Fashion on Smartphones

This article investigates fashion mobile applications that are mapped according to their features: content typology, number and average scores of ratings, as well as number of reviews posted by users and their content. Second, user behavior is compared between the United States and China, the two biggest smartphone markets in the world. Fashion mobile applications have an indirect relationship with the fashion system and millions of potential customers. In these applications, in fact, the relationships that take place are mainly between users and developers (of the application) or among users. Nevertheless, fashion applications contribute substantially to fashion as they introduce fashion to children, provide lifelong learning about fashion, and engage users in entertainment, in socializing and communicating, and also in purchasing fashion items. Several conclusions can be drawn from their use. First, the fashion system needs to present its content on a mature mobile-technology platform. Secondly, it needs to take seriously the changes in users’ roles that today require more cooperation, sharing, and co-construction, and the fashion system needs to act accordingly. Third, these applications in general, but especially in China, pose the problem of the accessibility of fashion items. The more fashion purchase moves online, the more the distribution of fashion items must be improved.