LAUSR

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine female fashion consumer profiles in Kuwait. Drawing on symbolic interactionist, fashion adoption theory, the trickle-down theory, the collective selection theory and the mass-market theory, this study examines the influence of self-identity, social interactions and prestige consumption on Kuwait female apparel consumers.Design/methodology/approachThe study applies self-organizing maps (SOM), discriminant and multiple correspondence analyses to analyze the influence of self-identity, social interaction and prestige consumption on Kuwaiti female apparel consumers.FindingsResults unveiled three distinct clusters: liberals, traditionalists and conservatives. Liberals include students, singles with a low income, less than KD 500. They are younger and wear neither Abaya nor Hijab. Traditionalists include employees, mixed between married and divorced females. They have moderate income between KD 500–1,500, two age groups between 25–30 and 31–35 years. Finally, conservatives include older females of age 36–45 years. They are housewives with a high-income of more than KD 1,500, and wear both Abaya and Hijab. Findings seem to confirm that the younger generations of females in Kuwait are by far living a different life than their mothers and grandmothers. Findings also show that culture, especially religion and traditions, is still exercising an enduring influence on Kuwaiti females purchasing behavior.Originality/valueThis study extends the existing literature dealing with female apparel consumption by applying cluster analysis to an Arab country, which makes it possible to generalize results to other Arab nations. Second, the author uses SOM along with traditional clustering methods to check the robustness of findings.