Fashion Leaders' and Followers' Attitudes Toward Buying Domestic and Imported Apparel

Abstract

Using the Fishbein Attitude Model as the conceptual framework, this study investigated whether female fashion leaders and fashion followers differed in the importance they gave to 12 selected clothing attributes and in their attitudes toward buying imported and domestic apparel. A random sample of 641 female consumers completed a mailed questionnaire. Results showed that fashion leaders accorded significantly more importance than fashion followers to six apparel attributes: color, attractiveness, fashionableness, brand name, appropriateness for occasion, and choice of styles. Both fashion leaders and followers accorded similar importance to six other apparel attributes: good fit, durability, ease of care, price, comfort, and quality. Also, fashion leaders as well as fashion followers had more positive attitudes toward domestic apparel than imported apparel. However, compared to followers, fashion leaders had more positive attitudes toward imported apparel.

The importance of apparel product attributes for female buyers

“…This pattern is consistent with research that has specifically examined the extrinsic/intrinsic issue (Hatch & Roberts; Syzbillo & Jacoby; Wheatley et al in Eckman et al, 1990). Beaudoin et al (2000) identified 12 attributes that correlated with attitudes when purchasing apparel, namely: good fit, durability, ease of care, favourable price, comfort, quality, colour, attractiveness, fashionableness, brand name, appropriateness for occasion, and choice of styles. Dickerson (in Beaudoin et al, 2000) investigated the relative importance that consumers attach to five garment attributes when making purchasing decisions, namely: price, care, country of origin, quality, and style.…”

“…Beaudoin et al (2000) identified 12 attributes that correlated with attitudes when purchasing apparel, namely: good fit, durability, ease of care, favourable price, comfort, quality, colour, attractiveness, fashionableness, brand name, appropriateness for occasion, and choice of styles. Dickerson (in Beaudoin et al, 2000) investigated the relative importance that consumers attach to five garment attributes when making purchasing decisions, namely: price, care, country of origin, quality, and style. Shim and Kotsiopulos (1993) researched the apparel shopping orientation of consumers on the basis of nine factor labels, namely: appearance/fashion conscious, brand conscious, convenience/time-conscious, shopping mall-oriented, local store-oriented, apathetic toward "Made in the USA", catalogue-oriented, economy/price conscious, and credit-oriented.…”

College students’ frequency of use of information sources by fashion leadership and style of information processing

“…Different consumers have different preferences for sensory forms of information and use different criteria to interpret identical sensory information provided by clothing fashions (Peck and Childers 2003;Workman and Caldwell 2007). For example, fashion leaders consider the image or symbolic (visual) aspects of apparel more important than do fashion followers (Beaudoin et al 2000). Further, fashion leaders considered visual product aesthetics more central to evaluation of apparel products than fashion followers did (Workman and Caldwell 2007).…”

The Effect of Fashion Leadership and Sustainable Clothing Attributes on Purchase Intention: Case of a School-Sponsored Store

“…High fashion leaders are the first to buy and wear new fashions, persuading others to follow [41]. Research shows that fashion leadership purchasers differ in many consumer behaviors, including their evaluation and purchasing of products [7,[17][18][19][20][21]42]. …”

“…Research has investigated the influence of clothing attributes on consumers' purchase intentions and found that consumers are significantly influenced by different attributes when determining overall acceptance of fashion products [12][13][14][15][16]. In the case of fashion items, an additional consideration is fashion leadership which influences product evaluation and purchasing of products [7,[17][18][19][20][21].…”