Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management

Purpose – The purpose of the current research is to determine if status and non-status seeking Australian teenagers differ in their attitudes toward buying domestic and foreign (i.e. Italy, Japan, China) luxury brand apparel.

Design/methodology/approach – A total of 365 teenagers participated in this study through a self-completed questionnaire. Fishbein's Multi-Attribute Attitude Model was used to measure and compare attitudes toward buying domestic and foreign made apparel. Repeated measure ANOVA and t-tests were utilized to examine whether the groups differed with regards to their attitudes toward buying luxury brand apparel, using a comparison of apparels “Made in Australia” with those “Made in Italy”, “Made in Japan” and “Made in China”.

Findings – The research findings indicate that status-seeking teenagers have overall, a more positive attitude toward foreign luxury brand apparel as compared to Australian luxury brands, with the exception of Chinese brands. On the other hand, non-status seeking teenagers reported that they have more positive attitude towards Australian brands than foreign brands, and consider Australian luxury brands superior to all three foreign brands with regards to ease of care and comfort.

Research limitations/implications – The findings is only limited to Australian teenagers and cannot be generalized to other nationalities or age cohorts.

Practical implications – The study suggests that the Australian apparel industry should concentrate its marketing strategy on enhancing the attributes of “fashionable” and “brand name” of Australian apparel that both status and non-status seeking teenagers prefer in foreign apparel.

Originality/ value – The paper fills a gap in the literature by validating the study in Australia and focusing on the attitudes of status (and non status) seeking teenagers.