ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH

Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802

Masculine Fashion: Prescription and Description Susan Kaiser, University of California, Davis, USA Janet Hethorn, University of Delaware, USA Ryan Looysen, University of California, Davis, USA Daniel Claro, University of Delaware, USA

The presentation will focus on the interplay among prescription, description, and inscription in social constructions of masculine fashion. Based upon (a) archival, critical discourse analyses of men’s magazines (e.g., Esquire, GQ, Details) and (b) interviews and surveys with U.S. male consumers, we explore the complex relationship between institutional and everyday discourses of style. Findings include an historical “ebb and flow” in the level of prescription and description in fashion media discourse. We compare the prescriptive and descriptive language used by contemporary media and male consumers, and analyze this language in relation to visual inscriptions of masculinity.

[to cite]: Susan Kaiser, Janet Hethorn, Ryan Looysen, and Daniel Claro (2007) ,"Masculine Fashion: Prescription and Description", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, eds. Stefania Borghini, Mary Ann McGrath, and Cele Otnes, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 305-310.

[url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/14035/eacr/vol8/E-08

[copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. European Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 8) / 305

SPECIAL SESSION SUMMARY “It’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry”: Fashion and Consumer Agency, Revisited Diego Rinallo, Bocconi University, Italy

SESSION SUMMARY of consumer behavior as a separate field of inquiry independent of The title for this special session was inspired by the recent marketing activities, consumer researchers may be losing sight of movie “The Devil Wears Prada”, which narrates the misadventures the ways in which consumers and marketers negotiate cultural of young university graduate Andy Sachs who obtains a job as meanings in relation to each other in the marketplace”. Putting assistant to powerful fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly. marketing back in the picture, in our view, is key to an improved This movie is of special interest for the ACR community as in one understanding of consumer culture. of its most dramatic scenes Miranda–whose character is inspired by When speaking of fashion, these same remarks apply. While Vogue America’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour–denies the idea of a few studies have investigated agency vs. structure in the consump- consumer agency. In the scene, Miranda and some of her assistants tion of fashion (Thompson & Haykto, 1997; Murray, 2002), the are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit and Andy, who joint investigation of consumers, marketers and the media as they got a job “a thousand girls would kill for” despite not being a negotiate cultural meanings is still in an embryonic state. The goal fashionista, sniggers because, in her opinion, they are almost of this special session was to introduce new research findings that identical. Here is Miranda’s reaction. improve our understanding of how consumption of fashion is influenced–sometimes in invisible ways–by marketplace actors. Miranda Priestly: Something funny? All the papers in this session analyze the construction of fashion in Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y’know, it’s just that both those two different moments of cultural production: marketplace dis- belts look exactly the same to me. Y’know, I’m still learning course and everyday consumption. The papers draw on a variety of about all this stuff. disciplinary and methodological approaches that should appeal to Miranda Priestly: This... ‘stuff’? Oh... ok. I see, you think this a broad audience interested both in fashion and, more in general, to has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you institutional constrains to consumer choices and to consumer con- select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for strains to marketer choices. More in detail: instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take Søren Askegaard, Deniz Atik and Stefania Borghini introduce yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. the session with a study on consumer desires and fashion based on But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, interviews with both fashion consumers and designers. Intrigu- it’s not turquoise . . . it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blindly ingly, they found not only that the fashion systems constrains unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a consumers as the meaning of fashion-related choices is continu- collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St ously resignified, but also that consumers pose constraints on Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And marketers, increasingly frustrated by the need to keep up with then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 increasingly changing consumer tastes. different designers. Then it filtered down through the depart- In the second paper, Diego Rinallo investigates the emergence ment stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual of the metrosexual–a straight men adopting the aesthetic sensibili- corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance ties of gay consumers–and compares this media representation of bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and masculinity with the lived experiences of male consumers. He countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that found that the consumptionscape of straight men is made of ‘danger you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion zone’ and ‘safe areas’ whose boundaries are continuously re- industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was negotiated by marketers, the media, individual consumers and the selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff. ‘panoptical’ gaze of their significant others. The third paper, presented by Susan Kaiser, Janet Hethorn, In this scene, we can perceive echoes of one of the central Ryan Looysen, and Daniel Claro, addresses the interplay between debates in social theory: are individuals autonomous in their thoughts prescription and description in men’s fashion, through a longitudi- and behaviors, or are there deeper forces that influence how they nal critical discourse of men’s magazines which is compared with think and behave? Here, Miranda acts as a spokesperson for a strong consumer data based on interviews and a survey. The study on structuralist position. In her view, fashion institutions shape the which this paper is based draws on an ongoing multi-year study. actions of individuals, even those who, like Andrea, believe not to Extensive interpretations and write-ups for the findings here re- be influenced by fashion. The agency vs. structure debate is of ported are however complete. central interest also for consumer culture theory (Arnould & Th- Also the final paper looks into the world of men’s fashion with ompson, 2005) where a variety of studies has on the one hand a quantitative study that employs a web-based methodology for represented consumers as autonomous, interpretive agents who do visual research to empirically identify the ways through which not always passively accept the influence of marketers over their consumers and cultural gatekeepers (i.e., people working for vari- life while, on the other hand, other research has illuminated the ous fashion institutions) categorize men’s “looks”. Data collection institutional and social structures that systematically influence and analysis is complete for consumer data, but still underway for consumption. We however note the dearth of research that analyzes gatekeeper data. For the presentation, initial results from the com- the interplay between consumer and marketing practices. We thus parison will however be provided. concur with Peñaloza (2001: p. 394) that “in carving out the study

305 European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 8, © 2008 306 / Fashion and Consumer Agency, Revisited ABSTRACTS been mainly concerned with women (Davis 1992). For instance, fashion magazines still show many more pictures of women than “The Interplay of Institutional Forces and Consumer Desires men (Barnard 2002). On the producer side, the main category in the Moulding of Fashion” chosen was the fashion designers who have experience on women’s Søren Askegaard, University of Southern Denmark fashion design, aiming to develop a deeper understanding of their Deniz Atik, Izmir University of Economics vision of fashion, their perceptions of consumer desires, how/if they Stefania Borghini, Bocconi University can anticipate, construct, or even change consumer desires, which Recently, the Consumer Culture Theory (Arnould & challenges they are facing within the fashion system, and where Thompson, 2005) has witnessed a debate concerning the structure- they get their inspirations for new designs. agency relationship in the fashion process. One major contribution Our results indicate, that seen from the individual agent’s in the Journal of Consumer Research has focused on the central role perspective, the fashion system does indeed have the character of a of consumer agency in the meaning transfer process from fashion code that lives a life seemingly (but of course not really) independ- industry to consumers (Thompson & Haytko 1997), stressing the ent of the individual agents in the fashion system. Our consumers interaction between consumers’ private life worlds, schemes of are fashion-lovers who spend a great deal of time following trends, meanings and fashion practices and the symbolic material provided checking new styles etc. Indeed, the shifting character is the basis by the fashion industry. In a re-inquiry of the Thompson and Haytko for the allure of the fashion market and its offerings of sources of study, Murray (2002) both confirmed the importance of consumer active consumers’ playful activities concerning styles and self. agency but also drew attention to the relative neglect of hegemonic Nevertheless, they do also feel some kind of frustration over the pressure that the fashion system and its marketing practices exer- volatility of the fashion market. Since their identity-formation is cises over consumers in the former study. This paper represents an dependent on the fashion-market, the degree of non-control that attempt to throw additional light on the particular systemic nature consumers feel over this part of their identity does seem to lead to of the fashion process. We would like, however, to go beyond the a sort of doppelgänger personal image (Thompson, Rindfleisch & above mentioned structure-agency perspective and apply what we, Arsel 2006), since the consumer feels a lack of control over a in lack of better terms, could call a Baudrillard-inspired institu- significant part of the sign system used to express the self. Our tional perspective on the fashion system as an interagency between fashion designers and other industry-representing informants, on industrial and consumer agents (Kozinets et al., 2004). Our efforts the other hand, express a similar frustration over the difficulty of hereby also represent an attempt to respond to Arnould and keeping up with what is perceived as an ever-increasing velocity of Thompsons (2005) call for more focus in consumer research on the fashion market change coupled with increasing unpredictable institutional agents that have shaped the marketplace and the consumer trends and tastes. In other words, fashion designers feel consumer as social categories. as much trapped in the contemporary fashion system as the consum- Belk, Ger & Askegaard (2003) suggested that consumer ers, but seen from the opposite perspective. desires are socially constructed in a nexus between consumer Our study expands on the insights provided by Miller (2004) fantasies and social institutional forces. Our study tries to investi- that contemporary fashion market freedom leads to a certain struc- gate this nexus from two different perspectives, building on a set of tural conservatism, since the freedom experienced by consumers as interviews with agents from the fashion industry as well as fashion well as producers constitutes a market system not so much charac- consumers. Baudrillard (1970) analyzed consumer society in terms terized by a universe of unlimited choice but rather by mutual of a code, or a system of codes organizing what he saw as a surveillance. Finally, our findings represent a refinement of the contemporary morality of stylizations, of differentiation, of excess conclusions concerning the politics of fashion made by Murray and of waste in a modern consumer society. The prototype of such (2002), as well as a first glimpse into the lived experience of market a codified system, he argued, was the fashion system. Fashion, on agents operating under the fashion system as a seemingly independ- the level of experienced consumption a system of endless varia- ent code. tions, renewals and differentiations, is on the systemic level a powerful political force exercising its hegemony over consumer “Producing and Consuming the Metrosexual” practices. However, as we would like to argue here and as Baudrillard Diego Rinallo, Bocconi University hints at in various parts of his essay, not only the consumers but also For years, when targeting men, marketers have produced the producers are victims of this code. The seducer is the first to be representation of male beauty and appearance shaped by gay seduced by the seduction mechanisms, as Baudrillard (1979) was aesthetics. This paper examines recent developments in the market- later to write. This was the perspective that we set out to explore in place discourse around masculinity centered upon the so-called this study-whether by investigating market agents in the fashion “metrosexuals” (male consumers living in/near metropolitan areas system–consumers and producers alike–we would be able to say who adopt the aesthetic sensibility often associated with gay men) something about the fashion system as a code in a Baudrillardian (Simpson, 2002) and contrasts them with the lived experience of sense, whose effects goes beyond a more traditional understanding fashion-conscious straight men in Italy. of market politics, as expressed in Murray (2002). Fashionable representations of masculinities face centuries- When the construct under investigation is a passionate feeling old cultural taboos (Craik, 1994). The idea of fashion-unconscious such as consumer desire, qualitative methods were most suitable for men may be traced back to early fashion theorists who observed the data collection, conducting in-depth interviews that could provide diffusion, in the decades following the French Revolution, of the so- a greater breath of data than any structured interview or question- called “Great Masculine Renunciation” (Flügel, 1930), i.e. the naire where the responses are more limited to the specific questions principle that men–unlike women–should not call attention to (Fontana and Frey 2000). In the Spring of 2005, in Milan, Italy, we themselves as objects of beauty. In recent years, however, mass- interviewed a total of 29 fashion market agents, 15 fashion consum- media representation of masculinity have fostered a renegotiation ers and 14 people with various influential positions as designers of gender boundaries (Patterson & Elliott, 2002). In the 1980s, within the fashion industry. On the consumer side, we focused on men’s lifestyle magazines represented a “new man” more in touch women’s fashion as fashion in clothing in the modern world has with his feminine side and not afraid of caring about his physical European Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 8) / 307 FIGURE 1 The cultural production of straight men’s consumptionscape

aspect (Nixon, 1996). In the 1990s, magazines proposed the less informants highlighted the clear existence of do’s and don’ts when feminine and soft ‘new lad’ (Crewe, 2003). In the first years of the speaking of fashion and physical appearance. The interpretive new millennium, history repeated itself with the media hype sur- model in Figure 1 makes sense of the imagined barriers that straight rounding “metrosexuals”. While coined by journalist Marc Simpson men dare not cross and the mechanisms that enforce respect of these (1994; 2002), the term was appropriated by multinational advertis- barriers. ing agency Euro RSCG who issued in June 2003 a research report For straight men, the consumption of fashion is made of safe that represented metrosexuals as a viable market segment. While in areas–where the imitation of fashion models may occur in secu- Simpson’s writings the sexual orientation of metrosexuals is imma- rity–and of danger zones–where consumption is riskier as regimes terial, Euro RSCG’s (2003) report and the subsequent media hype of surveillance (Schroeder & Zwick, 2005) sanction illegitimate have constructed metrosexuals as straight men. Sustained by Euro consumption as our appearance is subjected to the approval of RSCG’s publicity and the media craze surrounding it, metrosexuality significant others such as parents, partners, friends, acquaintances, enjoyed substantial worldwide visibility. After a couple of years of coworkers and superiors. Consumption practices may be stigma- undisputed attention, however, the metrosexual was deposed by his tized for being untidy, sloppy, not refined, old-fashioned. Other self-nominated successor, the übsersexual, i.e. a man who is “su- practices may on the other hand be too refined or fashionable, to the premely confident (without being obnoxious), masculine, stylish, point of being gender-inappropriate for men. Only in safe areas the and committed to unpromising quality in all areas of life” (Salzman panoptical gaze of significant others is avoided and consumers may et al., 2005, p. 76). Similarly to what happened when the “new lad” feel free to indulge in consumption activities that will help them to substituted the softer “new man”, here again the metrosexual was look similar to the models depicted in fashion advertising. substituted by the tougher–but equally style-addict–übersexual. Far from being fixed, however, the symbolic boundaries And again, marketplace actors remain behind the media halo between legitimate and illegitimate consumption are constantly surrounding the latest fashionable representation of masculinity: renegotiated by marketers, the media, individual consumers and Ms. Salzman and her co-authors are all involved in the advertising their significant others. The lower bound of the “safe area” (see business at multinational agencies that investigated trends in con- again Figure 1) is rarely questioned: a minimum level of tidiness sumer society to better serve their corporate customers. and aesthetic sense is taken for granted. The prominence of fashion- When we move through the circuit of culture from mass media able masculinities in mass culture induces however consumers to representations of masculinities to the consumption practices of continuously renegotiate the legitimacy of consumption goods and real men, the developments here described look problematic. While practices beyond the upper bound. These “imagined” barriers are reassured by marketers of the manly nature of, say, wearing pink permeable and consumers often notice that practices which are shirts, shaving their bodies or going to spas, straight men still have fairly common today were unconceivable for men when their to face centuries-old prejudices against these consumption prac- fathers were their age (e.g., pink shirts) or even a few years ago (e.g., tices. To address this issue, I generated textual data from 14 straight shaving one’ body, plucking one’s eyebrows). Most consumers men aged 20 to 38 through long, phenomenological interviews. My engage in boundary work, i.e. the renegotiation of the male identity 308 / Fashion and Consumer Agency, Revisited to include certain forms of consumption in terms of product There seemed to be more of an editorial assumption that the reader categories, product attributes, price levels, distribution channels. had some knowledge of style and fashion. So, prescription and Thus, for example a cheap moisturizing cream bought in a super- description generally occurred together (e.g., in the 1930s, the market may be less ‘threatening’ than an expensive, top brand one 1980s, and the early 2000s). An exception to this rule was in the bought in a cosmetics shop; an anti-wrinkle cream may be redefined 1970s, when there was a high degree of description (e.g., fiber as ‘regenerating’ and its use linked to special circumstances (“I content, color, cut) but little prescription (in a time of a “do your wouldn’t buy it, but my skin need being fresh for tomorrow’s own thing” discourse). Otherwise, there was a general historical meeting with my boss”); etc. Lack of legitimacy may thus regard pattern of an “ebb and flow,” or a rather pendular swing, between not only products and brand, but also their distribution channels, an editorial tone that was prescriptive (telling the reader what to do price levels and modes of consumption. with the descriptive information) and what we call “assumptive” (assuming the reader already had the knowledge and needed less “Masculine Fashion: Prescription and Description” descriptive information). The latter tone uses “could” rather than Susan Kaiser, University of California, Davis “should” statements. Janet Hethorn, University of Delaware The contemporary consumer study used our “describe what Ryan Looysen, University of California, Davis you see” (DWYS) method (see Figure 2). This method elicits open- Daniel Claro, University of Delaware ended responses from consumers, to determine how words are used This paper addresses the complex interplay between prescrip- to describe images, so as to communicate shared meaning, to frame tion and description in social constructions of masculine fashion. In visual expectations, and to set up categories of visual meaning. We the definitional sense, the similarities between the verbs “pre- collected responses from approximately 300 students in two large, scribe” and “describe” lie in their shared root word (“scribe”), from mixed gender classes at two different universities on the east and the Latin scribo (to write, to compose). The verb “scribe” also has west coasts of the U.S. They wrote descriptions, in 30-second an historical connotation of cutting or scratching in order to mark intervals, of a series of 15 diverse masculine images, derived from or to make a text—presumably or most commonly, a written or magazines as well as an original photographic documentation verbal text that enters cultural discourse. Visual texts such as (generated by the second author) of diverse masculine styles from appearance style also enter cultural discourse; indeed, “text” is the various locations of the U.S. and Europe. The open-ended re- root word of textiles (the materials of clothing). Here, we conduct sponses generally fell into the following themes, emerging from the a critical analysis of institutional (magazine) and individual (con- inductive discourse analysis: (a) value judgment, (b) action, (c) sumer) written discourse that refers to and interacts with visual focus on visual structure/elements, (d) label or type of person, and discourse. (e) assumed intent or thinking of the observed male. We focus on “masculine fashion,” in part because it consti- In the conclusion of this presentation, we observe that, despite tutes an oxymoron of sorts, to the extent that fashion has been differences in visual presentation, intentionality, and level and type gendered as feminine in modern western culture. “Masculine fash- of detail, there are some intriguing parallels between the magazine ion” embodies the contradictory or ambivalent nature of (a) sustain- and consumer discourses, especially in the realm of assumptive ing institutionalized power through business suits or dress codes, thinking. We present a theoretical model that uses concepts of and (b) making (writing, cutting material) change as required to sell prescription and description as criteria to analyze the circumstances new clothes or to represent emerging identities. and contexts surrounding meanings of masculine fashion. We The diverse and overlapping meanings between prescription discuss the implications of this model for future consumer research and description are instructive for understanding change and con- and suggest some strategies for re-thinking “masculine fashion” in tinuity in masculine clothing and appearance styles. We use “pre- relation to gendered ways of visually knowing identity and differ- scription” to mean “the action of laying down authoritative rules or ence. directions” regarding what to wear, and “description” to mean “a discourse intended to give a mental image” of clothing and appear- “Is Beauty in the Eye of the Encoder or the Decoder? A ance style (Webster’s Dictionary). Using a grounded theory ap- Typology of Male Looks as Perceived by American Men” proach, we analyzed (a) Esquire magazine archives and (b) contem- Wi-Suk Kwon, Auburn University porary consumers’ descriptions of masculine style. Michael Solomon, Saint Joseph’s University The historical discourse analysis of Esquire followed an Basil Englis, Berry College exploration of diverse contemporary men’s fashion magazines Despite the fact that menswear accounts for slightly more than (e.g., Details, GQ, and a variety of alternative or subcultural one third of U.S. apparel purchases, little research has been con- magazines). We became intrigued with what we saw as a prevalent ducted to understand how men perceive and respond to the reper- prescriptive tone in these publications, and then decided to pursue toire of “looks” the apparel industry proposes at any point in time a more in-depth, historical analysis of one publication. Esquire was (Hampp, 2006). The problem is twofold: (1) The framework for selected because it is the oldest U.S. men’s magazine (founded in understanding apparel consumption is still based upon a female- 1933) featuring masculine fashion. An extensive discourse analysis dominant model, i.e., “fashion” has been equated with femininity; across Esquire’s years of publication revealed a close connection and (2) there is an ongoing belief that women make or at least between prescription and description. Frequently, that is, the maga- strongly influence the majority of menswear purchases. As the zine issues prescribing what men should wear in order to be distinctions between “masculine” and “feminine” gender-role ap- considered modern and appropriate also described in detail the propriate behavior increasingly blurs, however, the dynamic around clothes involved. It became apparent that prescription necessitates men’s clothing purchases is shifting. Men are assuming increasing rather “thick” description; prescription does not assume substantial responsibility for their own clothing purchases and exhibiting prior knowledge regarding style and fashion on the part of the increased interest in the niceties of clothing and personal care reader, who presumably “needs to be told” exactly what to wear and products (Hampp, 2006). Therefore, academicians and menswear how. A different pattern was found in magazine issues that were less industry practitioners need to better understand the nature of this prescriptive; there was also less detail in the clothing descriptions. behavioral shift and its possible impact on the way the industry European Advances in Consumer Research (Volume 8) / 309 FIGURE 2 Describe what you see

approaches male fashion consumers. One element in the successful configurations (or “product constellations”) influence these per- positioning of apparel products is to pair a particular apparel style ceptual dynamics. And, as one practical ramification of this com- with a particular male “look.” While some previous research has parison process, we will identify gaps between these perceptions been directed at identifying a typology of female looks commonly that may in turn generate dissatisfaction among consumers with found in print and other advertising, there is no similar work that available market offerings. addresses male looks (Ashmore et al., 1996; Englis et al., 1996). Building upon a methodology previously developed by The research we report here involves empirically identifying a Solomon and Englis (Ashmore et al., 1996; Englis et al., 1996) to typology of current male “looks” that men perceive. In the next study a typology of female beauty, respondents will be given a stage of the research, we will compare the perceptions of these sample of images of male looks. They will then sort the images decoders with those of the encoders of these looks (editors of men’s according to their perceived similarities and differences. The image fashion magazine, stylists, designers and other “cultural stimuli used for the Q-Sort will be randomly selected from a visual gatekeepers”). database we have compiled; this consists of male model shots A key assumption of this work is that both industry practitio- collected from online model portfolios of five U.S. modeling ners and consumers simplify their social worlds by mentally cat- agencies. Among over 1,000 model images available from the egorizing objects in the environment (Barsalou, 1990) through a portfolios, those featuring only one model, showing his entire body process of cognitive prototyping (Solomon & Buchanan, 1991). A fully-clothed in a standing posture were considered for inclusion in crucial question is: To what extent the cognitive prototypes industry this study. After the Q-Sort, the respondents will be asked to label gatekeepers use match those of the consumers to whom they market the categories they created and to provide a narrative description of their products? Our goal is to generate insight into the structure and the characteristics of the male looks they grouped in each category. meanings of the male look categories industry practitioners cur- This task will be followed by evaluations of the categories in a rently use and to compare these with consumer perceptions. By structured form using various rating scales that address attributes of better understanding and comparing the criteria they use to men- each look; these include appropriate/inappropriate usage situations tally classify male looks, this study can provide insight into how (e.g., work, dating) and estimated user profiles such as personal menswear fashion styles are organized in the minds of encoders and characteristics (e.g., innovativeness), professions (e.g., blue collar, decoders of menswear fashion. These results will facilitate an white collar), and fashionability (e.g., fashion opinion leadership). understanding of the process of social stereotyping and how style We will develop the structured questionnaire items based upon 310 / Fashion and Consumer Agency, Revisited findings from a content analysis of preliminary focus group inter- Fontana, Andrea and James H. Frey (2000) “The Interview: views we have already conducted to explore consumers’ percep- From Structured Questions to Negotiated Text,” in Hand- tions of male looks as well as a review of relevant literature. book of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., ed. Norman K. Denzin We will collect data online by adapting software the authors and Yvonna S. Lincoln, Thousand Oaks: Sage, 645-672. have previously created that permits on-screen manipulation and Flügel, J.C. (1930), The Psychology of Clothes. London: data capture to conduct Q-Sorts (Englis & Solomon, 2004). This Hogarth Press. technology permits the respondent to set the number of categories Hampp, A. (2006, September 14). The latest discoveries about and to adjust these as he sorts the images. When the respondent is male shoppers. Advertising Age. 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