Amazon Is Killing Luxury Fashion
Image Courtesy: Strike Magazine Tallahassee
The instant gratification of shopping has captivated our generation. Every app and website is designed to target our consumer addictions specifically. One scroll through Instagram or TikTok, and we are engaging with users who are selling us something. Everything is made to be an advertisement, and Amazon is at the forefront of it all. Whether it be the newest clothing trend or even the most impressive Halloween costume, we can buy anything with the touch of a button.
The Amazon brand originally started by selling books. It was created by Jeff Bezos to commercialize all items on a singular platform in which you can find anything you need. Food, toiletries, a new pair of pants, you name it. Now, there is an identifiable shift in Amazon’s online identity. As consumers, we are enticed by the Amazon brand to not only buy essential items but to create a full wardrobe through the online market. Amazon has astutely partnered with social media influencers in an attempt to conquer the newest generation of shoppers, and they have succeeded. Many influencers have recently collaborated with third-party vendors to push these Amazon sellers and trends. The introduction of the Amazon storefront has made it easier than ever for social media collaborations to bring users from apps to the Amazon “pay” page. Have you ever scrolled through TikTok and pressed a video where a girl displays her new favorite top? You are transported straight to her Amazon storefront. It’s as though these features are begging you to purchase an item.
Image Courtesy: Grazia
Along with the cheap price tags that are attached to Amazon apparel, it simply appeals to our consumer character in the form of an “Amazon Prime” shipping option that will arrive at your doorstep in 1-3 days. As Amazon perpetuates fast overturn rates and customer satisfaction, there is an overall increase in shopping, but not in a sustainable way.
Amazon Fashion is infamous for its dupes of designer brands. Influencers and other social media users often popularize these off-brand garments through their viral advertisements with millions of views. Although fake luxury items have existed for many years, Amazon's partnerships with TikTok and Instagram marketers have made accessing these commodities accessible. It has inadvertently allowed fashion to lose exclusivity and meaning. It has allowed clothing to lose its value over time as most of us no longer care about the product quality, rather, if we look like the celebrities that we see on our phones.
Image Courtesy: Harper’s Baazar
Amazon has made an already dying industry even more ordinary. The Amazon fashion label is not creating new clothing styles or even demonstrating any brand uniqueness. It is pushing our generation further away from establishing a fashion vision. Amazon sellers are not interested in designing and curating new fashion statements that will become emblems of advancement. The clothing we see plastered on our TikTok feeds that bring us straight to the Amazon app is meant to generate an increase in production and profit. Amazon is killing fashion because as consumers, we are absorbed in the immediate indulgence of the newest, shiniest thing. Amazon is rewiring the way our brains work. There is a neglect of idiosyncratic qualities within our fashion sense. Instead of allowing creativity to lead our fashion opinions, we choose to purchase the embedded TikTok advertisements that Amazon has pushed on us. It has made the essence of fashion a mere copy of itself.
Strike Out,
Writer: Sophia Yunaev
Editor: Jayna O
Graphic Designer: Alli Pryor
Tallahassee