FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMERS' PREFERENCE OF FASHIONABLE CLOTHES: A MACROSCOPIC MODEL

INTRODUCTION

Blumer (1969) notes that fashion is a very adept mechanism for enabling people to adjust in an orderly and unified way to a moving and changing world which is potentially full of anarchic possibilities and Kimmel (1985) notes that fashion is a language, with its own grammar and syntax; to decipher its changing code, to "read" its fluctuating styles, is to uncover a crucial form of interpersonal communication and cultural statement. According to Schrank and Gilmore (1973), the role fashion plays in the diffusion of ideas, practices, or products reflects changing relationships between human beings and between man and his material culture. Fashion and clothing are so intimately linked that we must consider them as twins joined at the hip (Coates 2005). Therefore, clothing is the most suitable ground on which fashions can be examined.

Many research studies have focused on several related cognitive traits that may influence the decision-making processes among fashion consumer groups of emerging adults, specifically, the need for uniqueness, need for variety, optimum stimulation level, sensation seeking, expressing individuality, and susceptibility to boredom (Workman and Studak, 2006). Yet, much of the research efforts have been expended on scrutinizing fashion in a sociological perspective. Veblen (1991) explains that fashion is not about protection, but rather about displaying socio-economic status. In addition, the "Trickle-down theory", proposed in 1904 by Georg Simmel states that fashions of the upper social classes are diffused to lower classes through imitation. Further, Blumer (1969) explains fashion as the outcome of a process of collective selection among fashion alternatives that are presented by an elite of fashion creators.

Conversely, in the modern consumer culture it is noticeable that fashion preference is not solely limited to one factor, and the beliefs formed by many symbolic forces push consumers towards fashion. The media, particularly films and TV, have continually shaped clothing fashions (Coates 2005). Further, Workman and Studak (2006) explain that being exposed to advertisements of the latest fashions can trigger recognition of a problem because of a change in a consumer's desired state, that is, what a consumer wishes a situation to be like. As a result, the factors affecting the fashion are less apparent and rather difficult to determine.

Recently, the phenomenon of fashion has received growing attention by scholars and management practitioners alike. Much of the existing management fashion literature however operates without providing a clear conceptual and theoretical foundation (Ruling, 2005). Undoubtedly, the first step in righting this situation is to provide a holistic view on fashion from the consumer behavior point of view. Therefore, this study is aimed at explaining the factors affecting consumers' preference of fashionable clothes. Basically, this "theoretical" study draws on relevant disciplines such as marketing, consumer behavior, and sociology. The study's significance is in its holistic depiction of the drives which affect fashion preference and, which in turn constructs an arena for academics in the field of consumer behavior to scrutinize fashion(s).

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Fashion consumption is an important practice around which much debate is centered. While disciplines ranging from sociology, through psychology to marketing have provided explanations for this phenomenon, much of the literature available on management fashion does not provide a comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting fashion consumption. On the other hand, management is closely related to other fields such as sociology, social psychology, and economics. Therefore, a full study of fashion consumption needs to take into account the conclusions arrived at by these other disciplines as well.

The study is expected to address the following problem:

What are the factors which influence consumers' preference for fashionable clothes?

The main objective of the study is to bring together the theoretical explanations on fashion consumption and form a macroscopic model for the factors affecting the fashion preference of consumers. The study depends on the premise that fashion consumption is affected by economic, social and behavioral factors and even type of consumer. It is assumed that all these influences occur simultaneously and that fashion consumption is the result of a combination of such influences. The study aims at proposing a new hypothetical framework to examine fashion consumption.

METHOD

The study is a desk research project which mainly depends on literature from various sources such as academic journals, textbooks, and magazines. Reviewing the existing literature, I propose two hypotheses to examine fashion consumption.

DISCUSSION

One of the fundamental premises of the study of modern consumer behavior is that people often buy products not for what they do but for what they mean (Solomon 2002). For instance, imagine the ever-popular T-shirt and how it can furnish cultural meaning and identity for wearers. T-shirts can function as trophies (as proof of participation in sports or travel) or as self-proclaimed labels of belonging to a cultural category. T-Shirts can also be used as a means of self expression, which may provide wearers additional benefit of serving as a "topic" initiating social dialogue with others (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2002). Hence, apparel is a consumer product from which the consumer expects, or wishes to express a particular meaning. Hirschman and Holbrook (1982) note that because of the multi-sensory imagery involved in fashion apparel, it is a consumer product that is capable of stimulating and requiring considerable mental activity. Further, dress can be thought of as a consumer product which decides the consumer's place in the society. Because what others see includes a person's clothing, jewelry, furniture, car and so on, it stands to reason that these products also help to determine the perceived self. The self concept refers to the beliefs a person holds about his or her own attributes, and how he or she evaluates these qualities. Thus, dress provides the consumer an answer to the question, "Who am I now?" (Solomon, 2002).

The Clothed Consumer and Fashions

Fashion is the process of social diffusion by which a new style is adopted by some group(s) of consumers. In contrast, a fashion (or style) refers to a particular combination of attributes. And being in fashion means that this combination is currently positively evaluated by some reference group (Solomon, 2002). Schrank and Gilmore (1973) define fashion as a socially derived valuation of an idea, practice or product, or as a form of collective behavior. Fashion, therefore, has implications for many facets of human group living. Unlike a language, however, fashion is context-dependent. The same item can be interpreted differently by different wearers and viewers in different situations. In semiotic terms, the meaning of fashion products is often undercoded. There is no one precise meaning, but rather plenty of room for interpretation among perceivers (Solomon, 2002). According to Coates (2005) cultural universals in time and space will continue to dominate fashions in clothing to illustrate status, wealth, group membership, affiliations, age, fertility, health, well-being, profession, occupation, and power.

A Macroscopic Model for the Factors Affecting Fashion Preference

The proposed conceptual model (figure 01) seeks to clarify the factors affecting consumers' preferences for fashionable clothes from a holistic point of view. The model accumulates the existing theoretical findings on fashion, and is structured as follows: first, it concentrates on fashion as a display of socioeconomic status. Second, fashion is considered as a mode of erotic exposure. Third, fashion is identified as a modern consumer practice. Further, the model suggests that the type of consumer is a key factor in fashion preference. Finally, it is emphasized that fashion is paradoxical in nature and it reflects a conflict in the consumer's mind. The explanation, however, is confined to the socio-economic and psychological factors that contribute to fashion.

Fashion: A Display of Socioeconomic Status

Fashion and economic strength are so related that one might argue that fashion is for the wealthy. According to Ruling (2005) the occurrence of fashion is related to change. Fashion acts as an indicator for changes in the economic structure, in norms and values. Veblen's notion of conspicuous consumption proposed that the wealthy consume to display their prosperity, for example by wearing expensive clothing (Solomon, 2002). In his book "A Theory of the Leisure Class" Veblen explains that clothing is a public display of "pecuniary strength" - and a telling one at that. "Clothing is a social necessity and a universal need; yet clothing is not about protection, but rather about showing socioeconomic status" (Veblen 1991).

In addition Veblen (1992) notes that the difference in male and female clothing is therefore a reflection of economic difference. Women become representative of a husband's socioeconomic status. Their clothing reveals that they are able to purchase garments and accessories at will, to change wardrobes with the season and at the caprices of magazine editors, and to refrain from physical activity. The dress of women goes even farther than that of men in demonstrating the wearer's abstinence from productive employment. According to Veblen, in woman's dress there is obviously greater insistence on such features that testify to the wearer's exemption from or incapacity for all vulgarly productive employment.

Moreover, according to Solomon (2002)"Trickle Down theory", first proposed in 1904 by Georg Simmel, has been one of the most influential approaches to understanding fashion. Fashion emerges as higher classes choose distinctive signs in order to differentiate themselves. As lower classes tend to imitate higher ones, members of the higher classes need to recreate class segmentation through a new differentiation (Simmel 1957). Further, he adds that fashion is the imitation of a given pattern and thus satisfies the need for social adaptation; it leads the individual onto the path that everyone travels, it furnishes a general condition that resolves the conduct of every individual into a mere example. At the same time, and to no less a degree, it satisfies the need for distinction, the tendency towards differentiation, change and individual contrast.

Herbert Blumer (1969) enriches the above views and sees fashion as the outcome of a process of "collective selection" among fashion alternatives that are presented by an elite of fashion creators. According to him, this type of collective selection among a variety of alternatives typically emerges in situations in which traditional criteria for evaluation have become obsolescent. Fashion then becomes a "process in which collective judgment of what is proper and correct serves to set new, albeit temporary, guidelines" and (fashion) is a "continuing pattern of change in which certain social forms enjoy temporary acceptance and respectability only to be replaced by others more abreast of the times" (Blumer, 1968).

Blumer's (1981) theory of 'collective selection' equally asserts that innovative individuals (fashion leaders) within social groups look to a plurality of sources for inspiration. They select only styles that display some continuity with previous fashions, and which are relevant to the existing social climate to create their own rather distinctive fashions of a localized nature (Davis 1992). The desire to belong to a certain higher (elite), possibly imaginary group and the simultaneous desire to distinguish oneself from other, lower groups is manifest in fashion (Thompson & Haytko, 1995). Further, Blumer (1969) explains that fashion trends are a highly important yet much neglected object of study and signifies a convergence and marshalling of "collective taste" in a given direction and thus pertain to one of the most significant yet obscure features in group life. The fashion process involves both a formation and an expression of collective taste in the given area of fashion. Collective taste is an active force in the ensuing process of selection, setting limits and providing guidance; yet, at the same time it undergoes refinement and organization through its attachment to, and embodiment in, specific social forms. The origin, formation, and careers of collective taste constitute the huge problematic area in fashion (Blumer,1969). However, fashion does not operate on a base of rationality, i.e. it can, but it does not need to, recur to utility or superior merit for receiving social approbation.

However, those explanations were much more valid for a society with a stable class structure, which permitted the easy identification of lower- versus upper-class consumers. Thus, the "trickle-across theory" and the "trickle-up theory" were proposed. Trickle across theory held that a perspective based on the class structure cannot account for the wide range of styles that are simultaneously made available in society. Instead, consumers tend to be more influenced by opinion leaders who are similar to them. As a result, each social group has its own fashion innovators who determine fashion trends (Solomon, 2004). Further, as per the "trickle-up" theory, current fashions often originate with sub-cultural groups or the lower classes and trickle up to higher classes (Solomon, 2004).
