Youth and Fashionable Clothings : The Consumption of Identity in Cultural Consumer Context.

Abstract

This article is concerned with identity formation of youth through fashionable clothings in Siam Square. The objectives are to study youth clothing fashions by putting emphasis on motivations and expressions as well as to explore how youth define and give meaning of their dressing style. The relationship between fashionable clothing and its effect on the youth’s identity formation was also analyzed. In addition, the study also investigates trendy youth construction of identity through the study of hip hop fashions

The result shows that the youth identity formation begins with the conditions which motivate youthto dress fashionably. These conditions are teenage natural drive, family economic and social contexts, peer groups, mass media as well leisure activities. After that, they go through “distinction” and “imitation” processes. In fact, this fashion expressions represent their tastes, lifes-styles, social classes, and authoritative relationships within their social and cultural milieu. The process also connote the modernization of individual youth and their relationship with a particular group. In other words, this fashionable clothings are in fact parts of self-identity and shared collective identity. It was found that the fashionable identity also brings about particular characteristics and personality identity through gestures and use of slang words related to fashion.

Since discourse on fashion constructed in consumer culture among the youth who are in the transitional period is a continuous process, the process of formation identity is consequently flexible and fluid depending on social interaction in the context of place and time. Therefore, it was found that while some youth are just forming their identity, others already complete theirs. Nevertheless, the identity formation based on the consumer culture is considered the product of impermanent social process. In other words, this identity is temporary, representing youth identity at a particular time and is subject to change in the future.