Full Research Report

Abstract

This study aims to identify and understand the motivation behind the urge of students of Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus to keep up with the latest fashion trends. The subjects of this study are the students whose ages vary from under 18 till 23. Survey has been chosen as the method of study to obtain qualitative and quantitative data. Digital questionnaires containing close-ended questions have been handed out with the responses recorded in detail. Convenience sampling has been considered in this study due to time constraints. It has been determined that students follow the latest fashion trends to fit in or stand out among their peers based on the analysis of the results of the survey we conducted.

Introduction

A fashion trend can simply be defined as a new development in the style of clothing, hair or make-up that is popular at a particular time (Cambridge Dictionary). Fashion provides an outlook of a person which resonates his or her charisma. The latest fashion trends have become part and parcel of the lives of people all around the globe. It is considered relevant to keep up with new followings in the fashion industry if one does not want to feel left out. However, it is unclear as to why some students are willing to spend hundreds, even thousands of ringgits on branded apparels in the likes Gucci, Off-White and Balenciaga so this study has offered to shed some light on some, if not all the reasons behind this behaviour (Crisell). It has been hypothesised that the students of Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus follow the latest fashion trends to either fit in or stand out in a crowd. These reasons have been deemed as significant influences in the following of the students, thus, taken as dependent variables in this study. These variables have been operationalized accordingly as a way to gauge the motivation of the students in following the latest fashion trends. There are no theoretical implications that may arise from this study that may affect the overall results of the research at the time of study.

Earlier works from various organizations have been reviewed prior to this study to be used as additional references. Based on the journal ‘Making sense of fashion among Malaysian Gen Y and its implications’, it has been established that Malaysian Generation Y consumers are aware of the latest fashion apparels offered by local and foreign retailers (Teo, Suhaila and Fatin, 13). Therefore, the population from which we took the samples from - students of Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus, yielded results that are accurate based on this assumption. According to Cham (2) and his associates who looked into the factors influencing clothing interests and purchase intentions among the younger generation in Malaysia, the younger generation tend to have a preference that suits their own identity when it comes to choosing fashion products. This in-depth study has allowed us to look for a gap for which we developed our hypothesis leading to our study. A research on young generation’s purchase intention towards fashion apparel done by Lam et al. (84) has provided detailed information leading to the formulation of questions for the questionnaire which was used for our survey. Gender has been treated with importance in our study as gender blindness will affect the validity of our results as illustrated by a journal on the factors affecting apparel buying among Malaysian females (Rosita, Tan and Karpova, 1). Without using this journal as reference, we would not have considered gender as a significant factor that may cause the results of our study to be rather inaccurate. The importance of the consideration of both genders in this study is reiterated by another study titled ‘Gender Differences in Susceptibility to Normative Social Influence on the Purchase Decisions of Designer Label Apparel’ which helped us understand the general difference in the sense of fashion between males and females (Khan, 1). Last but not least, Adam Sibuyi, who does not support the current fashion trends whole-heartedly, emphasized on the evolution in fashion trends among students in his article, giving us a holistic idea on what to expect from the general fashion sense of students as they consist of our entire focus group. This article has inspired us to keep an open mind throughout the study so that the results obtained will not be biased. Upon completion of our literature review, it is understood that previous works came up with different findings regarding the concurrent fashion trends of students. All these findings have provided invaluable information which has assisted us either directly or indirectly in our study.

This study has helped us develop a concrete understanding on the biggest motivation that has influenced the students in our university to follow specific fashion trends. It has provided us with an insight on the sociological impact that changes ways students tend to dress on campus.

Method of Research

Abstract:

The method of research of this area was conducted with a closed-ended questionnaire using a convenient sampling method to choose participants throughout.

Introduction

Based on the method of research we have used for this research, we have opted for the questionnaire method. The questionnaire method comes in two different types, which consist of the closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires. For this particular research, we went with the closed-ended questionnaire.

Why Closed-Ended Questionnaire?

Closed-ended questionnaires are favoured to be used in big population groups for gaining information and personal data without having the need to analyse individually which allows us to gain excess to a data which represents specific answers such as “yes” or “no”. We did not opt for the open-ended questionnaire because it was more to analysing individuals from their individual answers. Forging a frequency data table was our main interest in this research and due to that, the closed-ended questionnaire was our main choice.

Participants

The Convenient sampling method was being used to obtain personal data and information for the results of the participants involved. Online survey forms would be the fastest and most attractive way for obtaining results in this short period of time, so we used Google® forms to create a simple closed ended questionnaire which would allow easy access to the participants. Proceeding with the convenient sampling method, we sent out these online survey forms to 10 students (5 boys and 5 girls) from the Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus and proceeded to ask them to send it out to their friends which are also undertaking courses in Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus. Participants sex, age, ethnicity, or religion did not post a restriction to our group but were given a choice to choose freely from the questionnaire. This study of research was only conducted in closed doors in the Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus compound and was not advertised outside of the school’s compound. Conclude at the end of the convenient sampling, we obtained 50 completed survey questionnaires within a time limit set of 36 hours.

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