Understanding the psychology of fashion: Demographic, personality, and fashion factors underlying everyday clothing choices in the United Kingdom and United States.

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Fashion is one of the most common (aesthetic) activities, yet aside from a select number of works, systematic studies of clothing preference remain relatively rare. This study aims to extend this line of research by offering a more generalizable understanding of the predictors and descriptions of everyday clothing preferences. Samples were drawn from two English-speaking cultures (i.e., the UK and the USA; Ns = 402 and 400 respectively) and a range of demographic, personality, and fashion-related variables (e.g., general fashion interest, formal training/education in fashion, & perceived function of clothing) were examined. The results revealed a six-factor structure of clothing preference, which was invariant across UK and USA samples (i.e., the Updated Everyday Clothing Preference Factors; ECPF-2). Path analysis indicated that general fashion interest and demographic variables (e.g., gender) are key predictors of one’s clothing choices. Moreover, while a general positive relationship between liking and owning clothing was found across the entire sample, further analysis revealed individual differences. Additionally, the work includes analyses of culture-invariant factor structures for perceived clothing functions and clothing descriptors. The present study opens up exciting avenues for exploring the dynamic relationship between clothing preference and its underlying motivations.