Power, Social Identity and Fashion Consumption : A thesis on how female executives use power-coded dressing as a tool to accentuate power as a part of their social identity.

Sammanfattning: The aim of the thesis is to contribute to the CCT research field on social identity, by placing a focus on power from a customer perspective and studying how power can be accentuated within social identity. Theory from CCT with a focus on social identity has been used in combination with extensive literature on power and authority from a sociological perspective and literature from Fashion-Studies focusing on power-dressing, conspicuous consumption and luxury. The research question is: How is power-dressing and consumption of high-end luxury fashion brands used by female executives/senior managers in an attempt to accentuate power as a part of their social identity? In-depth semi-structured interviews where used as the main data collection method interviewing five female senior managers/female executives working in Stockholm; using the fashion consumption of female senior managers as its empirical sample. The main conclusion on this thesis is the creation of the concept of power-coded-dressing.This thesis implications are that it develops the CCT field slightly by adding a consumer-power perspective into the theoretical discourse. Its practical and social implications help women accentuate their power through, power-coded-dressing.