Meanings of Clothing Consumption for Identity Construction - Comparing Fast Fashion and Slow Fashion Consumers for Sustainability Purposes

Abstract

Drawing from literature on identity construction, consumption meanings, consumer culture and fashion consumption, the aim of this study is to compare the conception of clothing consumption of fast fashion and slow fashion consumers, and to develop a broader understanding regarding how consumer culture and symbolic meanings influence identity construction. In times of growing consumption and large negative environmental impacts of the fashion industry, the objective is to provide important implications for how the clothing industry could promote slow fashion behavior rather than fast fashion by creating more sustainable identity meanings for consumers to seek out. Using a phenomenographic research approach with ten phenomenological in-depth interviews, an understanding is developed regarding the variations in meanings of lived experiences of clothing, as well as how the respondents conceive and interpret their consumption from a greater perspective. The findings show four groups of consumer conceptions, where fast fashion consumers belong to either The Impulsive Consumer or The Social Consumer, while slow fashion consumers belong to either The Circular Consumer or The Critical Consumer. These subgroups illustrate how fast fashion and slow fashion consumers differ in their clothing consumption and how they perceive meanings of value expression, novelty, creativity, status, self-confidence, uniqueness, aesthetic ideals among other aspects, as well as social adaptation or resistance to norms of consumer culture, when constructing their self-identity. Conclusively, the similarities between the conceptions arguably constitute possibilities to change future consumption patterns to move towards slow fashion. This article adds to the body of knowledge on fashion-interested female consumers and the identity meanings fast fashion consumers and slow fashion consumers attach to clothing they consume.