Fashion and Clothing consumption

Haul videos are a unique vlogging format that is based on showing and reviewing a so called ‘haul’, which consists the outcome of shopping sessions. Haul vloggers are micro- and ordinary celebrities that have a large fan base, especially among female teens.

Our desires for fashion, our addiction to cheap clothes, our fixation on surface looks. Can we find ways to make what we wear more positive? Here's a quirky, irreverent way to consider what's a more sustainable way to be with—and still enjoy—fashion. This little book shows that fashion isn't shallow but connects us to the depths of existence. Especially today, fashion can tell us something about life, and this series of meditations and conversations between fashion "hacktivist" von Busch and Buddhist teacher Josh Korda shows how a Buddhist perspective on fashion can help us engage with clothes in wiser ways. It may seem a Buddhist approach to fashion would be about denying fashion and living an ascetic life in dull robes. However, Buddhism can teach us to be more present and take more pleasure in fashion. With practice and reflection, we can live a wiser life with the consumption of clothes.

Fast fashion retailers today are recognising sustainability as an issue and many retailers are incorporating sustainability into their products and marketing strategies. Yet, sustainability in fashion is still seen as something new and consumers are hesitant to adopt sustainable fashion even though they have sufficient knowledge about sustainability in fashion. Thus, the purpose of this study is as follows: (1) to investigate the factors that are affecting millennial consumers to adopt or reject sustainable fashion consumption and how far social influence will shape millennial’s sustainable fashion consumption practices; and (2) to examine if gender still plays a part in millennial’s sustainable fashion perspective and behaviour in the gender-fluid postmodern society. A total of ten respondents (five male and five female) were recruited and participated in the in-depth interview. The data of the result indicate that millennials have a positive attitude towards sustainable fashion; however, due to personal inconvenience and price, many millennial consumers chose not to adopt sustainable fashion practices. The research data also shows that there might be a relationship that older millennial consumers focus more on their personal capability when it comes to sustainable fashion lifestyle while social pressure and norms seem to be more effective on younger millennials to influence their sustainable fashion consumption. However, due to the small size of samples, this study cannot support this claim. Lastly, gender does not affect millennial’s perspective and attitude towards sustainable fashion as this generation of consumer view sustainable fashion as positive implementation that retailers and consumers should pursue.

This paper will explore the relationship between consumers of haute couture and the designers they chose, addressing the overlooked influence one has on the other.  While patrons provide economical support and help propagate artists’ ideals, the artists help legitimize patrons’ social distinction and good taste.

Using probate inventories from 17th century Stockholm and Gothenburg, the two largest towns in Sweden, this paper discusses the value of the least valuable of garments: the worn out clothes and linen wear which, while described as “worn-out” or “totally worn-out, no value” still made it into the probate inventories. In this paper a survey of the clothing listed in around 400 bourgeois probate inventories from the seventeenth century is used to discuss the long-lasting value of clothes.
The inventories all originate in what can be described as the bourgeoisie in the widest possible sense: The social scale range from wealthy merchants to servants and day-labourers, with the majority of the people mentioned being artisans or small shopkeepers. Through these inventories we have access to social groups whose consumption is rarely studied, and especially not for this early period. The probates from Stockholm are a unique source, since the oldest are as early as from the late 16th century, while probate inventories from other larger towns only exist from c. 1650, and the law making them compulsory only came in 1734; the Gothenburg probates start in the 1660s.
An interesting find is that there is no exact correlation between the wealth of the inventory in general and whether worn-out clothes are listed or not. While there are more examples of worn out garments in probate inventories after the very poor you also find them in inventories which list silk suits and many items of gold jewellery. This shows something interesting about the value of textiles, and especially clothing: That even the worn out, or old-fashioned, retained some of its value and thus had to be included in a probate inventory. This paper presents a survey of the seemingly worthless: the old and worn-out, of cheap materials and of threadbare finery.

Clothing and fashion play significant role in the process of ageing, and help put bodily
experiences in the context of culture. It is especially important for young people as social
subjects, who are starting to become independent but do not have sufficient experience and
social competences to do this.
This paper explores how two groups of mainstream youth in Russia use clothing to denote their
social identity and construct boundaries.

Este artigo apresenta um breve resumo da vida de Aimeé de Heeren, socialite internacional e líder de moda, nascida no Paraná em 1903. No final da década de 1930, ela muda-se para
Paris e inicia uma vida social agitada. Depois da Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939-1945), Aimeé vive entre Biarritz, Palm Beach, Nova Iorque e Paris. Durante sua vida, Aimeé colecionou objetos de arte, alta costura e amigos influentes. Na década de 1970, seu segundo marido, Rodman Arturo de Heeren doa parte do seu guarda-roupa ao Museu da Fashion Institute of Technology, em Nova Iorque, consagrando e perpetuando seu nome na história da moda.

La logomanía en la moda es un fenómeno caracterizado por el uso ostentoso de la representación gráfica de la marca (el logo) en el diseño de sus prendas y accesorios, cuya función tradicional es definir el estatus de quien lo porta.
Durante los últimos cuarenta años, especialmente en las décadas de 1980 y 1990, el logo ha formado parte del diseño de moda. Sin embargo, desde la entrada de la crisis económica mundial de 2008, y más aún conforme esta ha avanzado, han sido habituales las sentencias que aventuran la desaparición de la logomanía. La nueva situación económica ha implicado la modificación en los hábitos de consumo en todos los sectores, y ha inclinado la balanza hacia sustantivos como “austeridad”, “sobriedad” y “sencillez”.
Partiendo de esta situación, se ha realizado un estudio de las principales firmas de moda y accesorios de lujo más valiosas del mundo (Millward Brown 2014, 65): Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Gucci, Prada, Rolex, Cartier, Chanel, Burberry, Coach y Fendi, a través del cual se ha analizado y comparado la utilización de la marca como icono en los diseños de las últimas temporadas. Para avanzar en la investigación el principal instrumento utilizado fue la recopilación documental, desarrollada mediante sistema de muestreo a partir de listas y muestreo intencional.

This study draws from ingratiation theory to investigate the specificity of online luxury brand communities, using an observational netnography. We analyze and discuss the diverging strategies held by low and high power community members, and the role played by flattery in maintaining and gaining status in the community.

Resumo

Este artigo explora o relacionamento entre uma cliente de alta-costura, Aimée de Heeren, e os estilistas por ela escolhidos, abordando a influência que exercem entre si. A cliente de alta-costura recorre ao estilista a fim de imprimir e desenvolver um estilo pessoal. Sem a participação da cliente não existe moda; ela acaba por representar a realização da visão do estilista.

Palavras-chaves: consumo de moda; líderes da moda; alta-costura

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between a consumer of haute couture, Aimée de Heeren, and the brands she chose, addressing the influence one has on the other. The client of couture turns to the designer for fashion to establish and develop a personal style. Without the client’s participation, there is no fashion; she represents the fulfillment of the designer’s vision.

Fashion has emerged as a multi-layered concept, whereby its immaterial and symbolic facets are created and altered by consumers and producers alike. This article traces the evidence of fashion prosumption and produsage in China and Korea, the two globalized and economically advanced countries with relatively immature fashion markets. Based on focus group interviews of consumers aged 19 to 28 in the two countries, the article examines the extent to which the consumers, individually and collectively, exert influences on fashion production and are influenced by different social agents in their fashion choices and meanings. These processes were examined in light of information and communication technology and media convergence to observe the parallel between fashions in the two countries and in contemporary Western societies.

While fashion consumers in Korea were heavily influenced by social norms and their choices were motivated by aligning themselves to current trends, those in China deemed it important to create individual identities by pluralizing mainstream fashion and showed a more active form of produsage. Both groups were aware of the pervasion of the Western fashion discourse through media and technology, and were unable to define fashion strictly within their local contexts. The study concluded that although produsage was not explicitly established, the recognition of interactions between fashion producers and social agents, and of the role of the media in manipulating consumer choices highlighted the increasing degree and pervasiveness of produsage in both countries.

The reasons why people use their clothes for longer are complex, but essential to understand how to promote longer clothing lifetimes. We conducted an online survey with open-ended questions, asking 170 female participants to write about one of their oldest garments still in use. When analysing our qualitative data, we found that many participants reported going through some mishaps with their item, a situation which is identified in existing literature as a reason for garment disposal. Following ongoing research which compares wearer-clothing relationships with human relationships, we analysed our qualitative data in the light of theory on interpersonal relationships to understand why conflict did not lead participants to dispose of their garments. The findings suggest that the way people manage conflict with their clothes is more critical for garment longevity than the conflict per se, which is bound to happen at some point in time. This paper presents different approaches to conf...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer perceptions and understanding of sustainable concepts within the context of fashion consumption. Design/methodology/approach – Phenomenological interviews provided a platform to explore fashion sustainability and garment labels from current UK high street fashion retailers were used to stimulate discussion. Findings – The findings identify confusion of how sustainability applies to fashion, particularly for environmental issues and there was scepticism regarding higher pricing for organic cotton. However, motivation to avoid fashion produced under exploitation resulted in avoiding retailers alleged of such practice, paying more for garments and purchasing from established UK retailers. Research limitations/implications – The idiographic nature of a phenomenological approach may be considered as a limitation, yet this in-depth exploration of participants with similar socio-demographics enables a rich understanding of the disc...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer perceptions and understanding of sustainable concepts within the context of fashion consumption.
Design: Phenomenological interviews provided a platform to explore fashion sustainability and garment labels from current UK high street fashion retailers were used to stimulate discussion.
Findings: The findings identify confusion of how sustainability applies to fashion, particularly for environmental issues and there was scepticism regarding higher pricing for organic cotton. However, motivation to avoid fashion produced under exploitation resulted in avoiding retailers alleged of such practice, paying more for garments and purchasing from established UK retailers.
Research limitations: The idiographic nature of a phenomenological approach may be considered as a limitation, yet this in-depth exploration of participants with similar socio-demographics enables a rich understanding of the discourse experienced within their lifeworlds.
Practical implications: The findings illustrate that consumers are transferring sustainable principles from one context to another, and that by addressing sustainability, fashion retailers could obtain a competitive advantage.
Social implications: The findings demonstrate consumers’ increased involvement with sustainability and the role expected from fashion retailers.
Originality/value: The research uniquely positions consumers’ reliance on heuristics to guide sustainable preferences, due to the lack of information and this implies that sustainable concepts are increasingly incorporated into everyday behaviours.