A Study on the Consumer-required Attributes of Apparel Product for New Elderly Women

뉴 실버 의류제품 요구속성에 관한 연구

This paper studied the apparel product attributes that women in the new elderly generation require in formal wears and in casual wears. The purpose of this study was to provide the design guideline when considering the changing and diverse buying patterns of the new elderly female consumers as opposed to the traditional elderly generation. We employed a qualitative study methodology of one-on-one in-depth interview with open coding. Between August 10 and October 3 of 2012, we interviewed sixteen female consumers of age 60 or above residing in the metropolitan area who considered themselves as young-minded. Our findings were as follows: The consumer-required attributes that the new elderly women wanted to present have five dimensions of symbolism, aesthetic, fitness, usefulness, and maintenance. The main focus of the apparel product attributes that the new elderly women wanted was the dimension of symbolism in formal wears and the dimensions of usefulness and maintenance in casual wears. The new elderly females were the emerging group of consumers of diversified clothing products who emphasized overall balance and wore appropriately for occasions. Apparel products for the new elderly females should incorporate the design attributes that they want as well as the overall balance among individual wears.