Achi news desk-
The fashion industry could not exist without storytelling. Compelling and ambitious stories that are conveyed through ‘catwalks’, campaigns and social media are the things that make clothes fashionable, fostering a strong desire to be seen wearing them.
Fashion stories can spread positive messages about issues that affect us all. In 2020, Stella McCartney’s show in Paris featured models wearing cartoon animal costumes. This hilarious stunt emphasized a serious point about the “planet friendly” brand’s promise to not use leather, fur, skins, feathers or animal glue.
But more often, the darker, more unpleasant truth is that fashion storytelling drives overuse. And it defines unrealistic beauty expectations that exclude many by perpetuating western standards of what is normal and acceptable.
As a cultural historian researching fashion, I believe the industry must do better to bring about change, and this can be achieved through stronger, more inclusive and responsible storytelling.
Fashion and world problems
According to recent fashion industry reports, storytelling is becoming more prominent as brands seek to demonstrate their social responsibility by building deeper relationships with consumers. The growing significance of storytelling within fashion can be linked to two themes that have defined social and political debate about the world’s recovery after COVID: the self and society.
Consumers want more meaningful experiences that allow them to explore their identity and connect with others. Fashion is the ideal medium for this, especially in times of social and political unrest. The global reach of the industry means that visual cues and messages conveyed through clothing campaigns can be easily shared and understood.
The Business of Fashion report, The State of Fashion 2024, links the growing importance of storytelling to consumers being “more demanding in terms of authenticity and relevance”. People want to buy brands that share and support their values.
The consumer group most concerned with aligning their lifestyle choices and beliefs with the companies that wear them is Gen-Z – people born between 1996 and 2010 – who “value pursuing their unique identity themselves and value diversity”.
The growing prominence of storytelling in fashion is also linked to the industry’s global influence and corresponding social responsibility. Organizations such as the United Nations are increasingly clear that the fashion industry will only help tackle the global challenges highlighted by COVID if it uses its influence to change the mindset of consumers.
The uneven social impact of the pandemic, which accentuated long-standing inequalities, provided a wake-up call to action on many global problems, including climate change, over-consumption and racial discrimination. This makes the fashion industry, which contributes 2% to global GDP, a perpetrator but also a potential champion for driving change.
The British Fashion Council’s Fashion Diversity Equality and Inclusion Report, published in January 2024, highlights “the immense power of fashion to influence, to provide cultural direction and to guide social trends”. Similarly, the UN Fashion Communication Playbook, published last year, encourages the industry to use its “cultural reach, powers of persuasion and educational role to raise awareness and drive movement towards a more sustainable and fair industry”.
To do this, the UN report encourages storytellers, image makers and role models to change the narrative of the fashion industry. They are asked to educate users and inspire them to change their behavior if it can help create positive change.
New fashion stories
Since the pandemic, there is evidence that the fashion industry has begun to change the content and form of the stories it tells, mainly by putting a human face on current global challenges. Large-scale, deep-rooted social problems are explored through real-life stories. This can help people understand the problems they face, and understand their role in working towards overcoming them.
One example is Nike’s Move to Zero campaign, a global sustainability initiative launched during the pandemic in 2020. Instead of endless statistics and apocalyptic warnings about a climate crisis, Nike encourages people to “renew” sports gear with maintenance and repair. Vintage Nike products that have been recreated by designers are sold through pop-ups. When salvage is not possible, Nike provides ways for people to recycle and donate old products.
By encouraging relatively small changes that align the product lifecycle with consumers’ everyday lives, the Nike campaign challenges the traditional notion of clothing as new, instant and ultimately disposable by making change ambitious.
Narrative hang-ups
While some fashion brands are rethinking the stories they tell, my recent book, Hang-Ups: Reflections on the Causes and Consequences of Fashion’s Western Centrism, explains that some of fashion’s most powerful and damaging stories have been deeply rooted.
Concepts defined during the 18th and 19th centuries – civilization, anthropology, sexology – still influence how the fashion industry engages with age, sex, race and gender. His drive for novelty and the way he pushes the idea that buying expensive brands brings automatic status is also based on traditional western social values that do not align well with the views and priorities of the 21st century.
The persistence of centuries-old attitudes is also evident in Nike’s Move to Zero campaign, however well-intentioned. Although the initiative is clearly designed to influence consumer behavior in a positive way, it does not fundamentally address what the fashion industry does and does. But at the very least, he accepts that fashion operates through high consumption and the sense of status that owning and wearing a brand gives.
Throw everything out
One of the key points I make in my book is that effective change will be more likely if we understand how the industry developed to what it is today. This calls for bolder storytelling that critiques concepts of normality, acceptability and inclusivity.
One example is the Swedish brand Avavav, which commits itself to “creative freedom driven by humor, entertainment and design evolution”. In February 2024, the brand’s Milan catwalk show ended with models being pelted with rubbish. This experimental performance explored the top social media stories by calling out online trolls and highlighting the hurt of hate speech, both within and beyond the fashion industry.
Naturally, it caused a sensation and was widely covered in the media. A stunt perhaps, but it got people talking and drew attention to designer Beate Karlsson’s message about online hate. Clearly, compelling and innovative storytelling has the power to change minds and behavior.
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