Fashion innovativeness and self‐concept: a replication

Describes the results of a survey of 281 adult women in the state of Florida. We used the 15 adjective pairs of the Malhotra self‐concept scale to measure their self‐image. A valid and reliable self‐report scale measured their fashion innovativeness, thus identifying those consumers most likely to buy new fashions after they first appear in the market. T‐tests compared the mean scores on the self‐image adjective pairs between 30 innovators and 251 later adopters. Pearson correlation analysis was also performed. The results of both analyses showed that the fashion innovators described themselves uniquely as more comfortable, pleasant, contemporary, formal, colorful, and vain than the later adopters. The results were quite consistent with an earlier published study of college students, lending confidence to this approach to profiling fashion innovators and suggesting that using self‐image could be a fruitful way to appeal to these important consumers.

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