No. 3 (2024)
Essays

Consuming digital fashion in online communities: A mixed-methods research on consumption motivations for digital fashion end products

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  • Adil Boughlala,
  • Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice
Adil Boughlala
Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Bio
Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-2685

Published 30-06-2024

Keywords

  • digital fashion,
  • online consumption,
  • virtual environment,
  • digital identity,
  • digital ethnography

How to Cite

Boughlala, A., & Mazzucotelli Salice, S. (2024). Consuming digital fashion in online communities: A mixed-methods research on consumption motivations for digital fashion end products. Fashion Highlight, (3), 168–177. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-2685

Copyright (c) 2024 Adil Boughlala, Silvia Mazzucotelli Salice

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

 Contemporary fashion consumption is deeply intertwined with digital tools, spanning from pre-purchase browsing to post-purchase sharing on social media. This paper delves into the expanding realm of digital fashion, particularly focusing on the consumption motivations behind digital fashion end products. Despite their contrast with tangible clothing, digital fashion end products have garnered significant interest, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, consumer adoption of digital fashion remains underexplored.

 

This study focuses on the consumption of digital fashion end products, such as NFT fashion, videogame skins, AR filters, and more, among its consumers and, through a mixed-methods approach including digital ethnography, an online survey, and qualitative interviews, it investigates the profile of the community and culture surrounding digital fashion consumption. The research findings indicate that digital fashion serves as a powerful medium for identity formation and self-expression, echoing the dynamics observed in material fashion but amplified in virtual environments. The avatar or virtual body becomes a sociocultural entity, offering consumers a perceived freedom of expression unconstrained by physical limitations. Furthermore, this study uncovers a hybrid phygital identity, where physical and digital identities co-construct each other, influencing consumption practices and brand affiliations across interconnected digital and phygital universes.

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