FOUR MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
WHICH AFFECT FASHION INTEREST AND DEMAND
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
The growth of fashion demand depends on a high level of economic
development, which is reflected on consumer income, population
characteristics
and technological advances.
Relationship between economics and fashion:
Quentin Bell/ On Human Finery
Most economically sophisticated countries discard their national
costumes long before other nations begin to abandon theirs.
England for example which led the Western world into industrial
revolution, was the first country to stop wearing traditional national dress.
According to Bell, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Japan abandoned before
Greece, Poland and Spain.
China: Growth in economy abandoned unisex blue jacket and pant.
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
CONSUMER INCOME
Personal Income:
Many groups of people use the amount of personal income as an indicator of “arriving” in
their particular social set.
The total or gross income reveived by the population as a whole is called personal income.
Wages, salaries, interests, dvidends, other income in a country.
Per capita personal income: Personal income/Population
Disposable Personal Income:
The amount a person has left to spend or save after paying taxes. Provieds an approxiamtion
of the purchasing power of each consumer during any given year.
Discretionary Income:
The money that an individual or family can spend or save after buying necessities-food,
clothing, shelter and basic transportation. (Necessity-luxury, needs-wants)
The Purchasing Power of Dollar:
A verage income increases each year. But the purchansing power of a dollar steadily
decreases. A decline in the purchansing power of money is called an inflation. Inflation is
defined as an increase in available money and credit, with relative scarcity of goods,
resulting in a significant rise in prices.
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
Germany’s Houshold distribution
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
Population:
-The size of total population and the rate of its growth
-The age mix of the population and its projection to the future.
affect the fashion demand.
Size of population:
The size of the population
relates t the extent of
current fashion demand.
The rate of population
growth suggets what
Size of population:
tomorrow’s market may
become.
Age mix:
The age mix and its
projection into the future
affect the characteristics of
current fashion demand
and suggest what they may
be in the future.
Growth rate are not same
for both sexes.
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
2)THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
Turkey’s Population
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
To understand fashion, one needs to understand the sociological
environment in which fashion trends begin, grow and fade away.
Changes in fashion are caused by changes in the attitudes of consumers,
which in turn are influenced by changes in the social patterns of the
times.
The key sociological factors influencing fashion today are leisure time,
ethnic influences, status of women, social and physical mobility, instant
communications, and wars, disasters and crises.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Leisure Time:
-Most valuable because most scarce.
-Demands of family and home compete with workplace’s demands.
-Activities for fitness, regimen, community work, entertainment,
relaxation, shopping, spectator sports, travel, self-improvement.
-Increased importance of leisure time has brought changes to people’s
lives in many ways-in values, standards of living, and scope of activities.
-As a result whole new markets have sprung up.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Casual Living:
Casual clothes and sportswear.
The market developed in 1950s U:S.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Casual Living:
Casual clothes and sportswear.
Do your own thing in 1960s.
-Casual look for men and women.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Casual Living:
Casual clothes and sportswear.
Jeans, slacks for women in 1970s.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Casual Living:
Some dressed up for 1980s.
Sportswear
Aerobics
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Casual Living:
Casual fridays of the 1990s.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Active Sportswear
Superstar of fashion market of the 1970s, 80s, 90s.
(Health and fitness trend)Growth was phenomenal.
From 1920s and on:
Women’s tennis clothing, relaxing and sunshine.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Ethnic Influences:
Minority groups
Blacks
Hispanics
Asians
Textiles and cosmetics
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Status of Women:
Jobs and money
Staggering increase of women in USA
since 1975.
The dramatic increase in working
women has led to asurge infashion
interest, because a women who works
is continously exposed to fashion.
Financial pressurs and career
satisfaction should keep the number
of working women growing.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Status of Women:
Education
Better educated, willing tolearn new
things, willing to try new fashions.
Wider exposures to other cultures.
Social Freedom
Degree of social freedom since 1900s.
In the late 19th
century, middle
class, educated
women first began
to wear suits as a
symbol of their
professionalism.
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL
ENVIRONMENT
Social Mobility
Individuals chose either to stand out
from or to conform to their actual or
aspired –to class
Middle class influence
Relationship of growth and strength of
middle class and fashion
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
Physical Mobility
Encourages the demand for and response to fashion.
Cross-pollination of cultures.
Seeing other cultures living, travelers bring home a desire to adopt or
adapt some of what they have observed and make it part of their
environment.
Faster Communications
3)THE SOCIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
War, disaster and crisis
4)THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
5 Basic Psychological Factors that influence fashion demand
1)Boredom
People tend to become
bored with fashions too long
in use. Boredom leads to
restlessness and a desire to
change. In fashion, the desire
for change expresses itself in
a demand for something new
and satisfyingly different
from what one already has.
4)THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
5 Basic Psychological Factors that influence fashion demand
2)Curiosity
Curiosity causes interest in
change for its own sake.
Highly curious people like
to experiment, they want to
know what is around the
next corner. There is
curiosity in everyone,
though some may respond
to it less dramatically than
others. Curiosity and the
need to experiment keep
fashion demand alive.
4)THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
5 Basic Psychological Factors that influence fashion demand
3)Reaction to Convention
People’s reactions one of two forms:
Rebellion against convention or
adherence to it. Rebellion against
convention is characteristic of young
people. This involves more than
boredom or curiosity.
It is a positive rejection of what
exists and a serach for something
new.
However acceptance by the majority
is an important part of the definition
of fashion. The majority tends to
adhere to convention, either within
its own group or class in general.
4)THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
5 Basic Psychological Factors that influence fashion demand
4)Need for Self-Assurance
Often the need to
overcome feelings of
inferiority or of
disappointment can be
satisfied through apparel.
People who consider
themselves to be
fashionably dressed have
an armor that gives them
self-assurance. Those
who know that their
clothes are dated are at a
psychological
disadvantage.
4)THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
5 Basic Psychological Factors that influence fashion demand
5)Desire for Companionship
The instinct for survival of the
species drives individuals to
seek a mate.
Fashion plays its part in the
search for all kinds of
companionship.
Companionship implies
formation of groups, which
require conformity in dress as
well as in other respects.
Flamboyant or subdued, a
person’s mode of dress can be
bid for companionship as well
as the symbol of acceptance
within a particular group.
Ref: Book: Dynamics of Fashion