Fashion Adoption Essay

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FASHION ORIENTATION FASHION ADOPTION THEORY Introduction Fashion involves change, novelty, and the context of time, place, and wearer. Blumer (1969) describes fashion influence as a process of “collective selection” whereby the formation of taste derives from a group of people responding collectively to the Zeitgeist or “spirit of the times.” The simultaneous introduction and display of many new styles, the selections made by the innovative consumer, and the notion of the expression of the spirit of the times provide impetus for fashion. Central to any definition of fashion is the relationship between the designed product and how it is distributed and consumed. Fashion products are valued by consumers for their style to an extent that surpasses the item’s ability to meet basic physiological needs. Fashions fulfill social and psychological needs rather than consumers’ primary physiological needs of warmth, protection, and comfort. However, fashion apparel can meet these physiological needs as well. The democratization of fashion was observed by Edward Sapir (1931), who noted that the Industrial Revolution permitted the spread of fashion diffusion by enabling a greater number of people to afford the fashions that could finally be mass-produced. Thorstein Veblen (1899) introduced the concept of conspicuous consumption in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class. He observed that fashion apparel, because of its highly visible nature, is a historically popular way for people to advertise their wealth and status—whether real or perceived. He stated that people are willing to forgo other, less visible, needs and comforts in order to support a certain amount of wasteful consumption, such as purchasing fashion items. He theorized that the social good and psychological satisfaction of portraying consumption activities made conspicuous consumption a rational choice.

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