A Theory on Fashion Consumption

Abstract

Both the theory of top-down penetration of fashion consumption (Veblen - Simmel model) and the theory of bottom-up fashion consumption have been found consistent with the consumer behavior in the China’s fashion consumer market and the trend of such behavior keeps growing. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out a study on fashion consumption to meet the needs of the development of real life and fashion consumption. Firstly, we describe the content of fashion consumption, discuss the connotation and main features of fashion and analyze the relationship among fashion, innovation, classic and prevalence; namely, innovation is the pioneer of fashion while the classic is the denotation of faded fashion and prevalence is the continuance of fashion. Secondly, we examine the psychological motivations and behavioral mechanisms of fashion consumption, pointing out that the psychological motivations of fashion consumption is showing-off and it is of symbolic significance. The general characteristics of fashion buyers and consumer characteristics including the elegant fashion, the popular fashion, the cool fashion and the Bobos fashion are presented. We put forward a decision-making process in fashion consumption according to the influence of fashion, the extent of consumer involvement and the purchase decision time. Finally, by analyzing the fashion consumption behavior of the Chinese consumers, we point out that the core of the cool fashion or the Bobo fashion is actually not materialism and both cool fashion and Bobo fashion will have a profound influence in the fashion consumption in the future.