Polina Dorfman Su

Dr. Peters

English-133

October 31st, 2017

A Discourse Community Profile

A Fashion House is a discourse community in which people give and receive

opinions on different virtual outfits that people put together in the game called Covet

Fashion. As Jenna Tessler, a fellow player of the game, had said, Covet fashion is

targeted toward a community of style-loving individuals who want to express their

creativity through fashion. People of all ages can play this game, and whats especially

unique about Covet is that players can purchase any of the clothing that is used, since all

the garments are real, created by real-life brands and designers.

Before delving deeper, it is important to go over the lexis to be able to understand

what Covet Fashion and what the Fashion House discourse communities are;

Diamonds/cash: the virtual currency used to buy clothing, accessories, shoes, etc.;

Tickets: currency used to enter challenges; Challenges: events that occur every several

hours, that have different clothing/jewelry requirements to be able to enter. After

submitting the look and receiving cash, it goes through the voting process where other

players vote their favorite of randomly paired looks from other people within the same

challenge, to earn tickets; Fashion House: a group of a maximum of 40 players, with one

House Leader, or the manager of the house, who can accept new requests to join the

house, or kick people out. Sometimes Houses can have certain requirements, such as a

minimum player level, or a minimum Closet Value (the sum of the costs of all the

garments one owns). This is also where the selected players communicate with each
other, give and get advice, or post their looks with the scores. It is in a chat format, but

also has posts with ways to comment on them; Rally: an event started by the House

Leader, that includes 12 of the most recent challenges, and if the collective score of the

people that entered those challenges reaches the given target score, puzzle pieces are

obtained, which add up to larger prizes, such as clothing, jewelry, and limited-time head

accessories (which one has to pay real money for, if theyre not acquired during the rally

event).

When one tries to enter a challenge but cannot decide on which hairstyle,

makeup style, dress, or accessory to use, they can always post their choices onto the

Fashion House group chat, where other members of the House can give advice, and help

decide which Look is best and more likely to score higher. All players are united by the

common goals of creating high-scoring looks that many people will like and vote for,

and receiving the best prizes, so helping each other does nothing but benefit everyone in

the fashion house.

 As an example of the community members helping each other out, this is a post

with three Look options, with varying hairstyles and clothing, that I, as an average

member of a House, had posted onto the group chat several days ago, because I was

unsure about which Look to go with. After posting the choices, I waited for other house

members to respond and help me choose which look to submit to the challenge, and

they did. Three random members had replied, in short, that they approved of the first

look, which is the one I ended up entering into the challenge. Sometimes members
respond more elaborately, and specify what it is they think should be changed or should

stay the same.

This is a more elaborate post in which there is only one look that I wanted to

make sure was good enough before submitting. Four members responded, stating their

opinions, even responding to each other, on the topic of the posted look. I ended up

submitting this look, thanks to the approval of others.

Both higher-level and lower-level players can definitely benefit from asking

everyone in the House in hopes of getting a higher score.

 Covet fashion, other than being a game and a discourse community, also serves as

a promoter certain movements and issues. For example, certain Fashion Houses have

House Leaders that specify in the House description that hateful speech and rudeness is

not tolerated and will result in them kicking out whoever violates the House rules. This

very much encourages anti-bullying, which is often an issue if someone were to voice

their opinion, whether it be about the outfit you pick out to submit for a challenge, or in

real-life situations. Also, Covet Fashion recently had an update where for each challenge,

the models would be of different shapes and sizes, with ranging skin tones, and one is

not able to change these settings for the relative challenge, promoting the acceptance

and appreciation of diversity. Covet used to consist of only thin, tall models (with

changeable skin tones). This is a large step towards showing that there isnt just one type

of desirable body, and shows that Covet Fashion supports diversity, not just racial but

physical. Now, when people post or submit their looks, they dont have to worry about

others judging their choices purely based on the body of the model. This dispels the

unfair womens beauty standards in the game, and also attracts more users since its

progressive and more accepting.

 Works Cited:

Tessler, Jenna. Personal Interview, October 19th, 2017

Covet Fashion. Computer Software. Google Play. Ver. 3.0.0. Crowdstar, 2013.

Covet Fashion-App Store Revenue and Download Estimates-US. Sensor Tower,

2017. https://sensortower.com/ios/us/crowdstar-inc/app/covet-fashion/620112416/