Ten years ago, the only contenders for the role of setting the fashion media agenda were mainstream fashion media magazines such as Vogue. With the evolution of blogging and the popularity of blog sites associated with magazine websites, a new contender was born: the fashion-themed blog. Now mainstream fashion media outlets and fashion bloggers sit side-by-side in the front row at designer fashion shows covering fashion news and trends. This study focused on ten elite fashion-themed blogs (fashion blogs) reporting on women’s fashion and ten mainstream fashion media websites during the summer 2016 fashion season looking retrospectively at the fashion forecast from October 2015 New York Fashion Week. The study examined how media outlets respond to fashion blogs and whether the blogs were used as sources by mainstream fashion media or vice a versa. This study has filled a research gap by conducting the first analysis examining fashion blogs through the lens of agenda setting. This research uncovered a media landscape in transition with fashion bloggers and mainstream fashion media communicating in a new and different way. Communicating fashion news is no longer a one-way street controlled by mainstream fashion media magazines. Instead it is a two-way street where each outlet uses the other and neither plays the role of lead agenda setter. This new synergy suggests the acceptance of fashion blogs as credible sources for fashion news and potential agenda setters for the fashion community. The relationship between bloggers and mainstream fashion media also creates excitement regarding trends because fashion bloggers have the ability to instantly comment and generate buzz on a trend when the mainstream fashion media are reporting on other issues or waiting for their magazines to be published. Out of the five trends studied, denim was the leading trend with 44 percent of the posts or articles discussing denim. With every trend, bloggers were present in the five earliest published posts or articles and continued to post on the trends throughout the study period. Style.com dominated the mainstream fashion media landscape, with 25 published articles. For fashion bloggers, Gal Meets Glam and Atlantic Pacific tied with 19 blog posts each. Over 57.6 percent of the total blog posts and blog articles linked to fashion designer websites where readers could purchase the trend being discussed. Fashion bloggers did not quote sources in their posts; 74 blog posts and articles recognized no sources at all. Understanding the new relationship between fashion bloggers and fashion magazine websites will help guide future reporters of fashion and fashion trends.

This paper examines how consumers view and react to diverse body representations in fashion media. To research this, a qualitative interview in a group setting was chosen as the method. The participants were shown images of 13 different models and asked to reflect on them. With the help of Crenshaw’s theory on intersectionality and Ahmed’s phenomenological theory on orientations, the participants’ responses were analyzed. The conclusion is that intersecting identities do not affect the participants’ reactions to the bodies represented, but that the participants’ tend to focus on one identity at a time. By focusing on one identity at a time, the conclusion that the participants’ put a bigger focus on diverse body sizes being represented is also brought forward. Along with these conclusions, this study also shows that the participants are aware of companies orienting themtowards certain standards.

Finland’s Biggest Dress Party – A Study of the Role of Women’s Appearances at the Independence Day Reception, aims to understand the role of dresses at Finland’s Independence Day Reception by focusing on how the reception has earned a title “Finland’s biggest dress party”, and meanings behind the dresses. The aims are studied combining fashion and media studies in three analytical chapters focusing on the media’s development and influence, how the dresses work as a communication tool and what kind of messages are sent through dresses, and Finnishness and national identity in the dresses. The chapters are linked to each other by the importance of the communication between the dresses, the media and the audience during the hype around the Independence Day Reception. The study is based on interviews, which were conducted with seven reception guests and three dress designers, archival studies, visual culture studies and (fashion) media discourse. The study draws on theories by Roland Barthes, Malcolm Barnard and Erving Goffman.