Short Form Media and Slow Fashion: the Plight of the Fibre Artist
- Zahrah Habib 26020505
- Jun 21, 2024
- 2 min read
With the advent of social media which saw an exponential boom during the 2020 pandemic, it is crucial to now realise the impact it has had on various human led industries, namely the one of fashion. As TikTok took over the world, only to be surpassed by Instagram Reels, short form content is all the rage these days with videos spanning no more than 2 minutes and the viral ones, just a few short seconds. The pandemic also saw a boom in crafting hobbies, namely the fibre arts like knitting and crochet. Within the post apocalyptic landscape that is the capitalist job market, people took to selling their handmade crafts on forums like Instagram or Etsy.
However, the catch 22 they now face is customers losing sight of the value of their products. In order to advertise their items, these fibre artists rely on social media and so make reels and TikToks to showcase their makes. However, the algorithm of such apps relies on consumer feedback statistics which shows that short form content does the best in terms of views and likes and therefore that content is the one that is automatically promoted to reach a larger audience.
This seems like a benefit on the surface level that small businesses can record short videos on a phone and upload them for free advertising. However, this contains a subtle but insidious drawback, due to the short length of the videos, fibre artists have to speed up videos of their process in order to produce them. This makes it seem like the work put into each piece is far lesser than the actual work put in behind the scenes. It does not account for the long hours of work it takes to hand knit or hand crochet each piece. The effect of this is potential customers becoming desensitised to the value of each piece and demanding lower prices from small businesses that match those of machine made, mass produced fast fashion brands like Shein.
Short form media is harming small businesses globally and demoting slow sustainable fashion in favour of mass produced fast fashion.