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The Korean Society for Journalism & Communication Studies (KSJCS)
[ Article ]
Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies - Vol. 67, No. 6, pp.153-188
ISSN: 2586-7369 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Dec 2023
Received 03 Aug 2023 Accepted 22 Nov 2023 Revised 26 Nov 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20879/kjjcs.2023.67.6.005

디지털로 매개된 패션 소비 경험에 관한 탐색 : 패셔니스트가 되고 싶은 20대를 중심으로

이동후** ; 이설희***
**인천대학교 신문방송학과 교수 donghoo2@gmail.com
***용인대학교 문화콘텐츠학과 부교수 seulhi@gmail.com
Digitally Mediated Fashion : Exploring the Everyday Consumption Experiences of Aspiring 'Fashionists' in Their Twenties
Dong-Hoo Lee** ; Seulhi Lee***
**Professor, Incheon National University, first author donghoo2@gmail.com
***Associate Professor, Yongin University, corresponding author seulhi@gmail.com

초록

패션은 물질적이면서 비물질적이고, 개인적이면서 사회적이며, 행위 양식이나 몸의 구체적 실천이라는 복합적 성격을 갖는다. 이 연구는 이러한 복합적 성격을 가진 패션이 현재의 미디어 감각과 어떻게 결합하고 있는지를 주목하고자 했다. 다시 말해, 디지털 미디어 플랫폼으로 재구성되고 있는 패션시스템을 ‘디지털 매개 패션시스템(digitally mediated fashion system)’으로 정의하고 이러한 시스템에서 패션과 소비자의 관계가 일상적 패션 소비 경험에서 어떻게 나타나고 있는지를 주의 깊게 살펴보고자 했다. 이를 위해 패셔니스트가 되고자 하는 20대와 심층 인터뷰를 수행했다. 이들의 경험은 디지털 패션 미디어 이용, 패션시스템의 체화, 이러한 시스템에 내재된 패션 관련 산업적 질서 및 상징적 가치 체계에 관한 해석이 별개의 과정으로서가 아니라 상호연결되어 패션-미디어-신체가 형성되고 있음을 보여준다. 인터뷰 참여자들은 디지털 미디어 환경에서 자기만의 패션 정보 환경을 구성하고, 탈장소화하고 가속화하는 패션 실천을 경험하고 있다. 이들은 대량 소비라는 일상적 실천과정을 거쳐 이미지 중심의 탈육적이고 가상화된 패션 감각을 물리적 신체에 체화해 갔다. 또한 자신의 패션 감각을 이미지로 표현하고 공유하면서 물질적이면서도 가상적인 패션 감각의 형성 동학에 기꺼이 참여하고 있다. 인터뷰참여자들의 패션-미디어-신체는 기존 패션시스템의 질서와 가치체계를 받아들이면서도 미시적 차원의 행위성을 만들어 가는 해석적 관계를 보여주었다. 셀 수 없는 이미지들, 패션 공간의 탈장소화, 패션 순환의 주기 및 소비 시간의 가속화 등은 소비자가 자신의 소비 행위에 대한 성찰이나 거리두기를 점점 더 어렵게 하고 있다. 개인이 이러한 시스템을 능동적으로 활용하고 자기 나름의 가치를 만들려고 하지만, 패션시스템의 작동 방식이나 질서의 밖을 상상하기 어려운 미디어 환경의 체화과정에서 개인의 행위성은 모순적으로 드러날 수밖에 없다. 이들이 노력, 시간, 돈을 들어야 하는 소비 과정에 부담을 느끼면서도 기꺼이 동참하면서, 기존 패션시스템의 질서가 지속적으로 재생산되는 경향을 보였다.

Abstract

The commercialization of digital media platforms has significantly shaped how people interact with fashion. Social media, influencers, and user-generated content have become primary sources of fashion information, significantly increasing online purchases of clothing and fashion-related products, particularly among the youth. Despite the evident influence of digital media on fashion consumption culture, research delving into the intricate relationships and everyday consumer practices within this realm remains minimal. This study addresses the existing gap by examining the experience of everyday fashion within a digitally evolving fashion system. This fashion system goes beyond the industry itself, encompassing a complex network involving the planning, production, distribution, and consumption of fashion. It includes a wide array of participants, from designers and entrepreneurs to marketers, retailers, and consumers. In the digital media context, this study conceptualizes the fashion system as a 'digitally mediated fashion system.' This system is characterized by a network of relationships where different elements of the fashion industry are interlinked through digital media. The notion of mediation emphasizes the dynamic interplay between media, individuals, and the fashion world, focusing on the mutual construction process among these elements. To explore qualitatively the interactions between digital media, the fashion system, and daily fashion practices, as well as their cultural implications, the study conducted in-depth interviews with fashion-interested young adults. These individuals, aspiring to be 'fashionists' - those who recognize and adapt to fashion trends and have a personal fashion sense - provide insights into how they fulfill their fashion desires in daily life. The study examines various relational dynamics within the digitally mediated fashion system, including the role of the digital media environment (background relationship), the utilization of platforms as fashion media (otherness relationship), the formation of a 'fashion-media-body' identity (embodied relationship), and the meaning-making process (interpretation relationship). The findings reveal that engagement with digital fashion media, embodiment of the digitally mediated fashion system, and interpretation of its industrial and symbolic values are interconnected processes that shape a complex 'fashion-media-body' dynamic. Participants curate their fashion environments, leading to transformed and accelerated fashion practices, integrating an image-focused, virtual fashion sense with their physical existence. This process involves actively crafting both material and virtual fashion identities through the creation and sharing of fashion imagery. The 'fashion-media-body' phenomenon exhibits a dual nature: it conforms to the norms and values of the existing fashion system, yet also allows for individual agency. However, the plethora of images, the abstract nature of digital fashion spaces, and the rapid pace of fashion cycles pose challenges for critical reflection and detachment from consumption habits. While participants actively engage in fashion practices, often requiring significant time, effort, and money, this engagement typically reinforces and perpetuates the established fashion order. This study highlights the complexities of navigating the digitally mediated fashion system, underscoring the inherent contradictions and limited agency within the prevailing fashion paradigm.

Keywords:

Digitally Mediated Fashion System, Fashion-media-body, In-depth Interview, Everyday Fashion Consumption, Consumer Subjectivity

키워드:

디지털 매개 패션시스템, 패션-미디어-신체, 심층 인터뷰, 패션 소비, 소비자 주체성

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Incheon National University Research Grant in 2022(이 논문은 2022년도 인천대학교 교내연구비 지원을 받아 연구되었음).

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