The Impact of the Media

There is no doubt that the media today influences trends and the spread of fashion. What's hot or not is determined by designers every season, but the spread of this message to the public is done through ads in magazines and television, billboards, and the Internet. Through these mediums, the fashion-conscious can keep up with trends and potentially anticipate new trends in the future. However, the music industry is often overlooked as a catalyst for new and emerging trends. Artist and celebrity styles have often been scrutinized by those looking for inspiration for their wardrobes. While there are some that keep track of every red-carpet event to keep tabs on their favorite celebrities, music videos reach a much larger demographic. When MTV made its debut in the 80s, music videos only showed the artist singing along to an audio track. Music videos slowly become more and more innovative; some videos act as social or political commentary while others are simply moving works of art. Fashion often acts as its own character in music videos, lending a mood or characteristic to the artist. However, this can carry negative consequences.

Designer Alexander McQueen's spring 2010 line is featured in Lady Gaga's latest video. The video itself is captivating, and the fashion almost has a life of its own and adds another element of strange to the already bizarrely unconventional visual elements. However, the designer nature makes for very expensive items of clothing. Viewers could assume that in order to be as cool as insert-artist-name, large amounts of money need to be spent on clothing. The earlier consumers realize that they can still be on top of fashion trends without breaking the bank, the more rewarding it will be.

Of course, you probably won't find these lobster-claw heels at your neighborhood consignment shop, but you can still draw inspiration from even the most outrageous looks to create an outfit that is fun, original, and cheap.

Facebook and Shopping on a budget-An unlikely connection

Most people don't give online advertising a second thought. Not only because they carry the threat of viruses, but pop ups and other forms of online advertising is annoying and obtrusive-who wants their entire window to suddenly be filled with a movie trailer when they're shopping for shoes-and usually advertises complete nonsense (today I saw ads for instant cash prizes if you take a video game IQ test).

However, facebook has come up with yet another innovative way to set it apart from the rest of the online world by creating "engagement ads". This is an experimental form of advertising that has been evolving since its creation last spring. It incorporate's social networking into advertising, by allowing users interact with both what is being advertised and each other, instead of just seeing it in traditional advertisers. Also, depending on their profile information (your interests, relationship status, and other personal information) the advertisements are streamlined to what would interest users the most. To test out this theory, I set my relationship status to "engaged" one month ago. I was correct- most of my ads started becoming wedding related- today they are advertising a wedding photographer, a mosquito prevention company that specializes in weddings, a DC club that does bachelorette parties, and a "bridal weight loss". Since I am not engaged, this is not helpful, but for those whose facebook pages actually do reflect their interests, these ads can expose them to things they like but would never have found on their own.

I realized that the silly wedding experiment could also be tested to see if facebook's advertising was effective for shopping on a budget, by writing in "cheap clothes" as one of my interests, and "shopping on a budget" for my activities. Slowly, I noticed a trend in my advertisements becoming related to these things. While it was not as accurate as the wedding experiment-putting the word 'fashion' somewhere in my interests was probably have helped, since many of the ads were related to grocery shopping or other types of shopping- I still got many ads that reflected my keywords. These are some of my favorite new sites I have found through facebook advertising...

http://www.thebudgetfashionista.com/: Just like ours, this blog offers fashion and beauty advice for shoppers on a budget, information about sales, and even gives coupons!

http://www.go2tshirts.com/: This search engine made specifically for T-shirts allows users to find the cheapest price possible by picking from thousands of different websites that carry the same design of T-shirt and looking for the cheapest. It takes all the work out of bargain hunting!

http://www.fashionbug.com/home.jsp: This website offers a great selection of stylish yet affordable handbags, accessories, and shoes for a plus size women, a demographic that is normally not given many options in clothes that are stylish, let alone affordable.

http://www.theonlineclothingboutique.com/: The online clothing boutique offers designer clothing for discounts of up to 50 percent!

Thanks to facebook, I found all of these sites and more. Facebook also helps both the customer and the companies by allowing users to "like"and become "fans" of certain ads, and suggest to their friends the ones they think they would like. Sometimes you can even be rewarded by doing so, by receiving a discount code to the store's website after you suggest it to them.

So next time you see the ads on the side of your facebook page, don't dismiss them quite yet- by placing the simple words "fashion on a budget" anywhere in your profile, you can be sure that these ads will soon reflect them!

L.D.

Media and Fashion

How else would we know the latest trends and styles without our celebs? They are all over the news, TV, tabloids, magazines and all other forms of visual media showcasing the latest trends in fashion. But with media consumption in our society today at an all-time high, and we just barely have time to glance at things for more than a few seconds, learning the latest trends off the runway has never been easier, if you own an iTouch or iPhone, because there is an app for that. Or several!

1) Style.com - Pulling looks has never been easier when you have the trends at your fingertips! Style.com has released an app where you can view new looks, trends, hair and makeup of the season. Check out the review here, or download it on your mobile device now! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q33cWrM6Sik

2) Fashion Sense app - "We know you will love the easier to use, additional items, and the new indispensable sizing charts! Fashion Sense is your indispensable shopping companion, helping you save money by buying the pieces that are worth it. This simple application will redefine shopping: No more wasted money on ill shaped, incorrect fit, or ugly clothing. Fashion Sense will teach you how to dress for the shape of your body using the same time tested rules celebrity stylists follow to keep the stars looking their best. With one tap, you will be provided expert advice on the nine classic wardrobe pieces every woman should own. Once you have the basics down, come back for additional wardrobe pieces and fit advice. Fashion Sense is designed to grow along with you."

3) Mark - this is a free app that I use. You can view new pieces that you can incorporate into your wardrobe, new hairstyles and makeup in this free and helpful app!

4) Lucky - Lucky magazine is all about shopping, so it’s no surprise they’ve brought you the first digital shopping concierge. With this app, you can browse through the latest trends and shop a wide variety of pieces for each (their selection of fall shoes alone offers over 100 styles), checking for locations nearby and even — here’s our favorite part — have it placed on hold for you. It sounds like the lazy fashionista’s dream, and if it didn’t adhere only to Lucky’s choices of trends (like “arty slick” and “worn in vintagey”), we’d probably never look up from our iPhone again. http://www.halogenlife.com/articles/3357-fashion-at-your-fingertips-iphone-s-few-style-apps-reviewed

5) StyleCaster - As amazing as this idea sounds — utilizing local weather reports to give you functional fashion advice — it’s a bit of a flop in practice. Based on the weather at the time, it gives you three modeled outfit options, which you can then dissect piece-by-piece and even shop for online. So far so good, but we have two major complaints: one, not all those outfits are actually weather-appropriate (if it’s 60 degrees, why would we wear a gold lame miniskirt?), and two, it’s unclear if there’s a way to set style preferences. Also, it’s slow as hell, so we wouldn’t recommend counting on this to decide your outfit for you — sadly, you’ll still just have to dress yourself in the morning. http://www.halogenlife.com/articles/3357-fashion-at-your-fingertips-iphone-s-few-style-apps-reviewed

E.E

Bluefly: a goldmine of bargains in the digital age

Last time, we talked about the media's negative impact on the spending habits of teens when it comes to fashion. But what most people do not realize are the hidden, positive effects of the media on teen spending. Even in the simple act of having an online website, clothing stores have used the internet to give shoppers an easier way to compare prices and find out how much things cost- with everything presented in front of you, its easier to make smart decisions on spending, whereas just going to a store can cause shoppers to buy clothes they could have found cheaper somewhere else- once you get into the store, its more convenient to just buy what they have there, so you are limited to their prices. The popularity of online shopping has been drastically increased by the media- we are so much more inclined to use the internet to shop when we are constantly connected to our computers. This has not gone unnoticed by clothing companies. This is especially apparent in the creation of Bluefly.com, an online-only website that sells a plethora of designer apparel and more for a fraction of the original price.

This website is like a department store, and makes it easy to browse hundreds of different categories to find the cheapest yet cutest items. Plus, their discounts make designer brands like Versace and Chanel a possibility for real students to wear. They even have a huge sale selection, with huge discounts on top of the already discounted designer items.

Bluefly's double discount on a designer blazer: ETAIL VALUE: $350.00

BLUEFLY: $210.00

SALE: $95.24

YOU SAVE 73%

As you can see, Bluefly really makes an effort to show shoppers the value of their website by showing them the exact percent they saved from an original price.

But how did I discover this amazing website? I can thank a 22 year old medical student from Illinois for letting me know it existed. No, she's not my friend- in fact I don't even know her. She was, however, interviewed by Seventeen magazine in an article about prom dresses, where she told the magazine how it was her favorite place to find cheap designer dresses. While magazines already help teens with fashion budgeting, this was the first time a magazine actually introduced me to a store I had never heard of. Thanks to that article, millions of teen shoppers will visit bluefly and find deals. This is just one example of how the media can collect information from many different sources and present it to us in a manageable form. Thanks to the media's influence on shopping, teen shoppers no longer have to deal with the frenzied shoppers and persistent sales people when they need to focus on finding great clothes as cheap as possible- they can just visit bluefly!

http://www.bluefly.com/

L.D.

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