The influence of feminism on the development and branding strategies of fashion brands

Fashion and femininity have always completed each other. The fashion industry has been more connected with woman since she entered the labor market. The end of the hoop skirt, the first Chanel pants, Saint Laurent’s Tuxedo, Quant’s miniskirt, until more recently, a T-shirt with the slogan of activist Chimamanda Adichie, “We Should All Be Feminists,” for Dior, turning to apparel as an ally of the feminine evolution. Considering the relationship between fashion and feminism, this paper aims to discuss the influence of the feminist movement in the development of branding strategies in the fashion industry, presenting feminism as a social-political movement and brand equity as a post-purchase relationship. The present study was developed through a mixed methodology, where questionnaires had open and closed questions, to obtain quantitative and qualitative data, thus analyzing the consumer and fashion brands as social agents. This study becomes relevant since it deals with feminism as a political and cultural ideological movement that has broadly emerged in the last years in the field of fashion. Besides, it helps to uncover new loyalty relationships that brands are building with their customers. Thus, from the concept of glocalization, it is possible to translate and unite in communicational tools the brand and consumer thinking, to achieve a true social transformation.