Luxury clothing: a mirror of gay consumers sexual option? [doi: 10.5329/RECADM.20121101010]

ABSTRACT Through a qualitative exploratory research, the present paper investigates the behaviour of Brazilian gay consumers as to their luxury clothing consumption, assuming that this behaviour might help the construction of their self-concept once those products reflect their sexual option. A bibliographical review is followed by the results for in-depth interviews with 12 gay men, and completed with the use of a semantic scale that measures the interviewees’ self-concept and luxury clothing concept. An examination of the results is followed by their implications, indicating that the self-concept directly influences the male gay’s buying behaviour in this market. Keywords Gay consumers; Luxury clothing consumption; Self-concept construction; Buying behaviour.