Paper short abstract:

Drawing on recent fieldwork in Ghana and Finland, this paper explores how fashion designers who target global audiences navigated a coercive algorithmic system during the COVID-19 pandemic and balanced with the dissonance of selling sustainable fashion on platforms imbued with capitalist logic.

Paper long abstract:

Posting on social media, especially on Instagram and TikTok, has become an integral part of a sustainable fashion industry and introduced added layers of work to design, manufacturing, and marketing. In this paper, based on fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Finland and digitally on social media during the pandemic, I ask how fashion designers whose livelihoods are dependent on a social media presence deal with the unpredictable, even mystical nature of the algorithmic system that no one except the platforms themselves seem to fully understand. Navigating this system brought about concerns of account hijackings, scams, shadowbans, and public shaming that some labeled as algorithmic retribution. Furthermore, as the notion of sustainability was understood by their global audiences as an indication of morally produced clothing, the bid for morality seemingly extended to the designers as well. In the Finnish context this resulted in fears of not “being good enough”, while in Ghana, the designers enjoyed a rise in conscious shoppers looking for Black owned businesses in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. I untangle the ambiguous feelings stemming from the algorithmic fabric of the digital market and its logic that at times is restrictive, and at times supportive, and show how in order to please both the audiences and the algorithms, designers utilized digital tropes signaling intimacy and authenticity. Ultimately, I discuss how the need to be digitally present and authentically available results in a continuous evaluation of not only the posted content but of the ethical self as well.