Will Online Fashion Media Be The End Of Print Media?

6 min readApr 15, 2020

Technology is ever-growing and has gradually seeped into every facet of life. It is no more limited to entertainment, it has also forayed into the fashion world. Just like many other industries, technology has made a massive impact on the fashion industry as well, changing the way world views fashion and the business that dictates the latest fashion trends. Fashion-forward media has also become insanely popular, connecting the consumers and fashion influencers even better, defining the future of fashion.

Today while taking a whirl around online fashion magazines, you never bump into the thought of how the world viewed fashion before the coming of the internet. For a long time, magazines were the primary way of the world to connect with the fashion industry. But in the past few years, a plethora of online magazines and fashion newspapers have emerged.

How Print Media Enhanced The Fashion Industry?

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Magazines[/caption]

Earlier fashion magazines and newspapers were an essential and only component of the fashion industry. They were the authentic medium that conveyed and promoted the latest fashion trends, along with the fashion designer’s vision to the eventual consumer.

Donneau de Visé, in 1678, first included an illustrated description of French fashion with suppliers’ names in his magazine. Thereafter, it was no turning back, from the mid-eighteenth century fashion news was included in the well-celebrated ladies handbooks and diaries. By the end of 18th-century interest in fashion was widespread and fashion world became a popular category that people wanted to read about, it was included in quality general readership journals such as the Frankfurt Journal des Luxus und der Moden and Ackermann’s Repository of the Arts, Literature, Commerce, Fashion and Politics. By the middle of the 19th century, the print media industry profited from improvements in printing methods, lower paper costs, and lower taxation. As the fashion industry witnessed growth, the fashion publication scene was stimulated by developments at Women’s Wear Daily (WWD). Fashion world back then was increasingly dependent on advertising, the conventional magazine was challenged if fashion deviated from the latest fashion trends.

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Printing Machine[/caption]

The fashion industry has developed immensely in the last decade, today the speculated value of fashion industry is 3,000 billion dollars (3 trillion dollars), along with 2% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Countries like Italy, France, UK, and India have been celebrated as the emerging fashion hot-spot. Merely a decade back, luxury fashion brands like Gucci, Chanel, Tommy Hilfiger, and others saw huge potential in Indian markets and invested in it. Media has been the main reason behind the acceptance of fashion and brands among the masses. Print media played an essential role to constantly keep the audiences updated with the latest fashion trends introduced by the celebrities of the silver screen and small screen.

Fashion and media go hand in hand, they have always been interconnected, fashion magazines like Femina, played a remarkable role in making the masses connect better with the fashion world and designers. Print media has played a significant role in boosting the fashion industry in India. It has helped in creating awareness about a particular brand, designer, or fashion show in the minds of people. Currently, people are consuming more media than ever before but it’s not the print media anymore.

How Digital India Movement Changed The Dynamics Of The Indian Fashion Industry?

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Kareena Kapoor Khan for VOUGE Cover[/caption]

The Indian government on 1st July 2015 launched digital India, it was initiated to ensure that the government services are made accessible to citizens electronically by internet connectivity. It also aimed at making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.

Since this movement, the internet has been dabbling in the fashion world, unlike earlier print media is not the only source of truth now, the future of fashion is going online!

Today, the internet has taken over every industry, everything’s practically done online and print media is no exception. In the digital India world, online fashion news has become a continuous trickle over social media. People do not have to wait for the newspapers to get the news. Fashion readers became active after the movement and initiated creating content that competes with print media. Fashion influencers started utilising the internet, be it a short-form video or tweets or blogs or graphics, each time the fashion influencer gained a subscriber, print media had a new competitor.

What Are The Advantages Of Online Fashion Media?

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fashion influencers[/caption]

Online fashion media influences the consumers by developing public interest and excitement for the latest fashion trends through the wide promotion of glamorous photographs, celebrity endorsements and informative articles, it also tells about fashion forecasts and the future of fashion in the coming years. Following are some of the major advantages of online fashion media-

Online fashion media creates an opportunity for the fashion influencers, designers, and brands to share creative ideas, updated news, views and opinions of other designers about the fashion world, and provides with a golden opportunity of sharing the information forward.
The online path of media leads to building communities of like-minded consumers online.
It is the fastest source of giving fashion updates without any gatekeeping which means anyone can share the information forward without particular permission. This has brought transparency in the fashion world, as there is no limitation to getting featured.
Online fashion media offers instant feedback from the readers and has the highest level of interaction with the users.

How Is Print Media Ineffective To Online Fashion Media?

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Magezine[/caption]

Since the invention of portable type media and internet, the print media has lost its grace. The rise of the internet highlighted the disadvantages of the print medium, the following are some of the major disadvantages-

Printed fashion media can’t be as happening as online media, as it cannot capture the display of designs and movement required by an audience raised on the video of the internet.
The print medium of fashion involves printing and pressing, fashion information requires a lead time before it ever reaches you.
The printed medium of information is being avoided by people today, as it requires paper and chemical, which further leads to cutting down of trees. After you’re done reading fashion magazines and newspapers, you’re left with material that you need to throw away and this later accumulates in our landfills.
Fashion magazines and newspapers are limited, can only reach the audience when it is distributed through an organized channel.

In The World Of Social Media, Do Some People Still Prefer Magazines Rather Than Online Reading?