Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine user perceptions toward consumer-facing words used by fashion brands to stimulate sustainable consumption and post consumption behavior. Design/methodology/approach A self-completion, survey based matching exercise was administered to 100 active fashion-shoppers in Hong Kong aged between 18 and 35 years old. A probability sampling method was used for on-street intercepts to ensure a random selection within the defined population. This was accompanied by 20 individual ethnographic interviews. Findings A lack of understanding and comprehension of key green language terminology used frequently in user facing communications is problematic for fashion brand marketers as the impact of their messages is often unclear, distributed and more likely to lead to user frustration rather than positive engaged consumer decision making and action. Further, there is an emerging indication that this approach is highly unlikely to enhance knowledge, engagement and action or to influence brand loyalty. Research limitations/implications Data were collected in Hong Kong and is culturally bounded, so while providing a good indication of the findings in situ this can also be replicated in other locations. Practical implications Recommended outcomes from the findings suggest that brand messages should be delivered that are intended to stimulate sustainability behaviors that are core to one key brand theme so that user outcome decision making and actions fit with the core brand values. This suggested approach will have a greater likelihood of leading to brand trust, responsible business action and greater clarity about the issue of sustainability and related action to be taken on behalf of the user. Originality/value The paper raises concerns about the effectiveness and outcomes of fashion brand marketing communications and findings provide insights into the confusion of understanding and the rise in frustration among targeted fashion shoppers 18-35 years, despite the use of frequently used words in brand communications to promote sustainable fashion consumption behaviors.

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where she teaches and researches fashion culture and communication, branding, and popular culture, and is currently researching youth fashion trends in Southeast Asia. Kong, where she teaches and researches fashion culture and communication, branding, and popular culture, and is currently researching youth fashion trends in Southeast Asia. AbstractThis article will examine the practice of Cosplay-the trend for young adults in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia to dress up in themed costumes assuming the personae of characters from Japanese comic books (manga) and animated cartoons (anime), video games, and pop music bands-as a means of exploring the motivations behind this activity. Social interaction theory and approaches to performativity and dramatism will be used to closely examine the complexities that construct this rapidly globalizing phenomenon from the player's own perspectives. In doing so, it will question why dress is used as a catalyst for escaping the boundaries of self and acquiring multiple identities. Anne Peirson-SmithThe article will discuss the outcomes of an ethnographic study where interviews were conducted with a selection of Cosplayers in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo who regularly dress in a range of costumes in public places and at organized themed events. Research questions included: what it means for Cosplay participants to assume another persona; what motivates them to dress up; how they decide to choose a particular character; whether it is a form of creative expression, rebellion, or secret or overt expressions of self; why and how they employ dress to pursue a particular fantasy; and the role of gender socialization in this type of costuming.Findings suggest that dressing up as a Cosplayer is multi-vocal experience representing varying motivations including the reaffirmation of identity, the escape from a known reality-in an attempt to recapture a "cute" childhood innocence, and the visible, often mediated, adherence to a defined and reassuring subcultural collective in the Asian context.

This article investigates student behaviour on collaborative assignments, looking at the relationship between task type and interaction, and considers the implications for task design. Students reported on interactions in a year-long workplace-focussed group communication project, comparing these with interactions on other academy-based group assignments. Differences were seen in the amount of brainstorming, the criteria for dividing up work, the intensity of editing, and how conflict was managed. Contributing factors to these differences included the presence or absence of a creative element, the instrumental nature of the task, and the need for a collective approach inherent in the task design.

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