Dressing for the thrill: An exploration of why women dress up to go shopping

This paper focuses on the pleasurable aspects of shopping from an experiential perspective, ritual behaviour being the focal point. This research adopts an interpretive methodological approach and relies on phenomenological interviews with a range of women to explain how ritual behaviour and ritual artefacts contribute to pleasurable shopping experiences. The findings suggest that the dressing ritual is an important determinant of whether or not the shopping experience will be perceived as pleasant or unpleasant. Equally important, the ritual of dressing was found to play an important role for many of the participants in their maintenance of self. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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