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Social comparison in fashion Social

comparison in
blogging: “creative self” as the new fashion
blogging
genre in fashion communication
Athena Choi
Department of Fashion and Image Design, Hong Kong Design Institute,
New Territories, Hong Kong Received 9 July 2019
Revised 19 November 2019
Accepted 20 December 2019
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to draw on an inductive approach in exploring how the post-90s
generation relates themselves with the others when browsing fashion images on social media. More
specifically, this work explores how young fashion readers perceive the phenomenon of bloggers’ self-modeling
as a means of self-expression.
Design/methodology/approach – Eight focus groups were conducted for 64 Hong Kong young fashion
readers. Respondents were asked about their opinion on the fashion blogs, their preference toward bloggers’
self-modeling phenomenon, and how they compare themselves with the self-modeling fashion bloggers.
Findings – Results indicate that a tendency of social comparison occurred as readers indicated preference
toward fashion bloggers who perform as self-modeling image producers, this supports the notion of social
comparison that human nature tends to compare with others similar to themselves. This finding also suggests
the critical awareness of young fashion readers, in which an ideal beauty is perceived as a successful result
from a calculated visual creation, namely “the creative self”.
Research limitations/implications – This study focus on a Hong Kong setting with Instagram as the key
communication platform; future research would be benefited from a wider scope of study from an international
perspective.
Practical implications – This paper provides practical insight for fashion brands’ strategic planners on how
the fashion blogging works as a new genre of fashion communication. By understanding the fashion readers’
preference, strategic planners could develop appropriate marketing communication strategy in response to the
new trend of readers engaging in visual creative production for fashion.
Originality/value – This study reveals a new perspective in interpreting social comparison behavior for the
fashion readers in the digital culture, whereas the targeted comparison attribute changed from ideal beauty to
the creative self. This finding contributes to the discourse of academic theories in social media, social
comparison and fashion communication.
Keywords Fashion blogging, Social comparison, Creative self, Digital culture, Fashion communication
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
This study aims to explore the phenomenon of social comparison on digital audience toward
fashion bloggers. During the past several years, the widespread of social media has induced
drastic change on social interaction and communication mode. Among the various images
sharing practice on social media, fashion blogging creates a unique new genre that stands on
its own as a new stream of fashion communication. Unlike the conventional fashion
communication practice of displaying fashion items dressed up by professional fashion
models, social media opens up a free-entry platform for young fashion lovers to turn to
content producers and display their own self-modeling images. This notion of the “self”
becomes a widely discussed topic on social media research. Numerous social media studies
have stemmed around the notion of the “self” by interpreting the identity expression of
self-expressive user-turned-producers. Scholars coined different terms to interpret the Journal of Fashion Marketing and
different natures of the “self”, such as the digital self (Miller, 2011), the narrative self (Tierney, Management: An International
Journal
2013), the celebrity self (Marwick, 2013) and the creative self (Choi, 2016). Choi (2016) proposed © Emerald Publishing Limited
1361-2026
the notion of “creative self” on fashion blogger’s self-modeling practice (2016), and illustrated DOI 10.1108/JFMM-07-2019-0140
JFMM that fashion blogosphere enables individual to express one self’s creative identity by the
creation of a fashionable representation of the self. This notion of creative self represents the
collective attributes of achieving ideal beauty, having desirable lifestyles and being popular
in blogosphere; hence provides the ground for the discussion of the social comparison
influence on the digital generation in this study.
The theory of social comparison (Festinger, 1954) has long been a popular research topic in
investigating the impact of ideal beauty in fashion photography on fashion readers
(Smeesters et al., 2010; Martin and Kennedy, 1993; Richins, 1991; Milkie, 1999). With the rise of
social media, readership moves from printed magazines to the digital networked space. While
recent social media studies on social comparison theory were mainly focused on the
relationship between the frequency of usage and the self-esteem (Vogel et al., 2015; de Vries
and K€ uhne, 2015; Lim and Yang, 2015; Lee, 2014), a research gap exists for interpretative
study on fashion readership and the impact of social comparison on young adults in the
digital culture. The impact of the new genre of self-modeling fashion images on fashion
readers still remains unknown. The behavior of social comparison is generally considered to
be related to self-esteem, this study revisits relevant theories in the digital age, where fashion
blogosphere provides a convenient medium for comparison with others, toward the focus
on both physical appearance and the well-being of fashion bloggers. The research will draw
on social comparison and social media theories to interpret the new phenomenon of the
“creative self” from fashion reader’s perspective, and how the notion of social comparison
become a hidden drive for readers as an incentive in engaging visual creative production on
the fashion communication system.
The objectives are to explore: (1) the influence of social media on fashion readers’ self-
concept and (2) how fashion readers respond to the new trends of “creative self” of fashion
blogging. Focus group was conducted for Hong Kong post-90s young fashion readers.
Purposeful sampling was adopted to recruit first-year college students who study
fashion-related disciplines. The participants were active readers of fashion images on
social media, with a majority of them engage in running their own social media platforms.
Eventually eight focus groups of eight participants in each group (n 5 64 fashion readers)
were recruited and participated, duration of each discussion lasted around one hour. Drawing
on the data, an interesting finding was the incentives of comparing one self’s well-being of a
blogger for young fashion readers, these well-established fashion bloggers indicate an
influence of “aspiration” of the creative self-achievement on readers.
It is worth to note that due to the rapid changing nature of the social media platforms, a
fashion blogger is commonly understood as a person who establishes his/her fashion-
oriented pages by all social media means. This study adopted these most popular terms,
fashion bloggers, blogs, blogging as the generic terms to refer to all social media platforms
including Instagram (IG), Pinterest, Facebook, Twitters or others.

Literature review
Social comparison and the influence of ideal beauty in fashion images
A vast majority of prior research has stemmed from Festinger (1954), whose theory of social
comparison investigated the human tendency to compare oneself to others. It is the human
nature to compare one another on various aspects of life and learn about their own perception
and evaluation. Upward social comparison refers to the comparison of oneself to another
superior individual. This would often lead to a negative feeling for the person who feels
inadequate in comparing to the superior targets; and would often generate motivation for self-
improvement. On the other side, downward social comparison behavior compares oneself
with someone who is inferior or with negative characteristics, which would often result in
improvement on self-evaluation (Vogel et al., 2014).
 This theory originally focused on comparing one’s well-being, individual opinions or Social
abilities. Later on, the theory was applied to the comparison of physical appearance, and in comparison in
fashion communication, the way that models in advertising create a standard of ideal beauty.
In this particular application, the theory focuses on an individual’s tendency to compare one’s
fashion
own attributes and abilities with others, and thus evaluate themselves against others. The blogging
theory was also been frequently applied to research studies on body image with respect to
people evaluating themselves in relationship to the exposure to images in mass media, such
as magazine and TV commercials (Grabe et al., 2008; Martin and Kennedy, 1993; Morrison
et al., 2004; Ogden et al., 2011). In fact, the idea of social comparison could be further extended
to the study of behavior of teens toward social media. For example, Chittenden (2010)
conducted a study to investigate teen’s online visual representation through fashion blog and
their offline identity.
According to Rudd and Lennon (1994), individuals compare themselves with the social
ideal portrayed in fashion advertising and thus generate different level of self-esteem. This
study demonstrated that young adults not only compare themselves to the ideal images of
fashion models but also generate a sense of inadequacy when comparing themselves with
those ideal images. Such results align with other studies about young women’s
dissatisfaction with their own body, which is influenced by the ideals of thinness depicted
in media (Grabe et al., 2008; Gulas and McKeage, 2000; Ogden et al., 2011).
Fashion images that portray models with more average looks have been criticized for not
meeting the ideal standards of beauty. Results from these studies further validated the
findings of previous research by Crane (1999), Martin and Kennedy (1993) and Richins (1991),
which indicated a long-term phenomenon that has consistently appeared in the fashion
industry over the past decades. Yet, the research raises a significant implication that even
though viewers may find the ideal standards of fashion images unrealistic and unachievable,
such unrealistic ideal standards actually generate positive buying intention. Thus, these
results imply two very different views in supporting the ideologies on the influence of ideal
models in fashion advertising: one is that, these ideals are considered to be positive for
branding, and the other, that they also have a negative impact on young adults’ self-esteem
from a sociological or psychological perspective (Grabe et al., 2008; Morrison et al., 2004;
Richins, 1991).

Social comparison in the realm of social media

As discussed in the previous section, social comparison is a popular topic when investigating
consumer behavior and readers’ identity shaped by fashion photography. More recent
studies have applied this theory to the context of social media. The findings of these research
studies have confirmed that social media provides numerous opportunities for social
comparison (de Vries and K€ uhne, 2015; Lee, 2014; Lim and Yang, 2015; Vogel et al., 2014;
Vogel et al., 2015). The focus of these studies was on the comparison of oneself with respect to
status, which induces further psychological impacts on readers’ self-esteem. These studies
also revealed that the frequency of use of social media has direct impact on the social
comparison behavior. There is no research that has addressed the perception of social
comparison on fashion bloggers’ readers.
The emergence of fashion bloggers and their growing status in the fashion industry turns
these fashion lovers who are ordinary people into fashion icons, and the major difference
between these bloggers and fashion editors are their highly publicized own images in which
they model their own styles. Unfortunately, there is no previous research support that helps
to make sense of the phenomenon of bloggers-turned-fashion models or how their audiences
view it. From a cultural perspective, the fashion modeling industry creates its own aesthetics
economy in cultural capital (Entwistle, 2002). Numerous studies have focused on the body
JFMM representation in media and the perception of consumers on self-identity using Festinger’s
social comparison theory (Martin and Kennedy, 1993; Richins, 1991). Fashion photography
has often been criticized as being sinful in displaying models who are extremely thin and
underweight, and this has distorted the self-perception and self-esteem, especially among
teenage females. The phenomenon of fashion bloggers acting as their own models in their
daily display of fashion looks challenges the perception of the ideal body shape
(Rocamora, 2011).
Studies have suggested that those fashion bloggers who tend to display themselves as the
models have a higher chance to be successful and being accepted by their audience
(McQuarrie et al., 2012). Bloggers benefited by the identity construction of the creative self. On
the other side, to a certain extreme, such frequently exposed calculated self-expressive
images result in negative impression of being narcissistic. Research gap existed in the
discourse of social comparison theories on this digital generation how they evaluate this
phenomenon. The following sections review the previous literature on social media in identity
construction, the notion of creative self and online narcissism.

From identity construction to the creative self in the digital culture

Fashion bloggers construct their identity through the online community; without knowing
who their audience is. Research suggests that the identity constructed through social media
does not necessarily reveal true identity, but that fashion bloggers may create a desirable
identity, which is a yearned identity. This idea introduces another issue, in that the teen
fashion bloggers manage their identity through an impression-management process
(Chittenden, 2010; Goffman, 1959). Even in daily life situations, fashion bloggers in some
ways are all actors creating desirable images of themselves and attempting to control how
they are perceived by others. This notion of impression management echoes a similar notion:
that of the celebrity self, which was proposed by Marwick (2013). Displaying fashion tastes
functions as a form of self-presentation to achieve a status of micro celebrity. Marwick coined
the celebrity self to connote this phenomenon and described the process of how bloggers
develop themselves as a branding process to achieve online status (Marwick, 2013).
Discourse on the notion of the self in digital culture was further expanded to the
interpretation of creative production by users-turned-image producers in the networked
space. Duffy and Hund (2015) suggested “creative self-enterprise” as a mode of creative work
in the new mode of self-branding among fashion bloggers. Similarly, Choi (2016) interpreted
the identity construction that emphasizes on creative visual production as the “creative self”;
and argued that this creative self maneuvers particular well in the context of fashion
communication in social media. The blogger carefully calculates the tactics when
constructing the fashion blogging. This calculated creative self is similar to the celebrity
self coined by Marwick (2013) in the way of presenting to interactive fans and celebrity
relationship. Alternatively, the creative self differs from the celebrity self in terms of a holistic
branding strategic that the bloggers input. To create the creative self, bloggers work in
collaboration to achieve professionalism in photo shooting, image styling, hair and makeup,
lighting and set up. This is often reflected as a self-branding process. This notion of “self”
portrays a form of artistic expression in particular focuses on the fashionable representation
of the bloggers, in order to achieve an ideal beauty to gain acceptance and recognition from
the fashion circle (Choi, 2016). While ideal beauty portrayed by professional fashion models
has often been criticized as a source of distortion on the self-esteem of readers, especially
female teenagers, bloggers acting as their own models in their daily display of fashion looks
challenges the perception of the ideal body shape (Rocamora, 2011); thus creating the notion
of alternative ideal self by bloggers’ expression on aesthetic values (Choi, 2016; Swale, 2017).
However, in some cases, the extreme effort of self-promoting creative self becomes an
obsession that may draw negative response, and often leads to another extreme, online Social
narcissism. comparison in
fashion
From creative self to narcissism blogging
The expressive self-promotion of creative self has also provoked much scholarly attention
toward the trends of online narcissism and social comparison. The trend of narcissistic
self-promoting obsession is unique in fashion blogging. These theoretic notions have added
to the complexity in evaluating the impact of online social comparison. The notion of
self-presentation resembles the new emerged phenomenon of narcissism on social media
(Davenport et al., 2014; Moon et al., 2016; Leung, 2013; Sheldon and Bryant, 2016). The theory
of narcissism stems from psychology. Narcissism is a personality trait in which an individual
has an inflated self-concept and a tendency toward grandiosity (Moon et al., 2016). Research
suggests that social media is an ideal platform for narcissistic self-presentation due to the
nature of the environment, which is highly controlled by the users and allows generally
suitable context for shallow social relationships (Buffardi and Campell, 2008).
There is direct link between the level of narcissism and the frequency of use of social
media. In the relationship between narcissism and the engagement of IG, the level of
narcissism is especially high in the millennium generation (Moon et al., 2016). Studies also
show that IG is more suitable for showing personal identity than relational identity, in
comparison to Facebook, where more interactive communication is encouraged. The nature
of IG focuses less on social relationships and works well for self-promotional acts, such as
selfies (Sheldon and Bryant, 2016). In general, studies on narcissism and social media mainly
focus on interpreting the motivation of use and the behavioral pattern (Moon et al., 2016;
Sheldon and Bryant, 2016); these studies in general use narcissism as an identification for
users as a measure of their behavioral patterns. Although the psychological underpinning of
narcissistic acts on social media is not the focus of the study, some descriptions of narcissism
traits fit in the characteristics of fashion bloggers. For example, narcissists are more likely to
have high frequent use of photo editing functions, they rate themselves with higher physical
attractiveness (Moon et al., 2016), and the content is often highly self-centered, built around
bloggers’ own personal life (Engholm and Hansen-Hansen, 2014). Hence, it is worthwhile to
understand whether the representation of the selfies and self-promotional images create
meaning or are merely being perceived as narcissistic.

Research methodology
Focus group was conducted to explore the in-depth understanding on the young fashion
readers’ preference and comments toward social media. A targeted group of active social
media readers with knowledge and interest in becoming fashion bloggers provided a direct
source from which to understand how the audience interprets fashion images in the context of
digital media.

Recruitment of participants
The principle of purposeful sampling was adopted to recruit focus group members. Young
adults are the prominent group for fashion consumption, focus group provided an adequate
platform in examining their motivation for looking at fashion images on social media, and
their behavioral response in terms of fashion consumption influenced by the fashion images.
Since most of them were teenagers or young adults, the method of focus group was effective
in allowing these young adults to take part in the discussion in an interactive way. This is
based on the rationale that focus group differs from group interview on its reliance on
JFMM interaction, where group interaction could produce data which is less likely to be accessible
by other means of research methods (Morgan, 1997); and the dynamic created between group
members allow researchers to observe individual responses (Stewart et al., 2007). Researchers
could also play a less directive role in facilitating the discussion and allowing subjects ample
opportunity to express their own ideas (Krueger, 1994).
Targeted participants were selected in consideration of the characteristic of the group
members who would be able to provide critical insight into the topic (Morgan, 1997; Stewart
et al., 2007). The target subjects were recruited from one of the design institutions in Hong
Kong. The students who study fashion-related disciplines at the higher diploma level or
degree level, such as fashion design, fashion image styling or fashion business, were invited
to participate in the focus group on voluntary basis. Originally 81 students replied to
participate, 64 students had shown up at the focus group. Eventually eight focus groups of
students participated in the research. Each group had eight participants (n 5 64 fashion
readers), among these participants, there were 56 (87.5%) female students and only eight
(12.5%) male students. The duration of the discussion lasted approximately one hour. The
participants were active users of social media and constituted an audience for fashion images
on various mediums, including printed material and social media. Except one respondent, the
rest of them engage in running their own social media platform, mainly on IG, among these
respondents, one-half of them consider their own IG pages are more focus on personal life,
while the other half of respondents indicated that they are interested in running their own IG
pages like fashion blogging.

Data collection
Focus group procedures. The researcher began the conversation by introducing herself.
Then the researcher explained the background of the research, the purpose of the focus
group and the expectation for respondents: to answer the questions authentically and that
there was no need to provide responses for questions that they did not have knowledge on.
All respondents were informed clearly that they had the right to express themselves freely
or to stop the conversation whenever they felt uncomfortable or for whatever reason did not
want to respond to a question. Respondents were also told that nothing would be reported
that revealed their actual identity as individual respondents and that all the answers
would be reported in aggregate from each focus group. Each group would be identified
using a letter of the alphabet in the final report. Since the questions did not involve any
sensitive issues, such as respondent’s own privacy, and focused only on fashion-related
discussion, respondents appeared to be very open with their comments and were willing to
express themselves and engage in the topic. The responses formed an important basis from
which to analyze and understand how fashion readers related themselves to the fashion
images.
The mobile phone was also used as a research tool to show the fashion images to the
focus group. Respondents frequently used mobile apps to identify the fashion IG pages
that they referred to and to explain their preference for the various fashion images.
Both the researcher and respondents used the mobile phone to explain the images
instantly when the discussion referred to specific social media device, fashion images or
bloggers.
The discussions followed a list of guided questions present by the researcher, as listed in
Table 1. Questions were asked directly and indirectly how the fashion images on IG influence
their self-concept, how they relate themselves with the fashion images. Discussions of the
focus group were semi-structured to allow probing for further clarification and elaboration,
the whole process was recorded and transcribed; data were tabulated, analyzed and coded
into themes.
1. Demographic information and interests in fashion images
Social
Q1. What are you currently studying at? comparison in
Q2. How old are you? fashion
Q3. Where do you get your fashion information, such as fashion news, brands, trends and styles?
Q4. Do you like to look at fashion images?
blogging
2. User habits and readership on social media
Q1. Do you browse fashion news, fashion images or related information on social media?
Q2. How long have you been browsing social media?
Q3. Which social media platform do you like most, such as: fashion Blogs/Instagram/Tumblr/Pinterest/
Facebook. . .? Why?
Q4. (follow up question on Q3) How do you know get to know these bloggers?
Q5. (follow up question on Q4) What are the criteria that you “like” or “follow” a social media account?
3. Main body of the research questions-related discussion
Q1. Describe what do you think about their image photos from Hong Kong (HK) fashion blogs
Q2. If you do not have any particular HK blogs you like, please discuss what is important for you to look at
these images on social media?
Fashion news and products
Fashion styling
Lifestyle images
Q3. What attracts you most in the photos of these fashion bloggers? (Physical appearance, fashion styling,
lifestyle, overall aesthetic of the photographic image. . .)
Q4. Does the fashion blogger’s physical appearance affect how you view the fashion images?
Q5. Does the fashion blogger’s physical appearance affect how you view yourself?
Q6. What do you think about the lifestyle images presented by the blogger? Table 1.
Q7. Overall, how do you feel when you view this fashion lifestyle images from these fashion bloggers? Focus group guided
Q8. What do you think about the impact of these images of social media on traditional fashion photography? questions

Data coding and analysis

The data of the interviews were analyzed by inductive approach. Coding strategy was a two-
level coding according to the principle by Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 69). The first level of
coding is used to summarize segments of primary data according to the research objectives.
The second level of coding refers to pattern coding, which aims to categorize the first level
codes into several themes or concepts. As the study progressed along in inductive approach,
the empirical data emerged new insights, and the list of codes was then reviewed and
revisited again during the data analysis process, and finally a structure of second-level
pattern codes was redefined. This followed the research process suggested by Lincoln and
Guba (1985), the list of the codes has been reconstructed according to the four steps “filing in”,
“extension”, “bridging” and “surfacing”. The codes were reconfigurated into the level 2 of
emerging concepts (pattern codes) for further integration of conceptual themes. The findings
are discussed in detail in next section.

Finding and discussion

The analysis of focus group data provided the background information of the changing
reading habits of visual images on social media. This section begins with descriptions of this
new culture of reading habits, and follows with the detailed discussion of conceptual themes
identified by the data coding.
It is no surprise that IG was identified as the main source for fashion images due to its
original design as a mobile phone app, and its visually oriented nature. The IG app serves as a
personal archive of a users’ photo album; respondents commented that they can consolidate
their preferred fashion sites, bloggers and any other accounts for random browsing, instead
JFMM of searching through various websites or blogs; IG images pop up and appear to them
frequently.
Today, the images come to the readers. These ubiquitous images on digital networked
space resembles the similar environment for teenagers under the great influence of traditional
fashion media, where it was difficult for teenagers to opt out from social comparison as the
traditional mass media has a dominant power in the society (Milkie, 1999). However, while it is
difficult for the new generation to opt out from the use of social media, now the digital readers
have the autonomy in creating their own reading archive.

Social comparison to the “creative self”

In terms of the comments on the fashion images and respondent’s self-concept, the data
coding resembles the attributes that contribute a creation of the creative self for fashion
bloggers. Three themes emerged with interrelated factors concerning audience reception of
the fashion images. The themes emerged included: blogger’s self-modeling, self-aspiration of
lifestyle and narcissistic expression. Together these three themes construct the essential
components of a creative self that fashion respondents evaluate and comment. Hence, readers
are comparing themselves with the creative self, the first-level coding and the second-level
themes are listed in Table 2.

Creative self as blogger’s self-modeling

Traditional fashion models who have perfect figures are considered the standard of beauty
(de Perthuis, 2005); the body appearance is generally considered a crucial factor in fashion
image aesthetics (Venkatesh et al., 2010). As the study by Venkatesh et al. (2010) noted, “As a
measure of the deep impact of the fashion world, our informants look to fashion models as
incorporating aesthetic values while at the same time they are troubled by the unattainable
goals projected by the models (p. 467).” Surprisingly, the physical appearance of the fashion
bloggers was not the top priority in terms of how respondents evaluated the aesthetics value
of a fashion photo, and thus impose no negative response on respondent’s own self-concept.
Given the fact that bloggers are mostly nonprofessional fashion models, respondents
commented that they are more interested in observing how ordinary people, the bloggers,
could produce beautiful fashion images by acting as the fashion model and the producer. In
this respect, respondents were evaluating how this ordinary people achieve the “creative self”
(Choi, 2016). This idea does not suggest the fact that traditional fashion models are of no value
on social media; respondents commented that if readers prefer to look at the professional

1st level coding Categorizations Second level: themes

SM-BODY Body shape 1. Creative self as blogger’s self-modeling (SM)

SM-PERS Personal style
SM-BRAN Self-branding
SM-IMAG Creative/nice image
SL-GLAM Glamorous lifestyle 2. Creative self as self-aspiration of lifestyle (SL)
SL-FASH Attend fashion events
SL-GIFT Free gifts
SL-TRAV Traveling
Table 2. SL-FOOD Good food
Coding and Themes NE-ATTD Attention drawing 3. Creative self as narcissistic expression (NE)
emerged as the NE-PROM Promote themselves
component of the NE-SOFF Showing-off
creative self NE-FAKE Pretending/Fake
fashion models, they are able to just search and follow the IG account of professional fashion Social
models. Therefore, the numerous choices on IG provide readers with a variety of key fashion comparison in
photography components for appreciation:
fashion
I used to just look at the professional fashion model, whether she was pretty or not, her body. . . but blogging
now I find that even for fat people, the fashion is also worthwhile to look at. (Group D, Line 34)
Yes, I follow her because I realize that oh. . .she is just a similar height as [myself], if she could wear
this, I could wear this as well . . . . Agree, I feel I have the chance to look that good as well. (Group C,
Line 80)
No, fashion blogger does not necessary be a professional model. On the contrary; I like to look at
those nonprofessional bloggers, who got the “feel.” (Group E, Line 83)
The bloggers whom respondents were interested in following were those acting as the models
in their own fashion images. Respondents observed that in order to stand out from the huge
numbers of fashion IGs, bloggers need to be unique in a certain way, either in their own
images or their photographic styles. The sharing culture enables these fashion lovers to
express themselves in individual styles, and they generally keep posting similar styles
to establish a consistent image. Respondents observed that this act was to draw attention, to
create an identity of having a specific lifestyle or fashion style. In other words, these bloggers
apply the tactics of calculated visual creation in presenting an image of the “creative self”.
You need to have some very unique character, otherwise, others will see you as a very ordinary
person. (Group F, Line 147)
I think that in social media, this is the way you have to do [it], because you need to stand out yourself,
because there are too many, too many, you need to stand out from millions . . . .you are either very
beautiful, or you are really rich. All the stuffs are luxury to create the atmosphere, or else you need to
be really alternative; otherwise, people cannot spot you out, could not spot your existence. (Group C,
Line 141)
Gradually, these bloggers start to accumulate a substantial number of followers, either
through their friend’s network and followers’ network, and then they begin to be noticed by
fashion media or fashion brands, and gain their “fame” in fashion circles. Therefore,
respondents observed that there is a trend in how ordinary fashion lovers become fashion
bloggers. This could be both unintentional and intentional. Once fashion bloggers get the
attention of fashion brands, they start to receive invitations or sponsors from the brands to
attend various fashion shows, events or promotional activities. With frequent updates of the
fashion photos showing the bloggers attending these events, they establish their identity in
association with the fashion world and indicate that they are “part of it;” in this way they gain
an identity of a fashion insider, or namely that they are among the “fashion people” in
Hong Kong.
Yes, and then the brands will spot you, and realize the blogger got lots of followers, and then they will
align the blogger to produce a post. (Group C, Line 117)
There are lots of people– they do not originally intend to become a blogger, but eventually because
their popularity is great, and lots of brands appoint them to become bloggers. (Group C, Line 134)
Most respondents commented that whether these projected lifestyles were a true reflection of
the reality had nothing to do with the viewers. Respondents were not concerned about the
authenticity of the lifestyle projected from the bloggers’ images. They were concerned more
about the truthfulness of the comments bloggers made on the fashion products. The
self-modeling images create a vivid visual diary of not only how the blogger looks but also
how well the blogger lives and enjoys life. This leads to unique social comparison of fashion
JFMM blog readers. In addition to the comparison of outlook, these young teenagers compare the
blogger’s life with their own. Respondents did not explicitly explain how they compare
themselves with the fashion bloggers, but their preference of looking at how ordinary person
could turn to be fashionable “celebrity” provide strong evidence of their social comparison
tendency. From this observation, two further themes emerged about how viewers look at
fashion IGs: social comparison as self-aspiration and social comparison as narcissism, which
are discussed next.

Creative self as self-aspiration of lifestyle

One of the key themes that emerged from the responses was the “self-aspiration” in reading
fashion photography on IG. Respondents enjoyed browsing through fashion IGs because
they would be able to refer back to themselves when viewing the visual content; this is one of
the elements that determined whether viewers liked a particular IG page or not.
Perhaps it is the lifestyle I want to have, what I expect, because I cannot achieve [it], then I will look at
others. . . .Yes, [agreed another respondent], to be our target, maybe you aim to have their lifestyle.
(Group B, Line 170)
These IGers, [most] because it is more relevant to us, and I feel like I can do something like this as
well. For traditional model, they are super tall . . . I feel like it does not fit me (Group F, Line 322)
Some, depends, maybe for travelling, and they see something interesting and post it, which I have
never experienced; then I will be interested to look at. But for those just posting what they eat daily, I
am not interested. (Group D, Line 349)
These comments suggest that whether or not they are a true reflection of bloggers’ lifestyle,
the photos of fashion bloggers created an aspiration for the viewers. Most respondents,
except for one group, agreed that they do not resist fashion IGs that include lifestyle photos,
such as travel, food and architectures. These images could serve as a space in the overall
visual layout, similar to the function of a page break in printed magazine. Most essentially,
these lifestyle photos provide some lifestyle ideas for viewers, just like the lifestyle features in
magazines. The main reason they enjoyed looking at the lifestyle images in Hong Kong IGs
was that they could relate these lifestyles back to themselves; sometimes they searched for
the places or restaurants in the IG posts. Respondents saw these lifestyle images on fashion
IGs providing them with an “imaginative space” that represented what the audience would
like to achieve in real life, or even if they could not achieve it, those photos represented an ideal
lifestyle that they looked up to, and that was one reason they preferred to look at Hong Kong
IGs. In this regards, upward social comparison acts as a hidden driving force to readers for
self-aspiration. The major deviance from previous studies was that respondents did not feel
inferior or inadequate.
There was one group that held the opposite opinion on the sharing of lifestyle images. This
group of respondents demonstrated a strong resistance toward the overwhelming habit of
displaying fashion and lifestyle as a status symbol. They placed more emphasis on the
authenticity of the identity displayed by these images and questioned whether the blogger
was faking an ideal lifestyle of being wealthy and trendy.
Yes, like why you have spent so much time to pretend a lifestyle that you do not have, than why do
we just go follow those [with] real lifestyles like that? (Group G, Line 177)
They are just packaging themselves as fashion, but actually they do not have the knowledge of
product, history, or culture, or just put beautiful fashion on themselves, and then become fashion
[able], but this is actually very basic. (Group G, Line 75)
Creative self as narcissistic expression Social
Respondents noted that this generation tends to be more narcissistic and individual. The comparison in
social media platforms provide an optimum channel for the millennial generation to express
themselves (Bergman et al., 2011). Respondents often link the narcissistic selfies with the idea
fashion
of authenticity. These bloggers may only be representing an ideal identity of a fashion icon. blogging
Yes, they [fashion bloggers] create [image appears to be very rich] purposely. It is an identity symbol;
it may not mean that it is real for that person in real life . . . They want to promote themselves and
make others envy [them], or maybe they are just having the same living standard as we are in real
life. (Group B, Line 65)
For their personal stuff, I am not interested, but there are beautiful photos and they put [these]
together with their personal stuff, then I browse [them] together, and sometimes I think that it is
interesting; but personally I did not add those because of their personal stuff, [it] is because I notice
their work, and then notice their personal stuff (Group D, Line 48)
Respondents commented quite frequently that the constant upload of selfies resembles the
act of narcissism, and they will compare the images of bloggers with their own appearance.
Narcissism emerged as the perceived impression of fashion bloggers from respondents’ point
of view. The findings aligned with previous studies in suggesting social media, IG in
particular, provides an ideal platform for displaying narcissism (Barry et al., 2017; Leung,
2013; Moon et al., 2016). Narcissistic is one of the most popular forms of fashion blogs, which
refers to the blogger’s visual diary of self-promotional content, such as modeling themselves,
showing their dairy life and their traveling experience (Engholm and Hansen-Hansen, 2014;
Murray, 2015).
As respondents noted, what makes fashion blogs interesting is the blogger performing as
the model themselves; the readers are then able to use this as a self-reference, or appreciate
how successful the bloggers have become, while at the same time being skeptical and
criticizing them for how narcissistic they are or how badly the bloggers present themselves.
Image audience seemed to agree that the narcissism of self-promotion the images conveyed
had a negative impact. It should not be surprising that the high frequency of narcissistic self-
promoting images displayed on the blogs would produce a negative response, as some
respondents remarked that such actions are merely a form of bolstering bloggers’ ego
(Bergman et al., 2011). However, it was an interesting finding that even though respondents of
the image audience claimed that they had a negative view toward the narcissistic bloggers,
they would still keep browsing their pages out of curiosity.

Conclusion and implications

Social comparison versus the notion of “ideal” creative self in the digital culture
This study aims at exploring the impact of social media on fashion reader’s self-concept and
how they response to the new trends of “creative self” of fashion blogging, the results unveil a
new genre of fashion readership in the fashion communication system. Unlike the traditional
fashion photography, where fashion models perform as the medium in presenting the fashion
items, the social media platform turns the interests of users from the public to individuals,
from the elite to the ordinary, from the scope of society to the scope of a personal public space.
This finding aligns with the notion of “networked individualism” advocated by Castells (as
cited in Bell, 2007, p. 67). The “me-centered networks” create an ironic situation, where the
Web 2.0 links the world together, but at the same time, results in the creation of personal
space within a global network. In this interconnected world, net citizens occupy a small space
around their individual interests, and this also reflects a sense of narcissism of where they can
present and display themselves. From a positive perspective, this study attests that the
young generation of fashion readers demonstrates assertiveness in self-concept on online
JFMM fashion readership, and possesses autonomy in their own creative self production in the
digital networked space.
The digital environment could easily display images that give an impression of one’s ideal
self-presentation, and thus they inevitably invite the behavior of social comparison (de Vries
and K€ uhne, 2015; Vogel et al., 2014; Vogel et al., 2015). The finding supports the argument of
previous studies by demonstrating a strong tendency of comparing oneself to others. This
study contributes to the new insights on what the fashion readers are actually comparing. By
the in-depth analysis on reader’s response, the results portray a comprehensive
understanding on the reading habit of Hong Kong young adults: what interested fashion
readers most in the digital culture were the fashion bloggers performing as a creative
producer in achieving the creative self, on top of the performance of self-modeling, the scope
extends to how the whole image and the lifestyle are presented. The open access platform
provides an ideal platform for individual to express their talent for creative production,
taking the body as part of the essential instrument for creative image presentation, thus
readers compare to fashion bloggers in terms of holistic creative achievement.
The finding indicates that young fashion readers in Hong Kong generally prefer to look at
fashion bloggers who perform as the fashion models. Respondents expressed appreciation
toward the fashion styling and lifestyles images established by fashion bloggers. There was
no negative influence on respondent’s own self-concept when comparing the self-modeling
bloggers with themselves. On the contrary, respondents considered that these self-modeling
images induce a positive motivation and aspiration for respondents to create their own
fashion styling images. This result indicates a new perspective of online social comparison
that particularly unique for fashion communication system. The new digital media
democratize fashion authorship traditionally led by the printed fashion magazines, whereas
the voices of individual fashion bloggers translate into creative self-modeling images that
“contextualize fashion in the lives of those who wear it” (Swale, 2017).

Research implication and limitation

Implications of this study would be beneficial to fashion brand strategic planners in
understanding the current digital culture of visual communication on fashion. Social media
has disrupted the authority in the fashion communication system where traditionally fashion
brands rely on printed media to deliver one directional fashion news and advice on product
news, trends and styling. With the hegemony disrupted, fashion brands strategic planners
need to develop new strategic to communicate to fashion readers in the digital culture, and to
understand what fashion readers prefer. This study contributes to explain the theory on how
the fashion communication system works in the digital age, as social comparison is part of the
readers and image producers’ incentives in continuously engaging the activity. In other
words, the desire of achieving the “creative self” becomes a driving force for self-improvement
for these young fashion lovers. From a positive perspective, social comparison would induce
self-aspiration for respondents to continuously seek for further inspiration from social media.
For respondents who also wish to become image producers, social comparison occurred when
respondents compared their achievement status with the well-established bloggers. For
image readers, respondents compared themselves with the bloggers on both lifestyle
wellbeing and physical appearance. In terms of physical appearance, instead of generating a
sense of inadequacy while looking at the professional fashion models with ideal body sizes,
audiences looked for ordinary people acting and running the fashion blogs. This was
precisely such personal fashion identity that aroused the audience’s interest to follow. Again,
self-modeling is an essential element founded in the fashion IG post, and this validated the
findings regarding how they chose to gain popularity. This finding offers practical insights
for brand marketers to revisit the publicity strategy, since images presented by original
fashion bloggers would be more authentic to readers; the implication is beneficial to brands in Social
identifying and hiring relevant fashion bloggers as their brand representatives. comparison in
This research also has its own limitations. The scope of this study focused only on the
respondents from Hong Kong, where IG was identified as the most popular social media
fashion
device. There are limitations to this study in generalizing the results to other geographic blogging
locations where the users’ cultural background and behavior are very different due to
potential preferences for different social media devices. The scope of the results would also be
limited to the gender distribution of respondents where female being the majority, which may
impose a relatively dominant influence on the response from female perspective.
Furthermore, due to the resource constraint, textual comments toward the fashion images
were not included in this study. Recommendations for future research direction would include
a comparison study adopting the same research design to several regions. Secondly, this
study could be replicated on male dominant participant group in order to examine the gender
difference in viewing fashion blogs. Further, it is also recommended to include textual
analysis on the comments on fashion blogs toward the images. Finally, it would be
worthwhile to expand the study to other countries, so that results could serve as the guideline
for the young generation of fashion readers from different cultural backgrounds and
ethnicities.

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Further Reading
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adults”, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 182-192.
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Corresponding author
Athena Choi can be contacted at: athenachoi@vtc.edu.hk

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