A self-administered questionnaire including questions related to fashion alienation, frequency of use of mass media for fashion information, and demographics was completed by 209 “50-plus” aged consumers in Northern California. Fashion alienation was measured using ten separate statements related to 1) degree of identification with fashion symbols in the media and 2) feelings of social and economic estrangement from fashion. Two of the statements produced significant regression models. In both statements, age was positively related to fashion alienation, and there was an inverse relationship between frequency of use of media for fashion information and fashion alienation. The data provide implications for a conceptual distinction between information and meaning processing with regard to fashion.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
IsraelJ., Alienation: From Marx to Modern Sociology, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, Massachusetts, 1971.
2.
SeemanM., On the Meaning of Alienation, American Sociological Review, 24, pp. 783–791, December 1959.
3.
BeckerE., Beyond Alienation, Braziller, New York, 1967.
4.
FashionH. Blumer: From Class Differentiation to Collective Selection, Sociological Quarterly, 10, pp. 275–291, 1969.
5.
McW.Donald, Retailing in the 80's: Model T's of the Future, National Meeting Proceedings, Association of College Professors of Textiles and Clothing, pp. 51–57, 1980.
6.
KaiserS. and KhanS., Clothing for the Aged: A Potential Market, Texas Home Economist, p. 14, 1981.
7.
RichardsM. L., The Clothing Preferences and Problems of Elderly Female Consumers, Gerontologist, 21, pp. 263–267, 1981.
8.
BartleyL. and WardenJ., Clothing Preferences of Women Sixty-Five and Older, Journal of Home Economics, 54, pp. 716–717, 1962.
9.
EbelingM. and RosencranzM. L., Social and Personal Aspects of Clothing for Older Women, Journal of Home Economics, 53, pp. 464–465, 1961.
10.
SmathersD. G. and HorridgeP. E., The Effects of Physical Changes on Clothing Preferences of Elderly Women, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 9, pp. 273–277, 1978-1979.
11.
MarshallV. W., No Exit: A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective on Aging, International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 9, pp. 345–358, 1978-1979.
12.
AlbertR., KaiserS., and BinfordD., Clothing and the Aged, paper presented at the Southwestern Sociological Association, Dallas, Texas, 1977.
13.
MartinW. C., BengtsonV. L., and AcockA. C., Alienation and Age: A Context-Specific Approach, Social Forces, 53, pp. 266–274, December 1974.
14.
SchmittN., WhiteJ. K., CoyleB. W., and RauschenbergerJ., Retirement and Life Satisfaction, Academy of Management Journal, 22, pp. 282–291, 1979.
15.
AlstonJ. P. and DudleyC. J., Age, Occupation, and Life Satisfaction, Gerontologist, 13, pp. 58–61, 1973.
16.
ClementeF. and SauerW. J., Life Satisfaction in the United States, Social Forces, 54, pp. 621–631, 1976.
17.
DudleyC. J. and HilleryG. A., Freedom and Alienation in Homes for the Aged, Gerontologist, 17, pp. 140–145, 1977.
18.
SimmelG., Die Philosophic des Geldes (The Philosophy of Money), Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1907.
19.
MillsC. W., White Collar, Oxford University Press, New York, 1951.
20.
GerbnerG., GrossL., SignorielliN., and MorganM., Aging with Television: Images on Television Drama and Conceptions of Social Reality, Journal of Communication, 30, pp. 37–47, Winter 1980.
21.
HessB. B., Stereotypes of the Aged, Journal of Communication, 24, pp. 76–85, Autumn 1974.
22.
HarrisA. J. and FeinbergJ. F., Television and Aging: Is What You See What You Get?, Gerontologist, 17, pp. 464–468, 1977.
23.
KaiserS. and ChandlerJ., “50-Plus” Aged Consumers’ Processing of Fashion Information from Mass Media, Proceedings of the Association of College Professors of Textiles and Clothing, p. 217, 1981.
24.
BabbieE., The Practice of Social Research, 3rd Edition, Wadsworth, Belmont, California, 1983.
25.
AllisonN. K., A Psychometric Development of a Test for Consumer Alienation from the Marketplace, Journal of Marketing Research, 15, pp. 565–575, November 1978.
26.
LundstromW. J. and LamontL. M., The Development of a Scale to Measure Consumer Discontent, Journal of Marketing Research, 13, pp. 373–381, November 1976.
27.
CarminesE. G. and ZellerR. A., Reliability and Validity Assessment, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, California, 1979.
28.
CronbachL. J., Coefficient Alpha and the Internal Structure of Tests, Psychometrika, 16, pp. 297–334, 1951.
29.
NeterJ. and WassermanW., Applied Linear Statistical Models, RichardD. Irwin, Inc., Homewood, Illinois, 1974.
30.
MartinC. R., A Transgenerational Comparison: The Elderly Fashion Consumer, in Advances in Consumer Research, 3, PerraultW. R. (ed.), Association for Consumer Research, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 453–456, 1976.
31.
NystromP. H., Economics of Fashion, The Ronald Press Co., New York, p. 25, 1928.
32.
HorridgeP. E., KhanS., and HuffmanK. E., An Assessment of Fashion Awareness of Females Based on Selected Demographic Factors, Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics, 5, pp. 301–310, December 1981.
33.
KlappO. E., Meaning Lag in the Information Society, Journal of Communication, 32, pp. 56–66, Spring 1982.
