Access-Based Consumption of Clothes: Ownership, Attachment, and Identity

Abstract

Whereas ownership has traditionally been central to consumption, consuming objects by accessing them rather than owning is becoming an increasingly attractive alternative for consumers. Access- based consumption is seen to liberate consumers from the obligations of ownership and allow them to experience something they normally could not. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomena of access-based consumption and gain understanding on the nature of ownership in access-based consumption and its relation to consumers’ identity work. The study is conducted in highly visible and highly symbolic consumption context of clothing, which is assumed to enrich our understanding on the phenomena. The study relies on the consumer research literature of construction-through-consumption and liquid consumption.

The study is qualitative and interpretive in nature, relying on semi-structured in-depth interviews of seven clothing library users as the main data collection method. Materiality is added as an additional layer to the study through relying on the method of wardrobe interviews. Wardrobe interviews are employed in order to better understand the person-object relationships.

The study deepens our understanding on how objects within the realm of access-based consumption are employed in consumers’ identity narratives and what kind of interplay they have with the objects belonging to one’s own wardrobe. By building on the literature of construction-through- consumption, this study suggests that access-based consumption may provide consumers with unique opportunities for identity expression, identity experimentation, and reaching for desirable identities that are out of consumers reach in traditional ownership. Ownership is found to be an important source for constructing coherent identities.

This study adds on our understanding of the nature of ownership in access-based consumption as it illustrates how consumers may form attachment with access-based goods and how they aim to control it. Lastly, this study expands our understanding on managing wardrobe as a clothing collection by illustrating the interplay of liquid, access-based clothes with the solid core of clothes collection, and by suggesting how liquid consumption may help consumers in managing coherent wardrobes.