Influencing Fashion: A Provocative Proposal of the Application of McLuhan’s Theory, “The Medium is the Message”

The purpose of this contribution is to investigate the connection among influencers, fashion and media and to analyze the phenomenon of the “influencer” through the lens of Italian poet and fashion journalist Gabriele D’Annunzio, artists Salvador Dalì and Andy Warhol, whose surrealist and pop art, respectively, influenced the fashion collections of international stylists, and Italian digital influencer and fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni. Additionally, the paper aims to apply Marshall McLuhan’s theory of media ecology, postulating that the medium is the message and that images are more important than what they represent, on the phenomenon of “influencing fashion”. In fact, this theory is apparently applicable to the specific cases of Dalì, Warhol and Ferragni as fashion influencers to the extent that this process involves the use of images through different media of communication.

Introduction

An influencer is a person who inspires or guides the actions and the behaviors of others, someone who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her audience. The purpose of this contribution is to investigate the connection among influencers, fashion and media and to analyze the phenomenon of the “influencer” through the lens of Italian poet and fashion journalist Gabriele D’Annunzio, artists Salvador Dalì and Andy Warhol, whose surrealist and pop art, respectively, influenced the fashion collections of international stylists, and Italian digital influencer and fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni. All these figures, indeed, influenced fashion through different media: journals (D’Annunzio), photographs (Dalì), artworks (Warhol), and Instagram account (Ferragni). This contribution ultimately aims to apply Marshall McLuhan’s theory of media ecology, postulating that the medium is the message and that images are more important than what they represent, on the phenomenon of “influencing fashion”. In fact, this theory is apparently applicable to the specific cases of Dalì, Warhol and Ferragni as fashion influencers to the extent that this process involves the use of images through different media of communication.

The media ecology theory is associated with the names of two theorists and sociologists, Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) and Neil Postman (1931–2003). “The medium is the message” was the statement McLuhan used to summarize this theory, according to which it is the chosen media that influence how the message is perceived. While McLuhan is recognized as the one developing the idea, and the name of the theory came from him (Velasquezet al., 2018), Postman was the scholar who understood what would media ecology mean, and consolidated the theory through theoretical concepts by positioning his observations in the field of media as environments. More specifically: Ecology of media as environment is synthetized in a basic idea: technologies–which entail communication technologies, from writing to digital media–they generate environments that affect the everyday life of actors using them. For Neil Postman, the word ecology meant the study of environments, that is, the observation about their structure, content and impact on people. (Velasquezet al., 2018, p. 586)

On the other hand, McLuhan defended media as species, considering technology as the fundamental factor for the comprehension of media. After integrating the study of the evolution of communication processes with socio-economic processes and through the observation of the results that emerged from technology, in Understanding Media he concluded that: Media interact between them [communication and socio-economic processes]. Radio has changed the format of news in a similar manner the sound movies have transformed image. Television has caused changes in radio programming, etc., (McLuhan, 1964, p. 78)

McLuhan’s focus on media as species allows us to identify new classes of communication in present society. Social media like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, essentially based on image, speed and international appeal, have created the phenomenon of the influencer, who does not exist without an audience.

The notion of audience directly relates to Postman’s interest for the environment in which a communicative process unfolds. Indeed, the influencer has his/her own audience and adapts his/her own style of communication to its characteristics. In particular, the social media influencer uses a certain type of communication exactly because he/she knows how to anticipate the reactions of the users within a specific “communication environment.” In other words, influencer media endorsement creates an ecosystem to its audience, a phenomenon whose effect is mostly evident in fashion media, where influencers “attract more subscribers due to their awareness, belief in fashion, and ability to help consumers establish their fashion styles” (Liu, 2023, p. 116).

Looking for sociological and physiological implications of media ecology’s theory, then, one can relate to McLuhan’s Catholic faith and to neurophysiological principles. The first aspect allows us to identify influencers as a new type of priests or preachers: people unconditionally trust them, the faith in their message relies on their image and success, conveyed through social media like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. On the other hand, new social media are made to satisfy our neurological predispositions to be distracted. Behavioral neurologists have known for a long time that while paying attention to anything new in our visual or auditory field (distractions) helped humans to survive danger and find food, current social media have taken the concept to a completely new level, where distraction is used to carry a message across, faster and more compellingly (Mac-Auliffe Cabello, 2020). In addition, influencers, knowingly or unknowingly, take advantage of neurological processes involved in imitation and persuasion. Our brain has “mirror neurons” that makes us imitate and learn from another people’s behavior (Iacoboni & Mazziotta, 2007; Molenberghset al., 2009), and it is more likely that we will imitate what a person that we admire (influencer) does or wears or says. In particular, influencers on social media use the following well known marketing strategies:

1) Perceived Expertise Effect: They are perceived as knowing more that you do, albeit on a very narrow subject (say, fashion).

2) Cognitive Dissonance Effect: Influencers ask skeptic viewers to try something new, with the promise they will look better and feel more successful in their tribe.

3) Trustworthiness Effect: They are someone who people trust and believe in and you should do too.

4) Mere-Exposure Effect: Just because they are perceived to be “famous”, influencers get more attention.

5) Self-Reference Effect: People feel that if they wear what the influencer wears then they can feel successful as well.

6) Foot-in-the-door Effect: If the influencer is able to make viewers stay on page for a little bit longer then the viewers will come back for more.

7) Primacy and Recency Effect: Influencers constantly post something short on media because people only remember the first and last thing they hear or see, and everything in between is forgotten.

Moreover, as all these persuasive strategies depend heavily on the nature of social media, the McLuhan theory that the media is the message finds a validation in the study of Siever and Siever (2023) suggesting that audio visual entertainment (AVE) is so powerful because it includes “dissociation and hypnotic induction; autonomic nervous system calming; increased cerebral blood flow; increases in beneficial neurotransmitters (lactate/ATP)”. AVE “can quickly calm and “re-boot” the brain, thus restoring cognition, emotion control and affect” (Siever & Siever, 2023, pp. 479–497).

Given these theoretical premises, McLuhan’s theory, postulating that the media influence how the message is perceived and stressing the effects of a communication process, appears to be the most suitable for explaining the phenomenon of the influencer in its various manifestations. For McLuhan “the medium is the message because content cannot exist without a medium” (Strate, 2008, p. 131) and “it is the symbolic form that is most significant, not the content. It is the technology that matters the most, its nature and its structure, and not our intentions. It is the materials that we work with, and the methods we use to work with them, that have the most to do with the final outcome of our labors” (Strate, 2008, p. 130). Examining the phenomenon of the influencer, the medium changes according to the technology available in the considered historical period (journal, photograph, social network), but the symbolic form always remains predominant over the content of the message to the extent influencers make use of images to communicate. In this context the phenomenon of the influencer is linked to fashion, which itself influences many aspects of our lives: “It has both economic and social & and provides individuals with a tool to express themselves and create an identity” (Sudha & Sheena, 2017, p. 18) and as “an important aspect of nonverbal behavior, serves a wide variety of communicative functions” (Rosenfeld & Plax, 2006, p. 24).

A “Historical” Influencer: Gabriele D’Annunzio

Gabriele D’Annunzio (1863–1938), Italian poet, dramatist, novelist, political activist and military hero, through his collaboration with the newspapers La Tribuna, Cronaca bizantina and Capitan Fracassa allows us to look at the phenomenon of the influencer and to consider it from a historical perspective. Indeed, D’Annunzio can be regarded an “influencer ante-litteram”, sharing common attitudes with Chiara Ferragni and other digital influencers of present day. Indeed, already at eighteen his tendency to change fashion, to influence it, to be creative in this field was evident (Sorge, 2015, p. 22) and he strongly influenced Italian public opinion, as summarized by Paola Sorge: He spread a way of life that made Italy dream: in first place there was the cult of beauty in all its forms, then the need for extreme refinement, and the equally extreme passion for art in all its expressions. For him, fashion was also art, especially female fashion (Sorge, 2015, pp. 74–75).

In particular, D’Annunzio’s attraction to fashion, luxury and good taste is demonstrated by his journalistic writings, in which the young poet recounts the rites and rituals of Roman social life. By analyzing these texts, we come across a precise and detailed review of outfits and dresses worn by Roman noble women during parties, ceremonies and public events. Furthermore, even in his private life the poet transformed himself into a sort of personal stylist, choosing the “magic garments” women were supposed to wear for the scheduled meeting or reception. He acted just like today’s stylists do, selecting clothes and accessories for models during fashion shows or for famous people on public occasions. In addition to writing about clothes, and suggesting them to friends and lovers, D’Annunzio was also a collector of clothes himself. He wanted to appear adequate in every situation to the point of defining himself as a “luxury animal” in a letter to the Milanese publisher Emilio Trèves. His precious wardrobe is still kept today in the Vittoriale house museum in Gardone di Riviera (Brescia, Italy). These are fine garments, jackets and suits made of various fabrics; the accessories, shoes, bow ties, ties, could easily be included in a contemporary high fashion collection. Inspired by the French poet Charles Baudelaire, who defined modernity as “the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent” and for whom “fashion, being inherently ephemeral, is the visual expression and material manifestation of modernity” (Baudelaire, 1999, p. 518), D’Annunzio regarded fashion as one of the most innovative languages of the modern world.

Dalì and Warhol: Frenemies, Friends, and Fashion Influencers

Salvador Dalì (1904–1989) and Andy Warhol (1928–1987) have been two influential, subversive and extravagant figures in the world of art. Obsessed with themselves and their image, as popular icons of their times, they made their own lives a work of art through the spectacularity of their actions. On the one hand, when journalists asked Dalì to give a definition of Surrealism he stated: “Surrealism is me”. On the other hand, Warhol became part of the American star system and often performed a kind of self-representation. Their works were trailblazing and incalculably influential: both artists were wildly popular in their lifetime and have only become more so in the decades since their deaths. Despite the striking differences in their art and personalities, the two men nonetheless had a lot in common-the most obvious having had a strong awareness of the power of publicity and an affinity for eccentricity and extravagance. They also shared a love of New York, which both men made the heart of their social lives; it was there, in the 1960s, that they met for the first time (see Otte, 2017). What is more, they both collaborated with international stylists, affecting their personal aesthetics and giving life to brand-new fashion creations.

For example, Dalì collaborated with Italian stylist Elsa Schiaparelli. It was a complementary artistic relationship, earning not only a place on the cover of Time, but in the history of art. Dalì loved to repeat: “Drawing is sincerity in art. There is no possibility of cheating. Either it is beautiful or it is ugly”. Schiaparelli would reply with: “Designing clothes is not a profession. It is an art. One of the most complex, difficult, disheartening arts because a dress, when it is born, already belongs to the past.” Schiaparelli was deemed “the only designer who understands Surrealism” (The Surrealists, 1936, p. 126) and the “results of her creative exchanges with Salvador Dalì were viewed as radical, almost ‘shocking’ by the fashion pres of the 1930s” (Gibson, 2003, p. 48): between 1936 and 1939 she collaborated with the Spanish artist “to create a series of garments and accessories that reflected the tumultous political circumstances of the era, the rapidly changing ideas about the self and identity, and the continuing problem of the ‘New Woman’” (The Surrealists, 1936, p. 49). Together, guided by “l’esprit surréaliste”, they created legendary garments” among which The Desk Suit: here “at least two obsessions are in evidence: Dalì’s fascination with drawers and Schiaparelli’s fondness for pockets” (The Surrealists, 1936, p. 50). Their most iconic creation, however, remains the lobster dress from 1937. It was a long dress in light, fluid silk organza, decorated with an illustration of the crustacean that took up most of the skirt. Schiaparelli’s collaboration with Dalì reached the height of surrealist absurdity in a high-heeled shoe from winter 1937–38, now at the Met Museum in NY. The idea for it, as recounted in Dilys Blum’s authoritative book on the designer, was a photograph of Salvador Dalì wearing a shoe on his head and another on his shoulder taken by his wife in 1933. In this case, a photograph is the medium, and the “medium is the message”, that is Dalì’s image of him wearing a shoe on his hat is more important than what it represents and it becomes a source of inspiration for the creation of a fashion product.

As for Warhol, over the course of thirty-eight years he worked as an illustrator for more than four hundred issues of different newspapers, among which were fashion magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. In 1962 he was one of the first pop artists to turn his work into fashion when he began printing his designs on clothes that were not sold in stores, but were created as one-of-a-kind pieces for the New York society women who wore them at the openings of the galleries. In 1965, when those dresses were already small fashion cults, he created the Souper Dress (re-proposed in another version also by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac in 1984), inspired by his 1962 installation Campbell’s Soup Cans, which went sold out in a short time and confirmed the power of the union between art and fashion. Since then there have been many designers who have celebrated Warhol’s Pop Art: from Halston who collaborated for a long time with Warhol’s studio, The Factory, and reworked his Flowers into an evening dress version, up to Gianni Versace, who in 1991 made Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista wear the iconic printed and fitted dress decorated with the faces of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. More recently, Diane Von Fürstenberg with “Pop Wrap” took up the artist’s signature dollar and Flowers. Dalì and Warhol’s collaborations with international stylists show how art in its abstract connotation, respectively as surrealism and pop art, can assume the form of a concrete object. In the case of Warhol, his art, finding expression in specific images (e.g. the flowers, the soup cans, the faces of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean), entered the world of fashion with the reproduction of the same images on clothes. Thus, the art is the medium and “the medium is the message”: Warhol’s images printed on the clothes are more important than what they represent, acting as the source of inspiration for the creation a fashion product. In the cases of Dalì and Warhol, the process of “fashion influencing” involves the medium of an image, respectively Dalì’s photograph serving as initial source of inspiration for Schiaparelli’s hat shoe, and Warhol’s photographic silkscreen printed images, re-proposed by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Halston and Versace in their respective collections.

An Example of a Current Influencer

More recently, digital influencers have been using social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, “now an integral part of many consumers’ everyday life” (Sudha & Sheena, 2017, p. 26), to influence fashion trends through their own image, constantly re-proposed in their stories and posts. As clarified by Sudha and Sheena: In today’s society social influencers, like journalists, celebrities, bloggers, magazines and brand advocates, are regarded as “the most powerful force in marketplace”. They impact customers purchasing decisions based on their personal opinion, ability and position and are often considered experts in their field by consumers. Social influencers therefore have a great deal of influence on consumers purchasing decisions and can influence what becomes a trend and a “must have” fashion as consumers tend to copy their style and believe that they are the experts within the product category. Consumers in today’s society are therefore influenced by social influencers to a greater extent than before (Sudha & Sheena, 2017, p. 18).

More specifically, then, “Instagram and Youtube influencers are able to connect and influence their audiences more than traditional celebrities because of their maintenance of interpersonal relationships, their relatability, and their authenticity” (Nouri, 2018, p. 8). Influencers, indeed, are capable of creating an upbringing on blogs or social media platforms to the extent that they build parasocial interactions with their audience, the illusion of real, face-to-face friendships with performers that is created watching their video or viewing their pictures (Nouri, 2018, p. 8): in parasocial relatioships, a fan responds to a media figure as if he or she were a personal acquaintance (Giles, 2002). With her 17,000 posts and 23.9 million followers, Chiara Ferragni, Italy’s most popular blogger and influencer, was actually able to create this kind of interaction with her audience. Nowadays, she controls a personal media empire, using Instagram to sponsor fashion brands along with her personal brand. In the case of Ferragni’s Instagram account, the message is in the medium itself, that is, in her stories and posts. For example, a post by Chiara wearing a certain fashion brand is the message that the brand is valuable and deserves to be purchased just because it is sponsored by her, Ferragni. The theory of media ecology states that Chiara’s image of her wearing that fashion brand is more important than the brand itself represented in the image, which is nothing more than the marketing tool for increasing the profits of a fashion company. As an influencer, she acquired an importance in the eyes of her followers that is based on trust (they trust her judgement), mirroring (they want to look like her), desire to be successful (like her, if they only buy whatever she wears), need to distinguish themselves from others (I have an outfit suggested by Ferragni and you do not). She could have not have acquired such an influential position without Instagram, which, by its very nature allows the instantaneous sharing of images with an unlimited number of people. In this case the medium (social media) made it possible and quantifiable at a scale non possible at the time of Warhol, or Dalì and for sure D’Annunzio.

Conclusion: is the Medium the Message?

If we consider the media that influencers have been using since the dawn of history it is clear that the message reaches and influences people in a directly relationship to the medium itself. Martin Luther posted the kernel of Protestant Reformation on a church door. The reaction was swift and very slow at the same time. As the media evolved (newspapers, radio, TV, Internet, Instagram etc.,) the message has been reaching a far wider audience, now international, in just in a few minutes. But we still rely on what the influencers have to say, their judgement, their opinion. It is a cognitive shortcut: influencers do the work for their audience which in turn just have to trust them. Influencers do not have to ask for anything. Their audience is happy to emulate them by buying the same fashion items. And even more so today: a post on Instagram is more valuable than a billboard, as Instagram (in this case) is perceived to be “hip”, for those “in the know”. We do not know the next evolutionary step in media, but we can assume from historical review that it is going to be faster, wider and probably inescapable. McLuhan “was presenting us with a unique opportunity to conceive the content of media output as irrelevant. In other words, he was trying to forego the question about what does it say and address the macro-effect of technology in our ways of thinking as human beings: the changes in syntax and semantics, and changing in perception of the self and others” (Roncallo-Dow & Scolari, 2016). He was certainly more concerned about the message being in the medium itself for more impactful reasons than fashion, but he will not argue with the money-generating impact of influencers in fashion.