Fashion Alienation: Older Adults and the Mass Media

Abstract

A self-administered questionnaire including questions related to fashion alienation, frequency of use of mass media for fashion information, and demographics was completed by 209 "50-plus" aged consumers in Northern California. Fashion alienation was measured using ten separate statements related to 1) degree of identification with fashion symbols in the media and 2) feelings of social and economic estrangement from fashion. Two of the statements produced significant regression models. In both statements, age was positively related to fashion alienation, and there was an inverse relationship between frequency of use of media for fashion information and fashion alienation. The data provide implications for a conceptual distinction between information and meaning processing with regard to fashion.