AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Brigitte Gaal Cluver for ...

associates with these categories (Deaux, 1993). Clothing serves as a means to
shape and express identity via the symbolism attached to combinations of colors,
textures, and other expressive elements of the items (Davis, 1985; Sirgy, 1982).
Through a calculated process of combining clothing items with specific expressive
elements, consumers construct appearance styles. Consumers’ appearance styles
are continuously under construction, resulting in the temporary adoption and later
discard of appearance styles and corresponding clothing items (Nagasawa et al.,
1995).
Both interaction with others and interaction with the self influence an
individual’s choices regarding which clothing items to incorporate into or remove from
his/her appearance style. Through objects with shared social meaning, such as
various clothing items that an individual wears in combination to make up an
appearance style, an individual strives to communicate his/her identity to others.
Based on an individual’s appearance style, others may or may not perceive what the
individual wishes to communicate. In a sense, meaning construction is a process of
perpetual acting and reacting during social interaction. The perceiver acts towards
the perceived based upon the meanings he/she associates with the perceived
individual’s appearance style. In turn, such an action shapes how the perceived
reacts towards the perceiver. It is through this interaction that meaning regarding the
perceived individual’s appearance style, is negotiated and sculpted. In reaction to
this negotiation process, an individual may choose to modify his/her appearance style
(Nagasawa et al., 1995).
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