Class-based emotions and the allure of fashion consumption

Abstract

Consumers today continue to be enchanted by appearance fashions. For some, having the capacity to style their bodies in ways they desire entitles them to ‘position’ into this practice in line with aspirational cultural standards. This, in turn, can produce considerable emotional rewards. Yet ‘keeping up’ with appearance revisions demands unwavering effort and substantial investments be made. Consequently, for others, maintaining standards in fashionable appearance also represents a source of anxiety, distress and disillusionment. In this article the relationship between social class, the development of emotional tendencies and consumption practice is theorized by locating the intersection of consumption and emotion experience within the context of social structures. Bourdieu’s practice theory, and more recent conceptualizations of class-based emotions, provide useful frameworks to interpret a variety of divergent fashion consumption strategies occurring amongst women. The article illuminates the vital role of intense emotional experiences in social life. It demonstrates how class position converges with familial relations to produce divergent forms of emotional-habitus, which structure consumption patterns to produce competing categories of fashioned femininity. Distance and discriminations between classes of individuals become increasingly perceptible when the emotions surrounding fashion consumption experiences are unraveled.