‘Doing the brand’: aesthetic labour as situated, relational performance in fashion retail

This article explores how company requirements to consume and perform the brand impact on the attachment fashion retail employees have to the brand. The research finds that over time some workers’ attachment to the brand grew, whereas for others it diminished. To explain these differences, the article develops the idea of aesthetic labour as a ‘situated relational performance’. Attachment to the brand was mediated by both the ‘situated circuit of activity’ in which the work was performed, incorporating the brand strategy, the clothes and the store layout. It was also mediated by the sense of distinction generated through a performance of a body for others.