Comunicación digital en la moda streetwear en Instagram. Estudio de Caso: @shamuna_ec

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze how the reel published on August 14, 2024 on the Instagram account of the Ecuadorian clothing and accessories brand @shamuna_ec symbolically communicates streetwear culture and youth identity through the use of semiotic, urban and visual resources. Through a qualitative approach and an observation matrix, a semiotic analysis was applied based on Charles Sanders Peirce's triadic theory of signs: icon, index and symbol, which was complemented with the theoretical concepts of youth cultures by Rossana Reguillo and urban imaginaries and social representations by Paula Vera and Alejandro Gravano. The study is based on the recognition of the reel as a visual and performative discourse that not only promotes products, but also articulates identity narratives, cultural practices and senses of belonging typical of urban youth. Through the identified signs (such as oversized clothing, graffiti and the brand's logo); urban indexes (the presence of the skateboard, city tours and interaction with physical spaces) and cultural symbols (hashtags, names, graphic aesthetics), a discursive framework is configured that represents a youth community that re-signifies fashion as an expression of resistance. Consequently, the interpretative category “Semiotic Cartography of Urban Youth” is proposed, which is conceptualized as the grouping of signs that express youth identities linked and located not only to social practices, but also to territorial and symbolic ones. In this sense, the reel transcends from the commercial to the symbolic, and shapes through a digital environment (social networks), an identity that in turn reinforces and affirms a digital community from global and local references.