The Impact Of Digital Film Within The Luxury Fashion Industry
- Lara Jean
- May 27, 2023
- 8 min read
Fashion. Film. These creative industries manifest themselves all around us. Yet the fusion of these art forms is beginning to catch our eyeline. This fusion is the concept of fashion moving image, which has the ability to cross elements of fashion design imagery with promotion, communications and film (Rees-Roberts, 2016, p.5). Fashion moving image can also be referred to as fashion film. However, the definition of fashion film has been argued as difficult to articulate. This is because of the broad overarching nature of fashion film that causes it to have a ‘variety of subgenres’ (Friedlander-Boss, 2020). The most common types of subgenres include: editorial, narrative, conceptual and documentary (Friedlander-Boss, 2020). Despite the difficulty of establishing a representative definition of fashion film and all that it encompasses, industry specialists such as Nick Rees Roberts have been able to construct a rudimentary definition. This definition is stated in his book Fashion Film: Art and Advertising in the Digital Age, where he explains that ‘fashion film refers to the production of digital video content and branded entertainment commissioned by fashion houses as a promotional tool’ (Friedlander-Boss, 2020).
Many luxury fashion brands, such as YSL have begun to adapt fashion film and its possibilities within their marketing strategy. Articles within the industry have supported this adaption, stating: ‘fashion films have emerged as a new and revolutionary tool adopted by luxury brands at the start of the 21st Century to construct their brands’ (Paloma Diaz Soloaga, 2016a). YSL creative director Anthony Vaccarello has recently spoken about YSL and their adoption of fashion film, stating that ‘fashion cannot be only clothes with no story, fashion needs a story’ (Socha, 2023). This establishes why film making and its inherent qualities of storytelling allow the construction of an effective vehicle to communicate the core of fashion. However, why does fashion need a story? How does this fusion affect consumers engaging with this content and thus affect the businesses that are generating the films? Differing studies and articles have dissected these questions, and provided an insight into the evolving concept of fashion film and its effect on consumers and businesses alike.
The text Fashion Media: Past and Present suggests that film can ‘direct attention to the re-presentation of clothing as a living organism’ (Bartlett, Cole and Rocamora, 2013, p.123). This theory has been supported by research indicating that ‘characters within films have the ability to humanise brands’ (Lim, Im and Lee, 2022b). It can be noted that this humanisation may create a sense of relatability amongst consumers. This may be due to the transition digital film offers as stagnant brands have the ability to become moving and relatable individuals and scenarios. Feelings of relatability may be important for luxury fashion brands due to their high price points and attached perceptions of opulence. Whereby, if feelings of relatability are elicited, consumers may believe that the acquisition of luxury products and lifestyle is achievable. Therefore, the separation of luxury fashion houses and consumers, derived from prestigious brand perceptions, can be narrowed through the humanisation of brands. This outcome may allow consumers to purchase luxury goods from these brands, due to the feelings of relatability and achievability that are possible upon viewing fashion film.
However, it can be disputed that luxury fashion brands need to ensure this relatable film content is original and unique. Schmidt and Eisend (2015) explain that this is because consumers who are exposed to novel advertising are less susceptible to boredom, as they do not have prior information about the advertisement (Lim, Im and Lee, 2022a). A lack of boredom upon viewing a brand’s film, may mean consumers are more likely to digest the moving imagery that has been created to formulate an intimate relationship between the consumer and the company. These intentions to establish this consumer relationship have been supported by theories stating that fashion film establishes an intimate relationship with consumers, due to the digital formats’ interactive possibilities (Paloma Diaz Soloaga, 2016b). The formation of an intimate relationship within the marketing strategies of luxury brands may be vital to creating a loyal clientele that continuously purchases products. As a result, this highlights the importance of ensuring consumers are engaged with digital fashion film content.
The potential intimate relationship arising from digital fashion film, has been associated with ‘aesthetic voyeurism’ (Khan, 2012). Whereby, fashion film allows a ‘shift from the viewer as a consumer, to the viewer as a spectator’ (Khan, 2012). A spectating position allows individuals to gain an in depth and immersive insight into the visual identity of luxury fashion brands. This impact has been reinforced by theories expressing that ‘fashion film is a powerful tool in defining and strengthening the visual identity of a fashion brand’ (Buffo, 2017). A luxury brand’s visual identity has the potential to create meaningful imagery that corresponds to the brand's mission and values. With the current saturation of the fashion industry and the ongoing cost of living crisis, consumers are becoming selective with their purchasing decisions (Sorted, 2022). Thus, it's important to communicate how companies differentiate themselves in comparison to other firms. The communication of this differentiation can be achieved through the portrayal of brands visual identity within fashion film. Therefore this may allow consumers access into the core of luxury fashion brands. As a result, this illustrates how the intimate nature of fashion film and its effects can positively support consumer knowledge about luxury brands. This knowledge may, as a result, positively support consumer awareness of luxury fashion houses within a saturated market that houses selective shoppers.
The nature and constructs of storytelling may create further positive effects for luxury fashion brands. Whereby, due to the fluidity and mutability storytelling offers, through choice of characters, settings, and plot lines; luxury fashion houses have an ideal format to tell the varying stories fashion has to offer. This variety could feature stories of visual identity, products, season lines and trends. The format of these stories may depend on the choice of film subgenre the business has decided to utilise. Academic sources such as: Unfolding Fashion’s Fictions support the collaboration of film and fashion, stating that film can provide a format to capture the ever evolving fashion imagery (Berry, 2013). Therefore, the utilisation of film and its inherent qualities may be positive for luxury fashion brands in order to keep their consumers updated with who they are and what they are offering.
Yet it can be argued that there are certain considerations that luxury fashion brands need to be aware of, in order for the discussed onset of positive effects to occur. These considerations include the potential damaging implications of concentration levels amongst viewers of film content. A notable statistic sourced from the The UK Internet Advertising Bureau, states that ‘Millennials have an average attention span of twelve seconds’ (Boger, 2020). This data is supported and fuelled by the rise and dependency of mobile phones and their applications providing never ending short spurts of stimulation (Parasuraman et al., 2017). As a result, with low concentration levels, the target market of luxury fashion brands may not be able to fully engage with film content. For instance, Castello Cavalcanti, a 2013 Prada fashion film, written and directed by Wes Anderson, is eight minutes long (Prada, 2019). This length of film may trigger not only a lack of engagement, but an absence of understanding surrounding what brands like Prada are trying to communicate within their films. Subsequently, this outcome may rid luxury brands of the intended benefits they had hoped to reap when releasing fashion based film.
In order to avoid this result, it can be suggested that luxury fashion brands should recognise these considerations, and thus adopt strategies in order to tackle these potential issues. These strategies may include varying the length of films produced. For example in 2020, Chanel released a short film: Over The Moon promoting their fine jewellery (Walker, 2020). This film is two minutes long, which may be an effective length to capture the concentration of viewers. As well as this, it may be said that a utilisation of different genres of fashion film, may captivate the interest of viewers. This theory is supported by evidence suggesting that genre within film and what it can offer, creates an attachment with the audience (Grove, 2017). This attachment may manifest itself into concentration amongst viewers of short film content. Differing film genres are being explored by brands such as Gucci, exemplified by their short film series: The Awakening (Gucci, 2023). This series, in collaboration with Vogue celebrates the Gucci Bloom Fragrances, utilising short conceptual films and celebrity faces (Gucci, 2023). These conceptual films may catch the attention of viewers, due to the thought provoking concepts and accompanying settings and imagery the conceptual film genre can offer. Thus, with these strategies, luxury fashion businesses may be able to avert the potential hindrance caused by the current concentration levels of their consumers.
Luxury Fashion Film. The collaboration that isn't leaving anytime soon, due to its capacity to establish an abundance of positive effects upon luxury fashion businesses that invest in digital film. However, as discussed, it is up to these companies to ensure contingency strategies are put in place to ensure they are equipped to cope with whatever the evolving fashion industry has to throw at them.
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Reference list
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