Welcome to The Fashionscape

With clop of your hand clapping and popping champagne bottle caps, let me entertain you with headlines from my absolutely fabulous piece of science!

"Welcome to Fashionscape: Consumers' Interpretations and Use of Fashion, Clothes and Shopping"

About the author

The author of the article holds a Bachelor degree (BA) in Journalism and Public Relations from Tartu University, Estonia, and a Master diploma in Media and Communication from Stockholm University, Sweden. She is currently striving towards a degree (MA) in Communication Managent from Tartu University. The author of this article is interested in consumer society, material culture and visual communication, particularly in how fashion is used as a way of communication.

Abstract
This is an interdisciplinary study of fashion as a material culture and spatial practice. With this article I propose for the use of new interdisciplinary concept within fashion, media and consumer research – the "Fashionscape" that helps to explore fashion and clothing as an overwhelming social and spatial practice in relation to media and consumption. First part of the article underpins "Fashionscape" theoretically and opens up through individual logic in the second part with the empirical analysis of fashion landscape and fashion as a social practice. Eight in-depth interviews with eleven respondents from Sweden, Germany, France, Lithuania and Estonia were carried through to highlight consumer behavior within „Fashionscapes“ and answer the stated research questions. Consumer interpretations on the essence of clothing and fashion as a way of communication show how the practice of "Fashionscape" is unavoidable in the urban context. The nodes of clothing, fashion, media and consumption from the consumer point of view make this study a fresh approach to the ever-attracting world of fashion.

Keywords: Fashionscape, urban space, mediaspace, fashion, shopping

"Living in the city, going out and meeting many people makes you to think and care about your image - how you look like and what people think about you… you always think or are aware of how people see you. The way you want to appear to others via fashion is part of this social interaction and social game." (Mathias, 24)

Introduction

Historical, Consumer and Media Research On Fashion, Dress And Consumption

1. CONCEPTUALIZING "FASHIONSCAPE" IN THEORY: Space - Mediaspace - Scapes - Fashionscape
1.1. From Fashion to "Fashionscape"

Methodology and Sampling
Respondent Profiles

2. INDIVIDUAL LOGIC WITHIN "FASHIONSCAPE"
2.1. How Consumers Understand and See Fashion System?
2.2. What Language Does Fashion Speak? Individual, Social, Geographical, Media- and Consumer capitalist

3. SOCIAL PRACTICE OF FASHION & SHOPPING
3.1. Fashion as A Hobby: Desire For The New
3.2. Understandings of Fashion in Relation to Shopping Practices

Conclusion

Notes

References

I'm surprised that these three hours that were meant for me and my advisor to meet in person, have gone so quickly. Three hours divided into one hour sessions last three weeks. It wasn't supposed to be like that, but it happened that every week I spent an hour in her office. It's been great and useful to get some (rather positive) feedback. Though today was the first time she didn't say only great fabulous fantastic things, but also some constructive critisism, which is good because otherwise I would have felt like this guy, that a friend told me about, that his advisor never ever says anything negative about his still-on-process-work - but this within the process of writing a scientific paper is very unlikely. How should one improve when he or she never gets another points of view? In the scientific world it is very improbable that everyone who reads your work will agree, no, the opposite they will likely annihilate your theory. I'm saying all that because for the first time I didn't freak out for someone's critisism as I normally have used to - I actually gained ideas and great advise. Yet I'm totally freaked out because tomorrow I will start to write that very final thing and ten tremendously busy and difficult days are ahead. Ten days.

It's such a pity that I only have two research questions (lol). Sitting here with all my enormously interesting information, dozens of pages of analyzed material, conclusions, highlights and summaries and I wish I could put it all into my research. But I can't I have to reduce and sort out the most most important things because there is the limited number of pages I can use when later writing the article, but oh, I wish I could write a book about that, it is just so interesting and multi-sided.

Process

It is weird that people are so impatient. For example, I can't wait the end of analyzing the empirical material, it seems there is no progress when just reading, coding, categorizing, drawing the parallels and just making summaries and in-between conclusions. It takes time, but in the same time I also know that in the end, or couple of days before the end, I see the results - although I might have not seen them during all these weeks I have just worked with the material without any definite conclusion. That's how it is, though it is very interesting and maybe it will even be a bit harsh to say final words when it's time - then there is no space for philosophy or progress, then it is done. Said and done.

It seems like I have reached to the hardest part of my research - the analysis of collected emprical material, i.e. eight in-depth focused interviews. I have transcribed over 8 hours of audio recordings on approximately hundred and fifty pages and now forced to do something with all that very interesting but huge amount of text.

Of course I have read several methodology books that guide you quite well how to do qualitative research, that is in my case the focused interviews and how to analyze them further, but it still seems so hard to begin.

I wish I had all of the interviews in my head and the only thing I have to do is to grasp some elements and put them together for the discussion. But that's not how the world works.