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

Abstract

Extending critical luxury studies to a non-Western context, this article, using Burberry and other Western brands as examples, theorises how the temporal-spatial luxury subjectivity of homosexual Hong Kong male consumers is constituted through the intersections of British colonial history, nostalgia, the media, their personal and professional background, gender, social class, and emotional experiences. Using a consumer-focused anthropological perspective, we analyse how subjective, context-specific, and interwoven experiences of time and space co-constitute one's perception of luxury and recurring luxury consumption practices alongside the forces of social structure and individual preferences. Dissecting consumers' habitual and intimate relations to their wardrobes in the Hong Kong context, this article challenges and refines existing Eurocentric concepts of luxury, and helps clarify how (far) abstract macro-structural forces are consistently materialised into the normative outlook of luxury and micro-individual consumption practices.

Memories reminisced, reconciled, renewed: Hong Kong male consumers’ wardrobes and their search for a congruent self

“…While most participants’ clothing and accessorising experiences (e.g. Wesley, Henry, Perry, Lee, Jacob) clearly echo our theorisation of the evolving self-memory-object relationships, due to the limited scope of this article (for further analysis of other participants' fashion consumption practices, see (von Pezold and Tse, 2022)), in the following sections we focus on five of the participants’ stories as illustrative examples to analyse how memories are affectively reminisced, reconciled, and renewed and how future fantasies are reaffirmed through the wardrobe to enable consumers’ engagement in an ongoing search for a congruent image of the self.…”

The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Consumer Behavior: A Study of the Fashion Retail Industry

“…The case study of StyleSense provides an in-depth examination of a business that has gained notoriety for pioneering environmentally friendly fashion: StyleSense is unique among the enormous digital tapestry of fashion companies because it tells stories through both its clothing and its carefully selected graphics, creating compelling images of its subjects. This qualitative study intends to dissect the brand's strategy and its unquestionable appeal among contemporary fashionistas (von Pezold & Tse, 2023).…”