fashion

The core constructs identified from the literature have an impact on fashions because of their relationship to the individual's fashion decision process. Therefore, we be-gin by examining the individual's decision process and then integrate that decision process into a framework for societal-level analysis (Figure 1). The individual-level decision process and its relationship to the core con-structs are presented as unidirectional for ease of expo-sition, though we recognize that significant feedback be-tween steps undoubtedly occurs. 

Individual Level 

An individual searches for information about the sym-bolic meaning attached to alternative styles from others with whom he or she interacts (Midgley 1983). If a priori preferences are strong (perhaps because of large func-tional differences between alternatives), symbolic mo-tivations will be relatively less important and fashion checking infrequent (Blumer 1969; Sproles 1981). Ad-ditionally, if the individual holds a strong desire to be current, checking of the current meaning attached to al-ternative styles will be more frequent (Back 1985). 

The people referenced by the individual may be held in esteem and influence him or her toward a given sym-bol or be disdained and influence her or him away from a given symbol (Davis and Miller 1983). For ease of exposition of the conceptual framework (Figure 1) and for reasons detailed in the next section, we separate the two directions of selective influence. The degree of pos-itive selective influence (shown as 4) in Figure 1) or neg-ative selective influence (ao in Figure 1) attributed to each person referenced may vary considerably across individ-uals.