Now let’s delve a little deeper and see what DIY cultures mean for the future of the fashion industry, both in terms of its hierarchical structures and business models. In other fields it is becoming increasingly apparent that corporations prefer to co-operate with grassroots media, rather than to compete. Henry Jenkins, the Director of the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT, emulates that produsage and its technologies advance processes of convergence and it is because of this that corporate convergence exists with grassroots convergence. This being said, in regards to DIY cultures, the bottom-up production phases show a massive power shift towards the produser and away from the manufacturer. Sites such as Yerzies and Styleshake allow anyone with even the slightest inclination to create designs to do so and – if they wish – to call upon the help of online communities to connect with others and get a better outcome. Of course the conventional fashion industry players (those of the editor, the designer, the manufacturer) are still able to participate and excel these produsage projects, but only if they understand, embrace and accept the key principals of produsage. On the same note, I think many manufacturers (the smart ones) will adopt these new business models of production – those that harness the democratisation of design and interact with the amateurs. However, this does not rule out the traditional roles for the manufacturer, as we must remember that the future will not be entirely online. 

Back in February of 1988, Vogue’s “Point of View” column alluded to the ‘in’ style. Twenty-one years onward and the ducats of ‘cool’ are becoming less and less defined. When it comes to fashion in a new media world it could be argued that the only trend is that there are no trends. On ‘scenester’ websites such as The Cobra Snake and Lookbook we are seeing “excess to minimalism, free-spirited ingénue to tailored sophisticate,” a distinctly “anything goes” aesthetic. I would argue slightly differently. Everybody knows that trends are fleeting, but with the eruption of user-generated content I think that trends are merely becoming more transferable. But are catwalk clones really the trendy ones? Or is it those whose style shows some personal thought? This nuance in the concept of trends is very subjective and I put forward that the only way to describe this apparent ‘death of trends’ is to take a look at the eroding power of major fashion publications (the professionals) because of these user-generated trends by produsers (the amateurs).

Through produsage models such as Wikipedia, we are seeing a conflict between Pros, who ultimately aim to produce universally accepted and consistent understandings of the world, and Ams, who allow for divergence in interpretation and the existence of numerous representations of existing knowledge. In the fashion industry, this on-going battle is raging between the fashion elite and the produser and is particularly observable in the content created from grass roots participation. Think Rumi Neely, of fashiontoast.com, whose amateur blog led her to the runways of Paris. Naturally, those within the industry who have formal qualifications will feel hard done by, but in a new media world I think meritocracy is a valid form of recognition and the industry must move beyond the traditional models of accreditation in order to make the best of Web 2.0 technologies. Although, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, some major fashion publications are throwing in the white flag recognising the power in the produser. Having said all of this, the fashion editor’s role is not completely obsolete and I think this role will stay in place, as hierarchies in the fashion industry are far too grounded. Trends do in fact still exist and I believe will continue to exist for all eternity. So what do you think? Have trends really died? And if so, is the ‘death of trends’ a consumer issue or a fashion editorial issue? Perhaps it is simply the death of trend dictatorship.

The fashion world has attempted to mimic Wikipedia and created its own version of an online encyclopedia, but of course not to the same scale. The Fashion Wikia serves as an international resource for all things fashion related. The wiki was established by online retailer Net-A-Porter in an effort to create an informative resource on the world of fashion and includes user-generated opinions, photos and trend updates. Similarly, Burdastyle provides a virtual space where professional and amateur designers are collaborating to generate wikis and create a database of sewing patterns and terms. This idea of Pros and Ams being able to add to the same knowledge base is characteristic of produsage. On a completely different note, The London College of Fashion is using wikis to create immediate and alternative spaces for students to capture their thoughts on both professional and personal developments throughout the course. I think this is an extremely useful and innovative initiative as wikis are essentially a draft that is open to continuous revision and I can see this being very beneficial to the unfolding of a creative professional, or any professional for that matter.

Building on some of the key concepts of produsage I touched on in a previous post, we are seeing a growing trend in user-generated fashion whereby users are able to see their designs come to life. Take for example the sites Pamayo and Weare that are embracing “co-created fashion” and encouraging users to send in their own designs to add to a final garment. We saw Wikipedia evolve from concepts of produsage, through the processes of deliberation, consensus and the development of community structures. Building from this and the ideas of Pamayo and Weare, could wiki-based fashion design ever become a reality, as crazy as it may seem? May I remind you here that physical products are in fact information products in the design stage. In earlier days information about an evolving design was encoded on blueprints and we are now seeing these information products being encoded on the web. Following the wiki model, I think this could be both a great opportunity and interesting experiment. As Wikipedia’s content development processes are reliant on the two communication processes of direct content creation in the wiki and community discussion about the content creation process, the produsage concepts of open participation and communal evaluation are extremely important in the sites continuation. It can be argued that Wikipedia’s predecessor project Nupedia failed because it was based on closed participation and a fixed heterarchy of experts. The communal aspects of Wikipedia are the motivation for participation, so can these aspects be transferred to co-created fashion design? I believe this is entirely possible, however having said this, the continuous revision that is typical of Wikipedia could prove to be a problem in this context, as the question of when a final design decision could be made would prove hard to call, as after all, fashion is highly personalised. Albeit, there are many problems regarding this idea of community based fashion design, but the idea exhibits the power of wikis to foster collaborative communities and deliver multiple perspectives on representations of knowledge, or in this case, fashion.

Many fashion critics and fashion journalists resist the idea of the new bastion of fashion bloggers as ‘press,’ journalist and editor Steve Outing identifies confusion and skepticism as two reoccurring responses among news editors to the concept of citizen journalism. However, James Carey emulates that “perhaps in the end journalism simply means carrying on and amplifying the conversation of people themselves.” Carey’s proposition suggests that a change and transformation of traditional journalism towards a symbiotic relationship with produsage-based citizen journalists is inevitable. In the real-life processes of fashion bloggers gaining front row access to the runway, we are now seeing this and we are witnessing the bottom-up coverage of traditionally exclusive events, with information being delivered to consumers continually and in real time. This is where the offshoots of citizen journalism come in to play, those of location based media and mobile journalism, if you want to find out more about mobile journalism look here. However, back to Carey’s point, I think the power of grassroots media in sync with that of traditional media will produce content that neither could manage individually.

But, like any new technologies comes a perceived threat and I would like to leave you this week with two questions. Firstly, is it fair to argue that the convergence of content delivery and technology has meant the need for certain occupations in the industry can be eliminated in alliance with the multimedia and gadgets invented to make news delivery more efficient? Many journalists argue that the established norms and practices of journalism as a profession continue to operate effectively in the online environment, without Web 2.0 or blog-type solutions thrust upon them. Secondly, with Pros and Ams working hand in hand, what remains of ‘professionalism’ in journalism? Zelizer argues that journalism has to be ultimately understood as a culture and adding to this Deuze contends that journalism is essentially an occupational ideology shared among those who self-define as journalists.

Let me know your thoughts.

• What happens when following the fashion herd becomes wisdom of the masses?
• What happens when everyone can become his or her own fashion editor?
• What happens when citizen journalists replace glossy magazines as oracles of fashion?

In an attempt to answer these questions I will look at some key characteristics of produsage, those of: meritocracy, communal evaluation and open participation.

Firstly, there appears to be a growing trend towards meritocracy in the traditionally exclusive fashion industry. Designers, photographers, aspiring journalists and fashionistas alike are able to establish a name for themselves through various social media platforms (such as Lookbook and Iqons) and through utilising new media tools (such as webcams and other mobile technologies). Mashable provide some valuable pointers for leveraging social media in order to build success. Not only does produsage offer credible alternatives to and sustained competition to established fashion houses, fashion publications and their products, but also creates networked communities that bring about new ways of content production, which is in turn converted to knowledge and after all knowledge is power. This ties in with Harkin’s second question, as the media is gravely affected by the increase in collaborative content creation. While produsage is all about ‘de-professionalisation,’ obviously different people have different levels of knowledge about particular topics and surely well researched content will become accepted knowledge through the collective evaluation processes. But is this always the case? Is communal evaluation a valid criterion? In an academic atmosphere, where content is susceptible to professional scrutiny – most likely, but in industries (like the fashion industry) that are subjective it’s all about reputation, ‘hits’ and ‘comments.’ Once again, merit, not formal qualifications. 

In light of Harkin’s third question, citizen journalists have perhaps brought about the greatest changes for fashion houses and publications. Pioneering this notion, in 2007 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week made way for fashion bloggers in the front row of runway shows, recognising the power in the blogosphere. With this in mind, produsage must not be seen as a threat to those who are deemed experts under the traditional models of accreditation. The attitude that must be taken is that as fashion evolves the media in the industry and the universe evolves with it. From this, fashion houses and publications should see the potential for success via the embrace of produsage. The closure of Napster and the creation of iTunes is just one exemplar of how positive commercial uptake of produsage ideas and principles has helped to accelerate trends.

If you want to find out more about citizen journalism, tune in next week.