Klädd i känslor? : En studie om män och kvinnors emotionella förhållningssätt till kläder, i relation till synen på mode och konsumtion

Until today, little research has been made of how individuals develope emotional relations to their clothes. Women have been, and still are, the main focus in most of the contemporary studies, therefore it exists a lack of knowledge of how men and women can relate differently to their clothing. The primary aim of this study is to illustrate how young men and womens different approaches to fashion, clothing and consumption may affect the emotional relations that can develope to clothing. The study material consists of wardrobe-studies as well as semi-structured interviews with two men and two women in the age of 20-30. The study shows that while women are relatively upfront about their emotional relations, men are generally more restrained in the way they speak about their clothes. While women also seem to emphazie their clothes as something meaningful, men addresses clothing more as a form of everyday use object. The divergency is possibly affected by the fact that women experience shopping as something creative and self-fulfilling, while men address it more negatively. The study also shows that different approaches to fashion and trends may effect the way individuals form emotional ties to their clothes. The formation of identity plays a central part in the developement of emotional relations to clothing, something that applies to both the men and women of this study