Att hyra lycka: En kulturanalytisk studie om konsumenters affektiva upplevelser vid konventionell klädkonsumtion och vid konsumtion av hyrkläder

Sammanfattning

To Rent Happiness: A cultural analytical study about consumers’ affective experiences of conventional clothing consumption and consumption of rented clothes, Klara Ekstrand The purpose of this study was to investigate consumers’ affective experiences of conventional clothing consumption and renting of clothes and how these experiences affected consumers’ willingness to engage in access-based fashion consumption. The research was mainly conducted by using digital observations and interviews with customers of two different subscription services for renting everyday clothes: It’s Re:Leased and Hack Your Closet. Affect theory was used to analyse the results and examine affective experiences. The results showed that consumers were motivated to rent clothes to gain access to “new” garments, change consumption behaviours that led to negative emotions, and engage in a business model that they considered to be sustainable and consistent with their values. Aspects of flexibility and access of the subscription services created possibilities for customers’ identity construction and self-expression, with the access to “new” clothes being more desirable than ownership. At the same time, consumers had a lot of expectations on the services; they needed to be able to compete with conventional clothing consumption and established companies.