PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to attempt to understand the frequent clothing purchase behavior of undergraduate urban college‐goers of India aged 18‐23 years and empirically prove the value‐psychographic traits‐clothing (VPC) purchase behavior hierarchy.Design/methodology/approachA stratified systematic sample of 275 respondents was used to test the hierarchy. The List of Values (LOV) scale was submitted to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with principal components analysis and varimax rotation. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate EFA results. Next, structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) was used to empirically prove VPC of the urban Indian college‐goers.FindingsThe study finds that EFA of the LOV scale yielded two dimensions‐ outer‐directed values and inner‐directed values. Outer‐directed values influenced the psychographic traits – fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness positively, while fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness positively influenced clothing purchase frequency. Thus, VPC hierarchy is empirically proved with the help of SEM.Research limitations/implicationsIn the context of frequent clothing purchases of college‐goers, values affect behavior indirectly through psychographic traits of fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness. Psychographic traits of fashion‐consciousness and innovativeness act as intervening variables between values and clothing purchase behavior. EFA and CFA were done on the same sample thereby limiting the scope of the study.Practical implicationsThe marketer of clothing for college‐goers should frame his/her product and communication strategy in such a way that it appeals to the fashion‐conscious and innovative consumers with outer‐directed values.Originality/valueAn attempt has been made for the first time to prove the VPC hierarchy empirically in the context of frequent clothing purchases of young college‐goers.