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Opinion leadership and opinion seeking are central constructs in academic studies of new product innovations. Fashion opinion leaders as those individuals who accelerate the fashion maturity process by legitimising a fashionable trend and influence other consumers to adopt the new innovative style as a replacement for the current accepted one. Consumers who accept information and adopt new style innovations are called opinion seekers and are important to the diffusion of new fashions because they may act on the information they receive from the opinion leaders. In South Africa, the fashion industry, which consists of a combination of the manufacturing, retail, media and recruitment sectors, generates billions of South African rands per annum, and is the fifth largest employment sector in the country. In fact, the fashion and textile industry in South Africa employed approximately 143 000 people in March of 2005, and contributed 12 percent to total manufacturing employment. Post 1994, it was evident that the fashion industry in South Africa underwent a metamorphosis from a protected market where domestic manufacturers dominated to a market that increasingly faced competition from international sources. During the first decade of democracy, the country joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and opened its creative market to international trade. This saw the industry generate sales of R34 billion, of which 9.4 percent was from clothing sales, and with only 18.7 percent of textiles output being exported. This suggests that the South African retailing industry yields substantial value chain power. There appears to be few published research studies focusing on fashion opinion leadership and opinion seeking amongst the black Generation Y students in South Africa. Owing to the importance of the fashion industry sector, together with the ethnic and cultural diversity of Abstract South Africa, the size of the black Generation Y cohort, and the higher social standing and future earning potential of those with a tertiary qualification, it is important to explore black Generation Y students’ fashion opinion leadership/seeking and fashion involvement. In South Africa, the Generation Y cohort is the first generation to grow up in an era of freedom and constantly changing technology – two forces that serve to broaden the divergence between this fascinating generation and previous generations. In 2013, the Generation Y individuals accounted for an estimated 38 percent of the South African population, and members of the black Generation Y accounted for 83 percent of the country’s Generation Y cohort. The primary objective of this study was to investigate fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst South African black Generation Y students. The target population for this study were male and female black undergraduate and postgraduate students, aged between 18 and 24, and enrolled at South African registered public higher education institutions (HEIs). The sampling frame for this study constituted the 23 South African registered public HEIs that existed in 2013. This sampling frame was narrowed down using judgement sampling to two HEI campuses in the Gauteng province – one from a traditional university and one from a university of technology. The Gauteng province was selected over other provinces in the country because it contained the highest percentage of the 23 public HEIs. A self-administered questionnaire was designed based on the scales used in previous studies. Lecturers at each of the two campuses selected to form part of the sample were contacted and asked if they would allow the questionnaire to be administered on their students during lectures. Once permission had been gained, the questionnaires were distributed to students during the scheduled lectures. The questionnaire requested respondents to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the extent of their agreement/disagreement with items designed to measure their fashion clothing involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking. In addition, the students were asked to provide certain demographic data. Abstract The findings of this study provide valuable insights into fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst black Generation Y students in South Africa. Findings from this study show that there is a significant relationship between fashion product involvement, fashion purchase involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking amongst black Generation Y students, and that females have a significantly higher level of fashion product involvement compared to males. Insights gained from this study will help fashion marketing better understand this cohort’s involvement in fashion, which, in turn, should help them tailor their marketing efforts in such a way as to appeal to this segment in an improved manner. / MCom (Marketing Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Opinion leadership and opinion seeking are central constructs in academic studies of new product innovations. Fashion opinion leaders as those individuals who accelerate the fashion maturity process by legitimising a fashionable trend and influence other consumers to adopt the new innovative style as a replacement for the current accepted one. Consumers who accept information and adopt new style innovations are called opinion seekers and are important to the diffusion of new fashions because they may act on the information they receive from the opinion leaders. In South Africa, the fashion industry, which consists of a combination of the manufacturing, retail, media and recruitment sectors, generates billions of South African rands per annum, and is the fifth largest employment sector in the country. In fact, the fashion and textile industry in South Africa employed approximately 143 000 people in March of 2005, and contributed 12 percent to total manufacturing employment. Post 1994, it was evident that the fashion industry in South Africa underwent a metamorphosis from a protected market where domestic manufacturers dominated to a market that increasingly faced competition from international sources. During the first decade of democracy, the country joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and opened its creative market to international trade. This saw the industry generate sales of R34 billion, of which 9.4 percent was from clothing sales, and with only 18.7 percent of textiles output being exported. This suggests that the South African retailing industry yields substantial value chain power. There appears to be few published research studies focusing on fashion opinion leadership and opinion seeking amongst the black Generation Y students in South Africa. Owing to the importance of the fashion industry sector, together with the ethnic and cultural diversity of Abstract South Africa, the size of the black Generation Y cohort, and the higher social standing and future earning potential of those with a tertiary qualification, it is important to explore black Generation Y students’ fashion opinion leadership/seeking and fashion involvement. In South Africa, the Generation Y cohort is the first generation to grow up in an era of freedom and constantly changing technology – two forces that serve to broaden the divergence between this fascinating generation and previous generations. In 2013, the Generation Y individuals accounted for an estimated 38 percent of the South African population, and members of the black Generation Y accounted for 83 percent of the country’s Generation Y cohort. The primary objective of this study was to investigate fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst South African black Generation Y students. The target population for this study were male and female black undergraduate and postgraduate students, aged between 18 and 24, and enrolled at South African registered public higher education institutions (HEIs). The sampling frame for this study constituted the 23 South African registered public HEIs that existed in 2013. This sampling frame was narrowed down using judgement sampling to two HEI campuses in the Gauteng province – one from a traditional university and one from a university of technology. The Gauteng province was selected over other provinces in the country because it contained the highest percentage of the 23 public HEIs. A self-administered questionnaire was designed based on the scales used in previous studies. Lecturers at each of the two campuses selected to form part of the sample were contacted and asked if they would allow the questionnaire to be administered on their students during lectures. Once permission had been gained, the questionnaires were distributed to students during the scheduled lectures. The questionnaire requested respondents to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the extent of their agreement/disagreement with items designed to measure their fashion clothing involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking. In addition, the students were asked to provide certain demographic data. Abstract The findings of this study provide valuable insights into fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst black Generation Y students in South Africa. Findings from this study show that there is a significant relationship between fashion product involvement, fashion purchase involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking amongst black Generation Y students, and that females have a significantly higher level of fashion product involvement compared to males. Insights gained from this study will help fashion marketing better understand this cohort’s involvement in fashion, which, in turn, should help them tailor their marketing efforts in such a way as to appeal to this segment in an improved manner. / MCom (Marketing Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine diverse marketing strategies used by Western and Eastern European originated fashion brands based on H&M and Reserved cases as well as which of them are the most appealing to Polish students. Additional aspect of the diploma is to research if there are some evident differences or similarities in implementing these tactics. Method: The study implemented both qualitative and quantitative research. Data collection was based on two types of data, secondary and the primary one. The secondary data was derived from fashion marketing literature, scholar articles and fashion blogs. The primary data included a semi- structured interview with Reserved's assistant marketing manager and questionnaires provided to Polish students. Subsequently, systematic combining was applied, that can be described as nonlinear process of matching theory and reality. Conclusion: Fashion marketing tools implemented in both companies can be assessed as quite similar with no evident difference, yet they differ from each other in certain aspects. In both cases advertising and sales promotion are the most employed tactics. Both companies are seen as international ones, though H&M seems to follow more fashion oriented approach engaging in fashion shows or providing their customers with their own glossy magazine. The study also revealed that advertising activities and sales promotion seem to be the most appealing marketing techniques for the respondents. In addition social media proved to be an essential element to build a connection with consumers. However, this communication channel is often neglected or not utilized to its' full potential.

Magistro kvalifikaciniame darbe analizuojama 1960 - 1970 metų mada Lietuvoje. Darbo tikslas išanalizavus septintojo dešimtmečio Vakarų Europos ir sovietinės mados tendencijas, naudojant lyginamosios analizės metodą, palyginti su Lietuvoje vyravusiomis ir nustatyti jų transformacijos priežastis. Atlikta mokslinės literatūros analizė ir empirinis tyrimas iš esmės patvirtino darbe iškeltą hipotezę - madų tendencijos Lietuvoje atsiliko (laiko atžvilgiu) nuo Vakarų Europos, jaučiamas šių madų tendencijų skirtumas, atkeliavusios iš Vakarų Europos madų tendencijos Lietuvoje transformavosi. / There is analysing 1960 - 1970 years Lithuanian fashion trends in this master qualification work. Aim of work is analysing seventh decade West Europe's and Soviet fashion ruling trends, using comparative analysis method, compared to Lithuanian and to set the causes of this transformation. An analysis of scientific literature and an empirical study in principle approved the hypothesis in this work that the fashion trends in Lithuania felt behind (by time) comparing to West Europe's, appreciable the difference between West Europe's and Soviet fashion trends and the trends which came from West to Lithuania transformed.

Individual’s existential ambivalence has according to Jacques Derrida, one of the foremost proponents of post-structuralism, led to a continuous demand for structure (Cooper, 1989). Categories, used as structural tools, are however often hierarchically organized, where one category is more preferable than the other, also referred to as binary oppositions. Alternative categories and/ or references will appear when adopting a deconstruction process, which is crucial in order to invoke change and development (Cooper, 1989; Markkula et al., 2011; Marion, 2006). The aim of present research is trying to identify if Derrida’s theory of undecidable transfer of features (Agger, 1991; Cooper, 1989; Livingston, 2010; Bates, 2005) is applicable in fashion, more specifically fast- and slow fashion, and if the two categories are susceptible to a merge. Deconstructionism and Derrida’s theory of undecidable was furthermore applied as the theoretical framework throughout the study. Present research has been executed with an interpretive methodological approach and through a poststructural epistemological outlook (Hudson & Ozanne, 1988; Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016). Data was derived through two focus group interviews, involving seven informants at a time, with Autodriving as a visual research tool (Heisley & Levy, 1991) and open-ended questions as a complementing instrument (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016). A thematic analysis was furthermore applied when revisiting the data and analysing its content. The findings finally suggest that a merge between fast- and slow fashion is executable, which furthermore also legitimises Derrida’s theory of undecidability. This study has however only begun the deconstruction process and does therefore encourage future researchers to continue investigating the theory of undecidability (Agger, 1991; Cooper, 1989; Livingston, 2010; Bates, 2005) not only in fashion, but also within other institutions.

Title: Blogs as a new tool of communication and promotion of fashion brands. Research question: How do fashion companies make use of bloggers as a new tool of communication to promote their brands? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to observe and explore how the fashion brands use bloggers and their blogs as a new method to advertise and communicate about them and their products to consumers. The study is conducted from an external point of view. Design/methodology/approach: This study is exploratory and descriptive and uses a qualitative method, with non-randomly method where the sample is composed of six international fashion blogs. To collect data the authors used guideline to conduct the content analysis of these selected blogs. Findings: This study shows that brands use the blogger as human being with the phenomenon of the word-of-mouth and opinion formers/leaders and they also make us of the blog content to incorporate ads to directly communicate to the online communities.

O presente trabalho investiga aspectos históricos acerca da estética e da funcionalidade da Ilustração de Moda. A partir da hipótese norteadora de que a Ilustração de Moda possui engrenagens cujos papéis se modificam através do tempo no processo de adaptação ao mercado, este trabalho analisa tal fenômeno mediante, predominantemente, a revisão e interpretação de obras de autores que se debruçaram sobre a historiografia da moda e da ilustração de moda ocidental, associados à análise de trabalhos no segmento em questão. A pesquisa é baseada em metodologia qualitativa de coleta de dados e interpretação de conteúdo artístico, referenciada pelo trabalho de Rui de Oliveira. São referenciados, também, teóricos de áreas correlatas como João Braga, Daniela Calanca, Paula Sibila, Ernest Gombrich, Mônica Moura e Dijon de Moraes, a fim de construir, de forma mais coesa, os assuntos abordados em textos que relacionam áreas como História da Moda, Comunicação Social, História da Arte, Design e Desenho de Moda. Sob essas diretrizes, é construída uma narrativa cronológica contextualizada, que serve como instrumento para analisar e compreender os fatores que constituem o mercado de moda em diferentes épocas e que adaptam e ressignificam uma das técnicas mais antigas de comunicação de moda, mantidas até os dias atuais / The present work investigates historical aspects of the aesthetics and functionality of the theoretical field of Fashion Illustration. Based on the guiding hypothesis that the Fashion Illustration has gears whose roles change over time in the process of adaptation to the market, this work analyzes this phenomenon, mainly by reviewing and interpreting the work of authors who have studied the historiography of fashion and Western fashion illustration, associated with the analysis of works in the segment of fashion illustration. The research is based on a qualitative methodology of data collection and interpretation of artistic content, referenced by the work of Rui de Oliveira. Theorists such as João Braga, Daniela Calanca, Paula Sibila, Ernest Gombrich, Mônica Moura, and Dijon de Moraes are referred in order to build the subjects discussed in texts of related areas as Fashion History, Social Communication, History of Art, Design and Fashion Design. Under these guidelines, a contextualized chronological narrative is constructed that serves as an instrument to analyze and understand the factors that constitute the fashion market in different times that adapt and re-signify one of the oldest techniques of fashion communication maintained until the present day