A proposed method to classify goods by ‘perceived fashion risk’; On the case of items for dress and personal adornment used by women

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the difference of‘perceived fashion risk’in various kinds of goods for dress and personal adornment used by women, and also to classify them by‘perceived fashion risk’.
Three hundreds and sixty female undergraduates served as subjects. They were separated into three groups for rating and asked to rate fifteen fashion risk concerns on a five-point scale about each item. The number of items was one hundred in the total of the three groups.
Major findings obtained were as follows:
1) The same five anxieties were extracted as the structure of‘perceived fashion risk’from each of the three groups.
2) Items for dress and personal adornment for which risk was perceived strongly were revealed to each of the five anxieties. In particular, coat and upper garment, some items for personal effects, Japanese clothes for ceremony or going out, and lower garment extending to the knees, etc, were risky with regard to total anxiety summed by five anxieties.
3) It was possible to cluster the one hundred items for dress and personal adornment in terms of the perceived fashion risk. Those were as follows: “Anxiety about Quality/Performance”Group, “Anxiety about Deviating from Norms”Group, “Anxiety about Becomingness/Ability to Use Well”Group, “Anxiety about Fashionability”Group, and“Anxiety about Self-Expression”Group.