Class Consumption

During the past fifteen years, it has been asserted that men are increasingly becoming active, independent consumers especially in relation to the consumption of fashion and vanity goods. Over a much longer period, sociologists have attempted to explain clothes choices using various macro-consumer preference models. Using four of these paradigms—the fashion hierarchy, the fashion process, the neotribes model, and the mass consumer theory—this article examines how relevant elements of these four models are in explaining the clothes choices of thirty-five middle-class young men who were interviewed. The assertion that such young men are now active, independent consumers is also explored in relation to fashion goods. The data drawn on in this article challenges the mascularization of consumption thesis, as well as highlights which sections of the consumer preference models are more applicable in explaining the fashion choices of middle-class young men.