Investigating fashion disposition with young consumers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is first, to investigate young consumers' fashion disposition behavior, second, to identify motivations for their fashion disposition, and third, to identify emotional responses experienced during and after the fashion disposition process. The paper also aims to investigate young consumers' ideas about their future fashion disposition practices and to what extent did participants link being socially responsible to their fashion disposition decisions and behaviors.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach was adopted wherein undergraduates wrote an essay concerning their apparel disposal habits. Data were analyzed using content analyses.FindingsParticipants engaged in multiple fashion disposition behaviors including donation, selling, repurposing, and swapping unwanted clothing, Participants mentioned fashionability, physical condition of an item, and social responsibility as factors that prompted their fashion disposition. Participants experienced primarily positive emotions when disposing of unwanted apparel items. In the future, participants indicated a desire to make additional efforts to donate unwanted clothing, repurpose clothing, and to attempt to reduce the amount of clothing they acquired.Originality/valueBy investigating young consumers' fashion disposal, underlying motivations for disposal were identified as well as the need for education on how to dispose of clothing items in socially responsible ways as responses suggested that these young consumers were open to disposing of their unwanted fashion items in a socially responsible manner but did not always have the skill or knowledge to do so.