Customer Embarrassment---The Dilemma of Fashion and Wearing the Same Dress as Someone Else

The chief concern of this study is the embarrassment which customers could experience when they happen to wear the same or similar dress as someone else. To avoid this situation, consumers may hesitate to buy the most popular clothes. Based on Goffman’s perspective on embarrassment, many models of mechanisms of arousing embarrassment have been proposed. These include (1) the loss of self-esteem model, (2) the social evaluation model, (3) the dramaturgic model, (4) the personal standards model, (5) the conspicuousness model, and (6) the empathic model. However, this kind of embarrassing situation has been overlooked in the existing research. Moreover, no model of those mechanisms can interpret why customers could feel embarrassed when they happen to wear the same or similar dress as someone else, since they are wearing trendy clothes and do not do anything wrong. Hence, the first purpose of this study is to clarify what factors of costume design are used to identify the accident of wearing the same or similar dress. The second purpose is to understand the mechanisms of arousing customer embarrassment when she/he is wearing the same or similar dress as someone else. The third purpose is to explore the effects of different fashionability of clothing, occasion and the counterparts who wear the same dress on consumer embarrassment. Focus group interviews were conducted to get a grip on the main factors of costume design by which customers recognize that clothes look similar. Consumer insights about the mechanisms of arousing embarrassment with different style clothes, contexts, and counterparts were discussed. The results of the present study show that (1)color and style are two main dimensions by which consumers determine whether they are wearing the same or similar dress as someone else, and they will recognize this awkward situation when most elements of color and style are the same or similar. (2)Consumers will not feel embarrassed when wear the same or similar dress of classic style. (3)The mechanisms of arousing customer embarrassment when she/he is wearing the same or similar dress as someone else could be explained by dramaturgic theory, social evaluation theory, or personal standard theory. (4) The extent of customer embarrassment depends on the intimacy with the counterparts and the openness of the place where they are.

Project ID:PB10307-0474
External Project ID:MOST103-2410-H182-008