Interpersonal effects on fashion consciousness and status consumption moderated by materialism in metropolitan men

Despite the rapid and dramatic changes in male fashion consumption over the past 20 years, consumer research largely neglects the issue of status consumption, especially in the male market, which plays an increasingly important role in expanding the fashion market. Initial studies show that self-monitoring and susceptibility to interpersonal influence have both direct and indirect effects (via fashion consciousness) on status consumption. Path analysis shows that indirect effects can provide insight into the effects of interpersonal factors on status consumption. Furthermore, high and low materialism serve as moderating forces in the relationship between fashion consciousness and status consumption, producing different effects. In the high-materialism group, susceptibility to interpersonal influence alone has an indirect effect (via fashion consciousness) on status consumption, whereas the low-materialism group requires self-monitoring as an additional antecedent of status consumption.