Social media and technology play a significant role in everybody’s lives. It has revolutionised the world we live in, in many ways. One being the fashion industry. This has been impacted by the rise of bloggers and social media influencers who have made social media a career and marketing strategy. One major platform is Instagram. This has helped brands and bloggers promote products and lifestyles that will appeal to a wide audience and entice customers which not only benefits the brand but also the “business” of the blogger. Social media has had a direct impact on digital labour and consumer culture as it has provided a platform to see what is desired by an audience and what there are gaps in the market for. There has also been a development in body image and how bodies that differentiate from the norm is not scrutinized anymore but is accepted and praised. For women, the stick thin barbie doll body type is not the trend anymore and curvy bodies are more realistic and common in contemporary western society. Social media has provided a feel-good service for society as people feel more accepted and confident for who they are. I will be looking into how much of an impact social media has really had on many different aspects of the fashion industry including body image, marketing, acceptance within society and the rise of bloggers and influencers. I decided to investigate a high-street brand and a high-street, online retailer to see if how they utilised social media differed. The high-end brand I chose was Burberry as they are heavily advertised by celebrities throughout their campaigns. I then chose to research Pretty Little Thing as my high-street brand as they use social media influencers and bloggers to promote their products a lot in their brand. I chose both brands because although their products and consumers may be very different, they still have similarities in the way they work.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact that social media is having on the fashion industry. The reason for my interest in this topic is that I have grown up with the development of social media and have always been very interested in fashion, therefore I wanted to see how the tw