article "College men’s fashion: clothing preference, identity, and avoidance" (34th)

They conducted our exploratory study in a short period of time, which provides opportunity for further in-depth interviews on the topic. The samples were all from the midwestern part of the United States, so the results may not be applicable to all college men in the United States. The sexual orientation of each of the study respondents was not determined, and thus might have had some influence on the data. In addition, different topics related to fashion and college-aged men should be explored, as limited studies are currently available. For example, research could focus on effects of variables such as shopping orientation (e.g., convenience/time consciousness, price consciousness, etc.) on the clothing choice of male college students from different ethnic backgrounds. Such research could help apparel marketers develop strategies targeting the shopping orientation of consumers from different ethnic groups. For more generalizable results, research could be extended to a larger sample representing young college men in both the United States and abroad. In addition, this study only constitutes qualitative research due to the limited sample size, Therefore, research should be conducted using quantitative data to achieve more reliable findings.

This exploratory study provides an initial theoretical contribution to the field of fashion and textiles, through the information gathered on relationships between college-aged men’s identities and their clothing choices. Furthermore, the findings from this study provide apparel marketers with important information, in terms of young college men’s clothing preferences and the relationship between their clothing choice and identity. The findings offer guidance to apparel marketers so that they can develop effective strategies to increase sales of new products targeted to young male consumers. Apparel marketers should determine which clothing products are congruent with their targeted men’s identities and use this information to develop promotional strategies that entice young college men to purchase their products. Note, however, that the diversity composition of the students in the major midwestern university where the interviews were conducted was quite low, which likely had a significant impact on our findings. In line with this, we suggest that universities should consider educating students to prevent them from maintaining negative stereotypes against African Americans and homosexuals. Continued educational efforts could be made through course content to curtail the aversion to unrepresented ethnic groups