The Relationship between Fashion and Style Orientation and Consumer Subjective Well-Being

Fashion industry by creating a culture of over-consumption fosters unethically consumption practices that can have a deteriorating effect on consumer well-being. The current research unfolds the conceptual distinction between style and fashion orientation - two trait-like orientations of clothing consumption. It relates both concepts with subjective well-being and expects to find a higher subjective well-being for consumers with a higher style orientation than a higher fashion orientation. Further it is proposed that materialism mediates the relationship between fashion and style orientation and subjective well-being and that fashion orientation relates more strongly to materialism than style orientation. This paper contributes to the current literature by further developing the two concepts, style and fashion orientation, and by testing their relationship to materialism and subjective well-being.