Understanding Fashion : A Qualitative Content Analysis of the audience reactions to the covers of British Vogue April 2021

Abstract: This thesis aims to examine different independent fashion audience reactions to the covers of UK Vogue April 2021, which featured four upcoming models of color: Mona Tougaard, Janaye Furman, Achenrin Madit, and Precious Lee. The study focuses on responses gathered from two fashion sources: The Instagram account Diet Prada, and a fashion forum called The Fashion Spot. In addition, the design has been extended by The Fashion Spot fashion crowd’s reactions to the Vogue Italia July 2008 also known as “The Black Issue”.  The thesis intends to associate the main research problem with the magazine industry and digital world of fashion, media producers and advertisers, the issue of power, and female models diversity on the covers of Vogue. The study employs a method of qualitative content analysis. Additionally, Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding model has been implemented to define the message displayed on the fashion magazine covers and to examine the readers' reactions based on the collected data.  The findings show that even though the UK Vogue April 2021 covers met with positive reactions and approval from independent industry voices, some concerns have appeared. While British Vogue has been praised for its decision to feature four black models on the covers, it has been mentioned that other international editions of Vogue did not decide to follow this idea. Moreover, the lack of more diverse fashion producers, such as fashion photographers or stylists has been pointed out. A comparative analysis of the reaction data studied also showed that the audiences of the two independent fashion platforms tend to differ in terms of reactions to the covers. Furthermore, an additional comparison between the Vogue Italia July 2008 and UK Vogue April 2021 has highlighted the differences between the social and cultural changes as well as the perception of a fashion magazine as a media.