FASHION'S NEWEST TREND: SOCIAL MEDIA

While tearing through numerous articles on how the fashion industry needs social media in its life, I stumbled across a Chicago Tribune editorial entitled, “Chicago Fashion Industry Says ‘Yes’ To Social Media.” This piece went into detail about how the flourishing fashion industry could use the online interaction with customers to its advantage. Plain and simple, social media is the most convenient and lucrative way to get trends going, designers noticed and gain profits. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/community/chi-ugc-article-chicago-fashion-industry-says-yes-to-social-2013-11-01,0,5080879.story)

The purpose of this article is to explain the prominence that social media has on many different aspects of life, particularly the growth of the fashion industry. Its main intention spoke about how the fashion industry could use the effectiveness of social media. It got the message out that social media can be used for customer feedback, provide promotions and test out new ideas. Ultimately, social media is just what fashion needs to keep its edge.

The author of this writing is Bidisha Gupta, a “Community Contributor" of this Chicago newspaper. With this article being posted on the Chicago Tribune website, one must have a list of credentials. In this case, Gupta is a part of the Tribune Community, meaning voicing their opinion is done without pay through Triblocal.com. This specific forum is available for anyone to post events, press releases and stories they find necessary to share.

This piece was published on June 24, 2013. Therefore, the currency is valid because it is less than a year old. When one starts to look into articles that are many years old, you must question if it still has an impact or not.

I found that the accuracy of this work is legitimate. With the fashion industry and social media, two topics most of us are fairly familiar with, you cannot really go wrong. Also, Gupta provided applicable reasoning and an example of how  “DressFirst” is implementing this social media trend.

Gupta uses third person throughout her entry. I find this point of view to be the most beneficial because it lacks bias thoughts. Her tone was professional and informative without being boring. After completing this reading I felt more knowledgeable about this topic as a whole.

This article had many forms of evidence placed within it. Gupta supported her position with comments from reputable designers and fashion bloggers, information from previous fashion weeks and she even referenced another article from the well-known designer Tory Burch. For example, she shared a quote from famous designer Diane von Furstenberg stating, “Ignoring the Internet [and social media] is madness.”

This article references “DressFirst.com,” a website specializing in a variety of dresses. On their website, a live chat option is available and they have a link to follow them on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook. Gupta also mentions four reputable designers: Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch, Diane von Furstenberg and Bryn Capella. All of these said designers have made a name for themselves through their successful brands and smart career moves, such as utilizing social media.

Overall, this article proves to be credible by using valid resources. Not only does it name-drop successful fashion designers, it ties back to websites that have taken to social media to get ahead. “Chicago Fashion Industry Says ‘Yes’ To Social Media,” is less than a year old, has accurate information, seems to be unbiased and the author has proved herself credible by her impressive writing.

I would recommend that an organization use this article as a starting point for their research. I find no reason why Gupta’s writing would be unfit to use as a credible work. The prominence of social media in the fashion industry can be difficult to find reliable sources on but I believe that this piece is a great place to start.

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Kyrie