evan Spiegal, CEO of Snapchat, 2016). The company now also promotes their app as a marketing tool and an advertising platform that targets more than 100 million active users daily between the ages of 18 and 35 years old. Initially, these two apps were intended to be used as entertainment tools, however, now they are also used to help re-structure a brand’s business model and approach. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of both Instagram and Snapchat, on traditional practices within the fashion industry, with a primary focus on the runway and advertising.