“I feel complete when I’m wearing my vegan boots” The impacts of veganism on fashion use and consumption through new social movement theory: a consumer culture investigation

Fashion is a vehicle of cultural and social identity; a shared discourse of symbolic meaning communicated through a system of signs built on a communal cultural understanding. Fashion objects, which play an important role in the construction of identity projects, can however become imbued with alternative ideological meanings. Veganism, an ideology with important identity implications and a moral lens affecting everyday consumption decisions, attempts to change cultural norms and challenges the existence of animal products within markets. This thesis therefore explores how veganism as a New Social Movement informs vegan consumers’ use, consumption, and display of fashion products, a relevant site to understand processes of identity transitions. Broadly building on consumer culture literature, and New Social Movements Theory, the research investigates how the individual, collective and public dimensions of identity shape consumers’ decisions in the context of movement membership. While the public identity of the vegan movement presents a stigmatised image, the individual and collective identity dimensions incorporate a variety of behaviours, beliefs, values, and meanings that affect both the life-world of those who adopt it, and how they engage with consumption in a non-vegan world. Additionally, this research examines the impacts of a new ideology and movement adherence on fashion objects containing materials of animal origin, how this affects consumers’ existing non-vegan possessions, as well as their ongoing engagement with the fashion marketplace. This phenomenological exploratory research engaged qualitative methods of data collection in attempting to understand the multilayered nature of vegan consumption in the context of fashion. Data was collected within four vegan communities on Facebook as well as through 28 interviews with self-identified vegans. The data was analysed utilising interpretive methods of iterative coding guided by Grounded Theory. The findings show that the impacts of veganism on fashion use and consumption are multilayered, and that fashion is a contentious area within the vegan community, especially within a collective identity context. The findings first reveal tensions between concepts often discussed synonymously, namely the community and the collective identity. Multi-directional tensions also arise between the collective and individual performance of a vegan identity as regulated by the public and stigmatised image of the vegan movement and mediated through the use and consumption of fashion products. The rigidity of the collective identity is found to impose on individuals the weight of displaying veganism on behalf of all others. Exchanges with non-vegans showcase the experience of delegitimisation strategies, where the consistency or integrity of the vegan identity is questioned. The findings then highlight that transition to a vegan identity guides consumption practices and modifies the understanding and response to materials of animal origin. It does this through engagement with confronting or morally shocking information, which reframe the established cultural meaning of products, in turn affecting existing possessions. It is in this context that materials of animal origin become carriers of harm, pain, and suffering, as opposed to their culturally normative meaning as desirable materials and objects. This meaning transformation also fractures relationship with possessions, leading to either repossession, or object disposal. The findings finally illuminate the multi-layered and multi-sited strategies of activism within the fashion marketplace enacted by vegan consumers, and the role played by the market in legitimising individual and collective efforts. The data shows that most vegan consumption decisions are evaluated and undertaken with a counter-normative agenda of cultural transformation. Consumer activism become second nature, with most decisions evaluated through the prism of New Social Movement objectives via both overt and covert forms of everyday resistance. Vegan consumers are seen to adopt a counter-cultural identity that resists, and attempts to change, socially normative engagement with animals as resources. From a theoretical perspective, this study offers a new understanding of the impacts of ideological lifestyle transition on both identity performance and fashion objects consumption behaviour. This thesis therefore contributes to knowledge surrounding the market impact of New Social Movement participation, to literature surrounding materiality, meaning and object biographies, as well as research on consumer activism in the context of ideological consumption. From a practical lens, the findings offer a deeper understanding of vegan consumption, a growing consumer-driven movement within the marketplace. The findings also suggest important implications for vegan organisations, and mainstream market players. Vegan consumers are found to expect additional ethical and environmental attributes in the development vegan products, which affects their consumption decisions. Additionally, the use of vegan labels and certifications on fashion products is found to play an important role in legitimising vegan consumption and sustaining movement membership, positively impacting vegan consumers.