How Fashionable Are We? Validating the Fashion Interest Scale through Multivariate Statistics

Sabine Weber,Olaf Weber

doi:10.3390/su14041946

Abstract

A person’s fashion interest describes how familiar a person is with fashion. There are major differences among consumers in terms of fashion interest that can be used as a segmentation criterion for markets. Understanding the drivers of clothing consumption can be used to develop strategies to address consumption habits, including overconsumption. Consequently, many studies have developed questionnaires and interview guidelines to define fashion interest or other fashion-related attitudes and behaviors. However, there is a gap in research about validating fashion scales. This study validates a fashion interest scale by comparing a random sample with a control group of fashion students, demonstrating differentiation between groups. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to explore the scale’s homogeneity and t-tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to validate the scale. The results suggest that the scale is homogeneous and has high validity. We conclude that the scale can be used as a tool to segment markets to gain faster and higher quality data and as a benchmark for other studies.

Highlights

The global fashion industry accounts for up to two percent of the world’s GrossDomestic Product (GDP) and four percent of the worldwide consumer expenditures [1].Likewise, the fashion industry has grown at 5.5 percent annually over the past decade, making it a vital economic factor [2]
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: First, we present a literature review on the difference between fashion and clothes to understand better what fashion is before we describe the meaning of fashion interest and how it is used as a segmentation criterion for markets
This study evaluated the fashion scale based on fashion interest and fashion shopping behavior developed by Weber [52] by adding a sample of fashion students as a control group

Summary

Introduction

The global fashion industry accounts for up to two percent of the world’s Gross. The fashion industry has grown at 5.5 percent annually over the past decade, making it a vital economic factor [2]. Because of the fashion industry’s growth, there is a global call to increase its sustainability and tackle fashion’s “overconsumption” problem [3]. The first step to address this issue is determining whether overconsumption results from consumer interest in purchasing fashion or clothes. The term fashion is used to describe the prevailing style of dress [10] or, as Kaiser puts it: “Fashion change is intricately linked to changing ideas about aesthetic rules” [23], p. Wilson [12] further describes fashion as a permanent changing phantasmagoria of styles. Wilson further claims that “no clothes are outside fashion . Wilson further claims that “no clothes are outside fashion . . . . Even uniforms have been designed [underlying fashion trends]” [12], p. 3

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Conclusion