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This paper aims to examine the relationships among two distinct yet interconnected forms of value orientations, namely, terminal and instrumental values, brand consciousness and behavioral intentions. This study validated the conceptual model for branded fashion apparel consumption in an emerging market, e.g. India.

The research design followed a two-step approach to test the measurement and structural models for partial least squares structural equation modeling with SmartPLS (v.3.0) as recommended by Anderson and Gerbing (1988).

The results illustrated that both the instrumental and terminal values influence brand consciousness and, consequently, brand consciousness had an impact on behavioral intentions for fashion apparel consumption. Instrumental values had a greater influence on brand consciousness and behavioral intentions than terminal values. Brand consciousness mediated the relationship between instrumental/terminal values and behavioral intentions.

This study defined two value orientations (i.e. instrumental versus terminal) using cross-sectional data from an emerging market. Future studies may examine the research findings’ generalizability using diverse data sets (longitudinal and cross-sectional) and evaluate the value orientation and customers’ favorable behavioral intentions for luxury fashion consumption.

This study provides insights into luxury marketers and practitioners to understand the contribution of instrumental and terminal values on brand consciousness and behavioral intentions for luxury fashion apparel. The findings would assist in developing marketing strategies for an emerging market, i.e. India.

With the rapid proliferation of materialism, the Indian market has witnessed the dawn of a new era of luxury fashion acceptance. The research offers evidence that in emerging markets such as India, consumers exhibit value orientation toward luxury brands while holding a sense of fashion involvement in their consumption behavior.

This study is a pioneering attempt to understand the relationships between the value orientation, namely, instrumental and terminal values and their underlying influence on brand consciousness and behavioral intentions toward fashion apparel. Rokeach’s (1973) two-dimensional value dichotomy was adapted to understand luxury apparel consumption in an emerging market context, specifically India.

Developing countries engaged in apparel value chain are going global, seeking opportunities to upgrade the industry through providing higher value-added products and services. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Sri Lankan apparel industry designers interact with the western fashion world in the apparel value chain process, and how they acquire, adapt and apply the knowledge needed to develop high-value fashion products in their fashion design practice.

The study adopts a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews conducted with fashion design and product development professionals in the Sri Lankan apparel industry. An inductive thematic analysis is used in identifying participants’ experience of the western fashion world within their fashion design practice.

The study proposes a “fashion knowledge bridge” illustrating the ways in which Sri Lankan designers acquire and merge high-value fashion consumer culture and lifestyle knowledge with the manufacturing industry, through multisensory and virtual experience, termed “exposure”, in their interactions with the western fashion world as well as the manufacturing culture of the Sri Lankan apparel industry. Designers’ exposure improves the feasibility and reliability of their apparel products, aligning to the end-consumer needs. The study also proposes a “designers’ exposure framework” that illustrates gains made by the Sri Lankan apparel industry resulting from knowledge enhancement through the designers’ exposure.

The study is based on a qualitative methodology that has potential subjective biases on the part of the researchers; in this case only the Sri Lankan designers’ perspectives were used in synthesising the findings.

The findings propose frameworks with theoretical and managerial implications for developing designers’ capabilities in apparel manufacturing countries that seek industrial upgrading through value-added fashion design practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate masculinity in Chinese social media marketing for global luxury fashion brands through two studies.

Study 1 compares physical characteristics of males in visually oriented US (Instagram) and Chinese (Weibo) social media posts promoting global luxury fashion magazine brands (e.g. Vogue, Cosmopolitan, GQ and Esquire). Study 2 examines the prevalence of and Chinese consumers’ responses (reposts, comments and likes) to different masculinities depicted in luxury fashion brand-sponsored Weibo posts.

Male portrayals for Chinese audiences feature more characteristics associated with emerging East Asian hybrid masculinities – “Little Fresh Meat” (LFM) and “Old Grilled Meat” (OGM) – than associated with global or regional hegemonic masculinity (i.e. the scholarly Wén and action-oriented Wu). Wén remains common in social media posts for luxury fashion goods, but LFM and OGM engender more consumer responses.

Chinese luxury fashion marketing depicts masculinity more similarly to other East Asian marketing than to Western marketing. Some luxury fashion brands are struggling for acceptance among Chinese youth. Luxury fashion marketers should incorporate hybrid rather than hegemonic masculinities to prompt more favorable responses among Chinese consumers, especially younger female target markets.

Growing female occupational and consumer power and shifting male employment from blue-collar to white-collar jobs have influenced media portrayals of masculinity. Social media marketing for luxury fashion brands demonstrates the prevalence and appeal of hybrid masculinities in China.

The present study aims to investigate the role of brand store image in the context of private and national fashion brands. The study examines two issues: do private brand consumers differ from national brand consumers in their perception of the attributes they value in their store image? And, do fashion consumers in general differ in their perception of the attributes they value in a store image?

Data were collected through a field survey comprising 395 respondents: 195 private brand consumers and 200 national brand consumers.

Findings indicate that the two groups of consumers do not differ in their perception of store image. Cluster analysis reveals two groups of consumers: “Brand Store Image Enthusiasts” who are high in their perception of their brand store image attributes, and “Brand Store Image Indifferent” consumers who are low in their perception of their brand store image attributes. The first group was also found to have greater brand loyalty.

Different marketing strategies are offered to each fashion sector. In addition, distributors in the fashion industry should build a strategy for Brand Store Image Enthusiasts who are high in their perception of all three brand store attributes. It is essential to point out the psychological meaning of the brand when appealing them.

The study contributes to the consumer behavior literature by tying the well-established construct of brand store image to the fashion sector in the context of private and national labels.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how attitudes towards sweatshops, social norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) factors influence consumers’ attitudes towards luxury fashion apparel made in sweatshops. It also examines how these variables influence purchase intention and ultimately the willingness to pay more for luxury fashion apparel not made in sweatshops.

A self-administered questionnaire was designed using established scales. A survey was conducted through the “mall intercept” method.

Underpinned by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model, attitudes and PBC were found to have an influence on intention to purchase luxury fashion apparel made in sweatshops. The intention to purchase luxury fashion apparel also significantly influences the willingness to pay more for luxury fashion apparel not made in sweatshops.

The research findings can be used to formulate strategies for academia, practitioners and, more importantly, policy makers to help curb sweatshop activities.

This paper focuses exclusively on luxury fashion apparels made in sweatshops. Status consumption is also added as a potential antecedent towards purchase intention.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. In its initial stages it undertakes a review of the key fashion industry‐related themes emerging from the IJRDM. Subsequently, it reflects upon these themes in the context of luxury fashion brand Prada and in so doing identifies four key change phases in the evolution of the brand.

Review of literature spanning 20 years.

The paper identifies five overarching general themes. These comprise fashion retailer brands, the internationalisation of fashion retailing, the emergence and challenges of on‐line fashion retailing, changes in the supply chain and changes in consumption.

The paper provides a valuable overview of the main research themes within the context of fashion retailing. In addition, it provides a critical insight into the changing nature of Italian luxury fashion brand Prada.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a psychometrically reliable scale to measure centrality of brand (CoB) or brand centrality construct in the domain of fashion apparel brands. The scale quantitatively validates that brand relationship can be of equivalent importance to religious relationship in an individual fashion brand lover’s life.

Based on a previous literature review, brand centrality has been conceptualized. Following that, CoB scale has been validated in a step-by-step process following the scale validation methodology suggested by Churchill (1979).

The final outcome of the study is a psychometrically reliable CoB scale. The study results validate the relationships between CoB, and other important theoretical antecedents and consequences of brand centrality.

This study contributes to the existing body of fashion branding research by showing that a consumer-fashion brand relationship can be of importance akin to a religious relationship in an individual’s life.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors affecting consumer’s fast fashion brand loyalty by examining US college students’ perceptions and loyalty toward fast fashion.

Using consumer-based brand equity approach, a research model which examines the factors affecting consumer’s brand loyalty in the fast fashion context was proposed. It was hypothesized that consumer’s perceptions of fast fashion, including brand awareness, perceived quality, perceived value, brand personality, organizational associations, and brand uniqueness, affect consumer brand loyalty. Based on the valid data from 419 US college students, this study employed structural equation modeling to investigate the factors affecting US college students’ brand loyalty toward fast fashion.

Results reveal that for the US college students, brand awareness, perceived value, organizational associations, and brand uniqueness are the contributing factors to generating consumer’s loyalty toward fast fashion brands.

Due to the fact that fast fashion has become a key feature of the global fashion industry over the last decade, there is phenomenal growth in the availability of fast fashion brands in the US markets. This study provides valuable insights about young consumers’ perceptions of fast fashion brands and the factors’ contributions to their brand loyalty.

Addresses an area which has been neglected in the international retailing literature; the internationalisation of the fashion designer’s brand. Initial exploratory research revealed that there were 114 international fashion design houses competing for a global market of around £24 billion. Further research by postal questionnaire to entrants into the UK market, in addition to semi‐structured interviews with European and US designers, confirmed that this market was buoyant, fuelled by the development of diffusion lines for the mass market. Identifies four stages of market development: wholesale channels to department stores; the creation of ready‐to‐wear flagships; large diffusion flagships; the opening of stores in provincial cities. In order to acquire capital to enable this expansion, over 60 per cent of all fashion designers are now public limited companies. Even then franchising of stages 3 and 4, diffusion line development, is often franchised to third parties with the designer maintaining control over the product and its brand image. Between 20‐30 per cent of gross margin is spent on advertising support to create global campaigns to enhance brand image in foreign markets. However, there is increasing tension between the desire to be exclusive yet becoming involved in product line extensions and widespread distribution which could ultimately dilute the brand’s value.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of fashion weeks on brand constellations of participating fashion companies in social media.

The study analyses how brand constellations take form for seven Swedish fashion companies before, during and after Fashion Week Stockholm. In total, 3,449 user-generated contents referring to the sampled brands were collected and analysed.

On average, brand constellations of participating companies are increasingly incorporating other participating brands as a result of the fashion week. Based on the presented results, four brand constellation outcomes for participating fashion companies are identified: brand constellation amplification, concentration, division and dilution.

As this paper is focussed on the Swedish market, additional results from fashion weeks taking place in other cities would be beneficial to verify the four brand constellation outcomes.

The results question the resilience of professionally curated brand constellations due to the emergence of user-driven constellations that also shape the position of fashion brands. Therefore, this development can potentially have a considerable impact on often carefully orchestrated brand positioning strategies executed by fashion companies.

Digitally fuelled interdependences of brand constellations by professionals and consumers attest to the dilution of borders between consumers and producers.

This paper contributes to the field of fashion marketing and management by identifying four different brand constellation outcomes in social media for participating fashion companies as a result of fashion weeks and how to managerially handle these respective outcomes.