Chiara Ferragni: il corpo simulacro

Abstract

The figure of fashion influencer stems from the bottom throughout the web, and it takes  advantage of the many likes it receives from the followers and keeps its momentum by continuously generating interactions and talks about him/her self.

Chiara Ferragni, the Italian but internationally renowned influencer, may count some 11 million followers. In her photos what dominates is the way she is dressed, the specific fashion element perfectly coherent with the real life she is actually living in that very moment. The process of identification is then augmented by the euphoric model of advertising-like communication she uses. The actual life of Chiara Ferragni is displayed through a series of images and the boundaries between her private life and what can be called a reality show are really vague and undefined

However the way the influencer communicates through Instagram is not much different from the way most of the regular user of the social network do all the time: in both cases the user’s sight and understanding is strongly influenced by capitalism and by its ways of communication. In particular, the nice and lean (borderline with anorexia) body of Chiara Ferragni is absolutely consistent with the current image supported by the fashion system and it eventually certify the communication effectiveness of it, providing the desired valorization of the fashion products.

An “emotional”  (sometimes a bit extreme) wellness is often added to the “physical” wellness, perfectly tuned with the commercial narrative that equals the possession of a product to happiness. The normative power of capitalism finally gives voice to a body that builds itself from its syntax and that rewards the perfect body, in a word, the body-simulacre.