Has It Ever Been the Fashion Blog’s Dusk? A Thematic Analysis-Based Research on the Anguishes in the Post-transition from Text Blog Writers to the Ready-Made Scroll, Scroll, Scroll Instagram Images

Abstract

The first decade of the current century witnessed the emergence of fashion blogs. Although initially bloggers were sawn as interlopers by established fashion journalists, the power of the large audiences of the former imposed their acceptance in the fashion industry, pushing changes in the status quo. The early 2010s were bloggers’ golden age, but then social networks emerged with hordes of ad-lib content co-creators, culminating in the indistinguishable Instagram influencers and Instagrammers. At the beginning of the 2020s, it is questionable if there is still a place for fashion bloggers and their blogs. We conducted semi-structured interviews with fashion consumers in Portugal, aiming to capture their perspective, rationale and prognoses for this sector of the digital marketing arena. Data is analysed under the thematic analysis method. Results are interpreted under the modernity / postmodernity paradigm. Although the media differ, fashion journalists and professional fashion bloggers do not differ in their essence. They inscribe in the modernity paradigm. Their creations are well-structured and receive important investments in their production. Authors speak backed by authority, aligning with the Foucauldian “regimes of truth”. Influencers and Instagrammers inscribe in the postmodernity paradigm. Fragmented lives consume (and produce) fragments of everything. The subject is decentred and is comfortable with the hype(r)-reality, and the producers are the images and the products of their authors. It is unlike that there will be a place for bloggers again as postmodernist fluidisation is underway… until one rupture relieves the tensions.