Retirement and post-growth: towards a model of considered clothing consumption

This paper draws on a phenomenological exploration of older men’s experiences of fashion and clothing. Ongoing research into fashion and ageing suggests that valuable insights into garment longevity can be identified through analysing individuals’ lived experiences of clothing, offering an intriguing conceptual parallel between retirement and post-growth thinking. Therefore in this paper, firstly, we explore the relationship between retirement and clothing consumption, and, secondly, we expose a series of conceptual similarities between post-growth thinking in fashion design, and post-retirement fashion consumption practices, and highlight their potential to inform a model of more considered clothing consumption.
Within the phenomenological commitment of centring the lived experiences of individuals, two complementary approaches were used; (1) the life-course perspective, and (2) wardrobe studies. In 2013 and 2024, a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a small group of mature fashion-conscious male participants, supplemented by personal inventories. Analysis of these materials resulted in several research themes and findings, encompassing various ways in which the participants have used their embodied relationship with clothing as a mechanism for articulating and negotiating their status as ageing men.