CONSUMER SATISFACTION:
A REFLECTION OF FASHION DESIGN PRACTICES

The research aims to provide fashion design teams with new methodologies and practices that place greater awareness of individual cultural and physical differences in order to improve consumer satisfaction and choice.

A survey to ascertain the importance for consumers of different clothing attributes was carried out in the UK, Brazil and China. The purpose was to consider the distinctions between a mature market, and emerging western and eastern markets.

A survey of 20 fashion designers was held in the UK, Brazil and China based on interviews. All interviews were conducted by the researcher with translation support for the survey within China. Fashion designers were invited to participate in the research based on their interest, diversity of work and availability. The researcher was concerned to have well known designers, brand-diffusion designers and new generation designers in each sample.

The PIL Model (Rocha et al., 2005) has been selected and used to analyse consumer preferences and fashion design practices. The PIL Model is defined as a business conceptual tool that provides better-targeted fashion and clothing consumption preferences. The indicators for clothing and fashion consumption were split into the three core variables of the model: physical, identity, and lifestyle.

The results from the fashion designers were compared with those of the consumers. A critical difference was apparent between what the designers consider in their creative process and what the consumers expected to be offered. The outcomes indicate that it is necessary for designers to be aware of the specificities of the consumer local environment even though the projects are global.

When considering the consumer viewpoint, the approaches traditionally used by designers were thought to be the most effective for their search for satisfaction as designers in general have user-based knowledge and attitudes. However, the outcomes indicated that fashion designers are not using either a wide or deep enough analysis of consumers, their needs and approach to garments. The reason for this varies from brand-diffusion designers whose briefings are supplied by marketing departments to designer-name brands where the conceptual ideas of the chief designer are the core of the briefing.