It was June 30, 2010, when Mashable created Social Media Day, which has since then occurred on precisely the last day of June. An initiative conceived by the U.S. platform, known precisely for its strategic use of social media, to celebrate and recognize the impact it has had and has on communications around the world. There is no denying that social today is a landmark not only for its original function of connecting people, but for amplifying communication in the round.
On social, people talk about the economy, cooking, tourism, beauty and, even and especially, fashion. From the birth of Friendster in 2002 to that of TikTok, the Gen Z app-symbol launched in 2016, social and fashion have come a long way. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest: each social has its own identity and each brand soon learned to decline its content according to the unwritten but equally ironclad 'rules' of each platform to reach as many users as possible, intercepting their tastes and desires.
With the spread of social media, moreover, also came new figures such as fashion bloggers and influencers, who created a small revolution in the fashion world, coming to become testimonials of the world's most important fashion brands and, in some cases, collaborating in the creation of capsules and collections. It has to be said, however, that with the rise of TikTok, the 'myth' of the influencer seems to be on the sunset or at least in a phase of profound transformation: Generation Z seems to be more involved with spontaneous and less glossy content. And, of course, the fashion system is already adapting.
At the moment, however, Instagram remains the social media par excellence for conveying fashion-related content, through the declination of a well-designed brand identity, but also for engaging users, making them participants in exclusive events and appointments. However, there are those who have decided to travel against the tide, abandoning social. For example, Bottega Veneta did it, which suddenly closed all its accounts in 2021, leaving it up to fans and ambassadors to 'talk' about the brand, through a community identified by the hashtag #NewBottega. Out of social in short, but always inside social.
