Sustaibable Fashion Influencers on Instagram: An Ethical Revision of the Conspicuous Consumption

Abstract

The rise of sustainable fashion influencers is going from emerging to an established phenomenon in the social media landscape. Even when after the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a general decrease in Internet users’ interest in sustainability and respect for the environment. Sustainable fashion influencers transmit a message contrary to fast fashion philosophy, which occupies a hegemonic place in social networks and fosters consumers to buy apparel compulsively that will be discarded and replaced before the end of its useful life. On the other hand, they distance themselves from fashion brands promoting conspicuous consumption, encouraging consumers to buy high-priced products or prominent brands to achieve social prestige. The research analyses campaigns carried out by sustainable fashion influencers on the Instagram social network during the first quarter of 2023. The objective is to define how the message of sustainable fashion is being conceptualised in the social environment and to contrast its creative strategy with the one developed to promote fast fashion. It includes studying the brands represented, values transmitted, arguments, types of the public represented, social context, aesthetic framework, communicative tone and user’s reaction. Methodologically, the research rests on two pillars. The first is a content analysis of almost 200 posts. The second is a discourse analysis of the post with significant interaction by the users, studying the keywords, metaphors, vocabulary, and tone used in the text that show ideological frameworks and viewpoints of sustainable fashion influencers. The results reveal that, in terms of content, the influencers focus on promoting a model of responsible consumption of clothing, promoting sustainable brands and giving tips on using products to extend their life, reduce waste or wash them in a non-polluting way. At the communication strategy level, they use formats and resources similar to fast fashion influencers. The differential character is centred on the communication tone and values transmitted, besides the predominance of the amateur aesthetic style. On the other hand, users’ acceptance and interaction level is remarkable. Among the conclusions, two main ideas stand out. Sustainable fashion is consolidated as an attractive and desirable attribute with an upward trend. In addition, although this consumption model seems far from traditional conspicuous consumption, in a certain way, they share the same persuasive strategy: to promote in users the idea that, by consuming sustainable brands or in a sustainable way, they belong to an elite, in this case not marked by their social class but by a superiority in their planetary ethics.