After fashion film: social video and brand content in the influencer economy

Abstract

Luxury and designer fashion brands today produce as much digital content and branded entertainment as they do design and product. Online video is a key part of that production. In this article, the author questions whether the use of the generic term ‘fashion film’ is still relevant to discussions of the moving image in the digital age. He does this by examining a range of promotional uses of the moving image by the fashion industry – by brands such as Gucci, Burberry and Louis Vuitton – on the social media platforms Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, which blend design with media. This article seeks to engage critically with the branded dominance of ‘fashion film’ as a commercial phenomenon in contemporary visual culture by positioning it as a shape-shifting form of ‘content’ through the dissemination of moving images on social media, on mobile image-sharing platforms, in which the visual dynamic of the feed (of marketing and data) is now, in part, superseding the aesthetic framework of cinema (of narrative and drama). Rather than situating it primarily as part of film history, here the author situates the contemporary fashion-moving image at the intersection of digital interactivity, fashion branding and celebrity influence.