The Relationship between Fashion and Style Orientation and Well-being

The present paper unfolds the conceptual distinction between style and fashion orientation – two trait-like orientations of clothing consumption. We relate both concepts with subjective well-being and assume a higher subjective well-being for consumers with a higher style orientation than a higher fashion orientation. These assumptions were tested using survey data from four countries - Germany, Poland, Sweden, and the United States - with approximately 1,000 respondents per country. Employing structural equation modelling, we found that style orientation was stronger related to subjective well-being than fashion orientation.
We further found that materialism mediated the relationship between fashion and style orientation and subjective well-being and that fashion orientation was statistically significantly stronger related to materialism than style orientation. When including materialism as a mediator, fashion orientation was also positively related to subjective well-being. While materialism and fashion orientation partly overlap, fashion orientation is still conceptually distinct from both style orientation and materialism. This could be, for example, by following the latest fashion trends through alternative means of consumption such as renting or lending.
This paper contributes to the current literature by further developing the two concepts, style and fashion orientation, and by testing their relationship to
materialism and subjective well-being.