Luxury clothing: a mirror of gay consumers sexual option?

Abstract

Through a qualitative exploratory research, the present paper investigates the behaviour of Brazilian gay consumers as to their luxury clothing consumption, assuming that this behaviour might help the construction of their self-concept once those products reflect their sexual option. A bibliographical review is followed by the results for in-depth interviews with 12 gay men, and completed with the use of a semantic scale that measures the interviewees' self-concept and luxury clothing concept. An examination of the results is followed by their implications, indicating that the self-concept directly influences the male gay's buying behaviour in this market.

Perfect bodies

“…two men in a domestic living situation). Within the gay community consumption reflects identity, belonging, and subcultural assimilation (Altaf et al , 2012; Hsieh and Wu, 2011; Kates, 2004). With incomes on average 20 percent higher than heterosexual households, high conspicuous consumption behavior, and a buying power of over $800 billion in 2014, this segment of society cannot be ignored (Fuller, 2013).…”

“…cosmetics) and fashionable dress (e.g. luxury brands; Altaf et al , 2012; Kates, 2002; Reilly et al , 2008; Rudd, 1996; Vandecasteele and Geuens, 2009). Dress for gay men is primarily used to communicate sexual orientation, value, personality, and belonging to their community (Schofield and Schmidt, 2005).…”

“…Gay men place a higher value on image, appearance, and fashion consumption than their heterosexual counterparts (Altaf et al , 2012; Dodd et al , 2005; Kates, 1998, 2002, 2004). For example, in a sample of 225 gay men and 225 heterosexual men in the UK, Dodd et al (2005) found that gay men displayed a significantly stronger dependence on apparel shopping to satisfy personal needs (e.g.…”

“…Despite clear evidence of the importance of physical attractiveness and appearance among gay men (Alvarez, 2008; Murray and Touyz, 2012; Tiggemann et al , 2007) and gay men’s involvement with, and use of, appearance-enhancing products (Altaf et al , 2012; Dodd et al , 2005), few studies have examined the relation of these two areas with body image (e.g. Reilly et al , 2008).…”

Luxury consumption and the temporal-spatial subjectivity of Hong Kong men

“…Together with a few other rare works on homosexual men in non-Western countries (e.g. Altaf and Troccoli 2011;Altaf et al 2012;Kerley de Alencar Rodrigues and Monteiro Ferreira 2021 [Brazil]; Lee and Lee 2016 [South Korea]), these studies only theorise luxury consumption as a means for active, progressive, symbolic expression of (homo)sexual identity without considering other sociocultural constraints, pragmatic concerns, and affective encounters not necessarily connected to their romantic and sexual orientation. In their meta-analysis of homosexual consumers' consumption patterns across 45 academic papers, which includes 34 distinct data sets, while Eisend and Hermann (2020) argue that sexual orientation explains on average only <1% of the variation in consumption behaviour, the two authors acknowledge that their findings are largely based on quantitative survey samples from North America and Europe, and they encourage future researchers "to consider new and innovative methods, sampling procedures, and measures on how to access homosexuals in other [non-Western] cultural contexts, e.g.…”