Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate attitude, subjective norm, perceived integrity of participants, materialism, and previous experience with collaborative consumption (CC) offline as antecedents to the CC of apparel facilitated by the internet. Design/methodology/approach Survey research with convenience sample of consumers from within the USA. Findings Attitude toward CC of apparel was significantly related to intention to collaboratively consume apparel online as was subjective norms. Previous experience with CC of apparel offline was significantly related to both attitude and behavioral intention. Perceived integrity of CC participants was related to previous experience with CC of apparel offline and attitude. Materialism was significantly and negatively related to previous experience with CC of apparel. Research limitations/implications Research limitations include the use of a convenience sample of consumers and the research was limited to one form of CC. Practical implications As a means to foster sustainable consumption, for those interested in promoting CC, consideration should be given to having existing participants of CC invite other family members and friends to try it as this might be more effective than targeting random members of the consuming public. Originality/value An investigation of CC of a fashion item (apparel) that identifies predictors to participation.

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Within the United States general attitudes towards gays and lesbians (GL) are rapidly undergoing change. Several researchers have previously documented that heterosexual consumers respond negatively to advertisements featuring same-sex couples. At this critical juncture, it is important to reexamine consumer response to fashion advertisements featuring GL images. Using a small qualitative study (n = 10) and an experiment (n = 202) our research purpose was to determine whether consumer attitude towards advertisements, brand attitude, brand distinctiveness and/or brand attractiveness varied based on the level of inclusiveness of GL images (i.e. GL-inclusive vs. non-inclusive). Results from the qualitative project demonstrated most participants responded positively to the advertisements featuring GL images although two participants were worried about unidentified 'negative' influences on the sexual orientation of heterosexual viewers. The inclusiveness level of GL images did not negatively influence attitude towards the advertisements or brand attitude. Rather, GL-inclusive advertising resulted in higher ratings of brand distinctiveness and attractiveness as compared to the non-inclusive advertising. Implications and limitations of this study as well as suggestions for future research are discussed. 252

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