Keywords

1 Introduction

It is commonly believed that as society progresses the population tends to become more secularised, however, 84% of the world self-identifies as being part of a religious group (Sherwood, 2018). Additionally, this religious demographic is often younger and prone to procreate more than non-religious cohorts, meaning that the world is very likely to become more religious rather than the contrary (Sherwood, 2018). According to 2015 data (Hackett and McClendon, 2017), Christianity is the most numerous religion, accounting for 2.3 billion members (31.2% of the world’s total population), followed by Islam which currently has 1.8 billion followers, 1.1 billion Hindus and 500 million Buddhists. As reported by Pew Research Center (2017) and Statista (Jenik, 2021), if current trends in fertility and religious conversion continue until 2060, although Christianity will persist to be the most popular religion, Islam will expand the most, rising from 24% to 31% of the worldwide population in just 40 years.

Due to spirituality’s omnipresence and importance in society, numerous studies have focused on the effects of religion on Consumer Behaviour (CB), more specifically on topics such as the influence of religiosity on consumer responses to sexual appeals and religious cues/symbols in advertising, religiously motivated consumer boycotts (Kalliny, Minton and Benmamoun, 2018), Islamic marketing, counterfeit product consumption as a “sin”, as well as themes related to the effect of religion in partaking in sustainable/ecological consumption. But does religion play an important factor in women’s consumption of fashion?

Previous research has established that concerns affecting social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions impact the consumption of fashion products (Lundblad and Davies, 2016; Ashaduzzaman, et al. 2021; Cavusoglu and Atik, 2021; Cruz, Seo, and Buchanan-Oliver, 2018). It then becomes clear that religion can be used as a determining factor among these other aspects, as faith is intimately tied to a person’s behaviour and frequently recommends proper methods of attire to the followers of the doctrine in question.

Scholars such as Guindi (1999), Hume (2013), Arthur (1999), Lewis (2013), Tarlo and Moors (2013) and Almila (2018) have dedicated their work to researching the interfaces of fashion and religion, concluding that the core principle expressed by religious writings from the main Abrahamic religions concerning women’s fashion is that they should not flaunt their bodies or earthly possessions, therefore putting forward the concept of modesty. According to Modest Fashion journalist and author, Hafsa Lodi, “though the terms may differ, haya, modesty and tzniut are all intended to safeguard the chastity of women’’ (Lodi, 2020:59). Nevertheless, the religious concept of modesty means a lot more than rejecting the female display of sex appeal that has become so prevalent in current fashion trends, and instead, strongly focuses on humility, moderation and self-effacement (Hartman, 2015; Ambrosio, 2019) which seem incompatible with the overconsumption, materialism, ethical issues and vanity associated with the fashion industry.

This paper aims to critically review the state of the art (Snyder, 2019; Grant and Booth, 2009) by thoroughly investigating and critically integrating, analysing and summarising information from several sources of current literature on the intersection of fashion, religion and CB. The theoretical originality of this literature review will stem from the unique views and areas for additional research that will be identified.

2 Methodology

The research was conducted between November 2021 and January 2022, updated in April 2023, and consisted of detailed article searching based on academic peer-reviewed journals written in English or Portuguese between the years 2012 and 2022, focusing on the keywords: “religion”, “religiosity”, “clothing/apparel”, “fashion”, “consumption” and “consumer behaviour”. After thoroughly screening through the titles and keywords of various publications across Google Scholar, ProQuest, Taylor & Francis Online, Wiley Online Library, Oxford University Press, Emerald Insight, Bloomsbury Fashion Central, and ResearchGate, 314 articles supposedly correlated all the previously identified keywords. After examining the abstracts of those papers, 75 were considered to be linked directly or indirectly to the aims of this study.

Table 1. Number of analysed articles in various journals (Source: Author’s research)
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Table 1 shows the number of publications that are in some way related to the influence of religion on fashion CB in various journals within the 10-year range considered for this literature review. Additionally, Fig. 1 presents an annual distribution of the selected articles, and Table 2 shows an overview of these papers, in which it is possible to conclude that the primary research for these publications was conducted in 25 different countries (grouped in geopolitical regions). The geographical distribution of the articles perfectly illustrates the focus on the Islamic faith (35 articles) followed by Christianity (22 articles), because, although the single country which carried the greatest share of research was the USA, most contributions to this theoretical framework are from predominantly Muslim populations.

Fig. 1.
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Annual Distribution of the analysed articles (n = 75) (Source: Author’s research)

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While this literature review does not include articles that belong solely to one of the main research areas in question (Fashion, Religion and/or CB), the Venn diagram in Fig. 2 demonstrates the interactions of the areas of study.

Fig. 2.
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Venn diagram of the research topics (Source: Author’s research)

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Table 2. Overview of the analysed articles (n = 75) (Source: Author’s research)
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3 Literature Review

3.1 Religiosity as a Moderating Factor in Consumer Behaviour

Religion is seen as a significant factor that influences CB due to the set of beliefs, rituals, values, and collective devotion that its members share and commit to (Sardana, Gupta, and Sharma, 2018; Mathras et al. 2015). Therefore, it is believed that:

The integration of religion with brand personality will help to influence the devoted believers to stay loyal to their brand because devout consumers will strongly follow their religious principles and it will impact their behaviour in the market, level of confidence in a brand and most importantly their commitment or loyalty towards the brand. (Zainudin, et al. 2018:990)

Spirituality has always been considered the foundation of all faiths, however, throughout recent decades, the public conception of religiosity shifted dramatically, and people started to distinguish between “being religious” and “being spiritual”. Simultaneously, there is a rising recognition that people engage in religious activities for a variety of purposes, not all of which are necessarily spiritual (Sardana, Gupta, and Sharma, 2018). Mathras, et al. (2015) wrote one of the most cited papers on this topic, which creates a conceptual framework on the effects of religion on CB, discussing previously discovered links between degree of religiosity and many behavioural qualities, including agreeability, conscientiousness, decreased impulsivity, conservativeness/moderation, and independence - which would imply that non-religious customers would be more vulnerable to a range of marketing methods that religious consumers would not be so susceptible to.

At the crux of the dispute about religion and consumption is the case of Muslim consumers’ distinctiveness as a result of their particular life philosophy and purchasing behaviours that are intrinsically linked to their religious convictions (Floren, Rasul, and Gani, 2019). As the Muslim population grows, there is a significant increase in demand for Halal (allowed/Sharia-compliant) services and goods among Muslim consumers. More particularly, Halal items should not include Haram (forbidden) components (Islam and Chandrasekaran, 2019), and Muslims are instructed to scrutinise each product and refrain from consuming it if they are unsure. Furthermore, Floren, Rasul, and Gani (2019) define Islamic Marketing as a “God-conscious approach to marketing” and systematically review the existing literature on its influence on CB. Specifically regarding Islam and fashion consumption, Hassan, and Ara (2022) examined how - from the perspective of individuals involved directly in the Islamic fashion industry, such as Muslim clothing retailers - “Hijab fashion” symbolises the current ideal Muslim women’s dress that promotes an image in accordance with Islamic principles. Therefore, all around the world, most Muslim women follow a dress code known as “hijab” (meaning “covering” in Arabic) which requires women to cover their bodies in public, with the exception of their face and hands, often wearing clothes that are loose and modest, with the aim of not drawing attention to the shape of the body.

Finally, the undeniable influence of religiosity on CB led to various studies on the presence of religious cues in advertising or packaging for different products within groups of Christian, Muslim and Hindu consumers, concluding that in some cases these religious messages increase purchase intention in people with high levels of religiosity (Ustaahmetoğlu, 2020) but that devout consumers can quickly perceive them as commercialization of their faith, manipulation or proselytising attempts (Agarwala, Mishra, and Singh, 2021; Zehra and Minton, 2020; Taylor, Halstead, and Moal-Ulvoas, 2017), which lead them to develop negative feelings about the brand in question. Some other studies also focused on religion as a product and people as consumers of religion (Pinelli and Einstein, 2019), specifically when it comes to attitudes toward church retailing (Bundwini and Lappeman, 2018) or the detraditionalization of sacred occasions like Christmas and Hanukkah in order to marketize these holidays (McAlexander, et al. 2014). Furthermore, other papers bring up religion in a completely different way, explaining the concept of brand religiosity (Wang, Sarkar, and Sarkar, 2018).

3.2 Muslim Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Islamic Fashion

As previously mentioned, people with high levels of religiosity perceive higher danger, therefore they are expected to be more brand conscious and less novelty-fashion-conscious as a way to lessen the risk involved. In the case of Islam, although faith does not encourage a full rejection of earthly desires and leisure, it does condemn an overemphasis on hedonistic pleasures such as the excessive use of luxuries or materialism (Avcı and Hacıkeleşoğlu, 2021). Therefore, in a 2019 study (Islam and Chandrasekaran, 2019) focusing on Muslim women in India, it was concluded that more religious individuals were less likely to be both novelty-fashion-conscious and brand conscious, similar to a previous paper (Rahman, Albaity, and Maruf, 2017) which argued that highly religious consumers were, overall, less interested in fashion.

Regarding Islamic fashion retail store attributes in Malaysia, Zainal, Yen-Nee, and Ahmad (2022) demonstrated that the physical environment has no considerable influence on customer satisfaction, perhaps because retail businesses produce comparable physical settings, and shoppers are unable to tell the difference between those with Islamic influence and those without. Moreover, Kusumawati, et al. (2019) who aimed to examine the impact of religiosity on fashion knowledge, Customer Perceived Value (CPV) and patronage intention of fashion brands among Muslim women in Indonesia, concluded that a customer’s level of religiosity was not the sole reason for patronage intention and that therefore, an individual’s level of religiosity does not explain their inclination to return (or not) to a particular store. When it comes to CPV, the study’s findings indicate that religiosity has an essential role in determining CPV because consumers have a set of beliefs that influence their evaluation of a particular product or brand:

Religious consumers will consider purchasing decisions because they conform to their religion; thus, consumers will consider their intention to return to the store that sells products in line with their religiosity. (Kusumawati, et al. 2019:274)

In the same country, Aruan and Wirdania (2020) conducted a specially interesting study on the dimensionality of religiosity, more specifically, about the differences in the CB of Sharia versus non-Sharia modest dressers. The research discovered that religion has a major impact on consumer purchasing decisions, but that the mediating effects of emotional attitude and self-presentation are only detected for some types of clothing: while Sharia responders were unlikely to purchase fashionable clothing, non-Sharia respondents were equally likely to purchase both fashioned and Sharia types of clothing. In consequence, this article makes valuable suggestions for marketing Islamic fashion to different types of women by focusing their communication on modest qualities (e.g. fully covered body, non-see-through materials) to Sharia dressers and reinforcing aesthetic attributes when targeting non-Sharia consumers.

Indonesian Muslim women had previously been segmented into six groups based on their fashion lifestyle, those being “hijab fashionist, aspirant Sharia oriented, religious moderate dressing, economic fashion follower, Sharia fashion follower, and pragmatic hijabers” (Kartajaya, et al. 2019:319). This paper also considered that “hijab fashionistas” were the most important and potentially lucrative target demographic for Islamic fashion as these consumers tend to be early adopters of fashion trends, especially within luxury brands. Similarly, it was found in a different study (Hassan and Harun, 2016) that Muslim women who are more fashion aware have a higher proclivity than other women to engage in distinctive and trendy Muslim fashion consumption as a way of differentiating themselves from others and demonstrating their personality. These fashionistas, who get their fashion inspiration from “catalogues, fashion magazines, friends, fashion fairs and the internet” (Hassan and Harun, 2016) are also more inclined to have their clothing handmade to order and tend to choose Islamic/Modest Fashion for reasons related to comfort, individuality, peer acceptability, and compliance to particular events.

One of the most popular papers about fashion and religion focuses on the CB of young, Muslim, and Egyptian consumers (Farrag and Hassan, 2015) and argues that if religion was given greater consideration in marketing and communications, society would see a prosperous expansion of the fashion sector. Muslims have firm convictions rooted in the religious concept of modesty that is opposed to the “flamboyant display and show off of prestige and status” (Farrag and Hassan, 2015; O’Cass, Lee, and Siahtiri, 2013), and therefore, Farrag and Hassan (2015) advise marketers to create communication strategies based on the fundamental ideals of moderation and simplicity, in contrast to the common uses of sex appeals (Mitterfellner, 2020:147–149), which lower purchase intentions in highly religious individuals who find this type of communication to be unethical (Putrevu and Swimberghek, 2013). Comparably, the findings in Baran and Barutçu (2023) indicate that hijab clothing mobile apps are generally well-received by conservative Muslim customers, who express a preference for visual content and advertising that aligns with Islamic principles.

Lastly, Sobh, Belk, and Gressel (2012) centred their research on the Muslim dress of women in the Arab Gold Region, where strict religious and cultural traditions and legislations prevent young women from completely adopting the current global fashion trends in public, leading them to adapt by engaging in more of what they can exhibit and purchase, such as the extensive usage of global luxury brands and cosmetics. In contrast, a study with a multi-ethnic perspective by Ashraf, Williams, and Bray (2022) showed that although Muslim women living in the United Kingdom made fashion choices compatible with their identity, they were concerned about a lack of variety and availability, and that, therefore:

(...) ranges must be developed that can both maintain modesty but enable Muslim women to be up to date with latest trends and convey their individual personalities. Consumers are seeking to be represented based on their beliefs and would respond strongly to brands who create clothing that adheres to their needs. This consumer response is likely to include significant word-of-mouth marketing and avid attitudinal and behavioural loyalty to the brand. (Ashraf, Williams and Bray, 2022)

3.3 Christian Religiosity in Apparel Consumer Behaviour

Although most of the academic and political attention has been almost exclusively on the associations between Islam and fashion, people of other faiths also make decisions concerning fashion, and according to Dr Anna-Mari Almila, “these choices are worth researching just as much as the more politicised phenomenon of Islamic veiling” (Almila, 2020). The literature on the interfaces of fashion and Christianity is very scant, nonetheless, some publications have explored the topic (Neal, 2019; Covolo, 2020).

In Brazil, Caixeta, et al. (2012) found the differences between different denominations of Christianity regarding CB of fashion products and concluded that Evangelical Christian women were more influenced by their religion when purchasing clothing items than followers of a Catholic doctrine. Furthermore, in the same country, Albuquerque, Duque-Arrazola and Rocha (2018) investigated the consumption of “gospel fashion” by members of a conservative Evangelical church and found that these women shop from Christian clothing brands to be legitimised and considered by the secular world as being modern and fashionable even if not able to wear trousers or shorter dresses/skirts. Other articles on this topic in Brazil are also Cezar (2010) and Gonçalo (2016), which address the aesthetic productions of women’s clothing as proof of devotion; Becheri, et al. (2022) which studies Instagram’s impact on the Modest Fashion market; Silva et al. (2020) and Becheri et al. (2020), who focus on the influence of Christian religiosity on consumer behaviour in fashion; as well as Almeida et al. (2021) and Albuquerque (2021), who explore the negotiation of religious dress rules on social media.

Furthermore, an American study (Davis, 2014) showed that religion has major influence on Christian customers’ clothing preferences, particularly on quality awareness, fashion consciousness, and price sensitivity, which means these individuals are more inclined to look for discounts and reduced prices. According to the study’s findings, more devoted Christians are not brand conscious or loyal, possibly because religious consumers are more motivated to demonstrate their identity via their faith instead of a brand name. In a more recent paper (Davis, 2016), the researcher explored the effect of religion on the CPV of clothing store features among Christian customers in the United States. According to the data, more devout Christians are more engaged and demanding fashion consumers, putting a lot of importance on store attributes, reputation and social status as well as increased brand loyalty to companies whom they perceive to respect the same religious values.

Another interesting fashion subcategory in which it is possible to see the differences between Christianity and Islam is the case of religious sportswear. While Muslim consumers prioritise sports apparel that covers the body but that is not necessarily from Modest Fashion collections or brands (Baber, 2019; Leonnard, et al. 2019), Christian consumers are more likely to use athletic wear as a “profession of faith” (Ornella, 2019), flaunting t-shirts with biblical verses and/or religious symbols (Neal, 2017).

3.4 Influence of Religion on Sustainable Consumption

Perera and Hewege (2018) explained the relationship of various religions with nature. Christians tend to believe that God intends that mankind has dominion over nature (Minton, et al. 2018) and uses it for their own purposes, therefore having lesser correlations between religious and ethical CB (Raggiotto, Mason, and Moretti, 2018), another common explanation for this is “the idea of dispensationalism, belief in the ‘end of time’ and renewal of the earth in eternity” (Graafland, 2017:132). Differently, Muslims and Hindus believe in the concept of responsible stewardship of the environment. Lastly, Buddhism is often regarded as the most ecologically conscious religious ideology due to its belief that all life forms are fundamentally equal and its teachings that recommend “a gentle, inclusive approach to nature and environment, minimising individual presence and impact on the environment” (Raggiotto, Mason, and Moretti, 2018:622).

In a recent case study, Sadowski (2021) analysed how the Sunday shopping restrictions implemented in Poland contributed to the development of a culture of communion by reinforcing interpersonal ties and changes in consumption patterns, as well as laying the groundwork for the development of a culture of fair balance in consumption. The researcher put forward that consumerism has been identified “as one of the greatest challenges to man’s integral development” (Sadowski, 2021:12) and that because the overwhelming majority of the population is Roman Catholic, Christian denominations could help decrease consumerist culture and promote sustainable behaviours regarding fashion consumption.

In a different study (Hwang, 2018), it was concluded that religious consumers were more willing to pay higher prices and reduce their standard of living than secular consumers, showing that religious engagement can encourage individuals to prioritise public interests over personal interests. It is crucially important to keep in mind geographical and cultural differences when it comes to using religiosity as a mediating factor in issues related to sustainability because there are strong differences between Western and Eastern religions when it comes to ethical/moral consumption (Minton, Bret, and Upadhyaya, 2018). For instance, care for others motivates Eastern religious customers, whilst self-concern motivates Western religious consumers.

Razzaq, et al. (2018) explored the involvement of Islam in the consumption of sustainable fashion and concluded that individuals who follow the religious concept of modesty will resist the temptation to overindulge in all areas of life, including fashion, therefore becoming increasingly interested in the consumption of sustainable items, which support their religious ideals of being less selfish and more altruistic.

Lastly, because it is known that “a person’s religiosity does influence their decision making in situations that involve ethical issues” (Vitell, Ramos-Hidalgo, and Rodríguez-Rad, 2018:677), some other studies are based on religion and consumer ethics, such as Souiden, Ladhari, and Amri (2018) as well as Kasber, El-Bassiouny, and Hamed (2022), who explored Muslim consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeit products; Aziz and Bakar (2020) who studied ethical apparel consumption in Malaysia; Sandıkcı (2021) who presents a moral economy approach to everyday consumption ethics of products such as Halal nail polish; and Marhana, et al. (2012) who concluded that highly religious Malaysian Muslims have higher intentions of purchasing cause-related products.

3.5 Effects of Religiosity on Luxury and Status Consumption (SC)

SC can be explained as a “consumer’s overt or ostentatious display of consumer products that symbolise status, with the hope of gaining social approval or recognition from surrounding others” (O’Cass, Lee, and Siahtiri, 2013:442).

Arli, Gil, and Esch (2020) tested the effect of Christianity/Catholicism on perceptions of luxury goods among young consumers in Chile. According to the study’s findings, shoppers regarded materialism and luxury products as two distinct conceptions. Religious consumers reject materialism as a connection to worldly belongings, yet they retain an emotional affinity to luxury items. In short, there are no substantial variations in the acceptability of luxury items between religious and non-religious consumers, leading the researchers to state that “religious youth consumers love God, but they also love Gucci” (Arli, Gil, and Esch, 2020:181). Similarly, when it comes to the impact of religion and culture on Nigerian Muslim consumers’ intention to acquire luxury items, Aksoy and Abdulfatai (2019) found that Islamic morals had little effect on consumer purchase intentions of these products and that consumers did not see a connection between consuming luxury goods and their religiosity. This view is shared in Varma, et al. (2022) and Ramazani and Kermani (2022), where the authors found a positive relationship between personal spirituality (specifically Islamic religious commitment, in the case of the latter) and conspicuous consumption of fashion.

In parallel, when investigating Muslim consumers in Turkey - also researched by Erden (2019), Nazlı (2018), and Sandikci and Ger (2010) - and the relationship between religion, materialism and SC, Yeniaras and Akkemik (2017) concluded that consumption of luxurious brands like Dior, Hermes and Gucci is a tool for Muslims to display their wealth and status as well as their moral characteristics. Similar results were shown by Rehman, Al Shammari and Al-Mamary (2022), where it was established that Saudi and Indian consumers highly valued the interpersonal aspect of luxury, primarily viewing luxury goods as symbols of status and as “social enablers”.

Contrastingly, Geiger-Oneto and Minton (2019) explored the influence of Western religions in the purchasing of luxury products and concluded that consumers with high religiosity had the poorest evaluations of high-end goods. Nonetheless, the researchers consider that it is also likely that customers’ views about luxury consumption are changing due to the increased exposure to luxury items on social media and the existence of products that merge religion and prestige (such as designer hijabs). Furthermore, Arli, Cherrier, and Tjiptono (2016) state that “religious consumers are not necessarily anti-materialism and often opt for luxury brands over purely utilitarian possession”. Overall, as concluded by Alanadoly and Salem (2022), Muslim women who consume fashion are willing to pay premium prices for hijab fashion brands that fulfil their religious and social commitments and offer modern designs with high product quality.

4 Conclusion and Directions for Further Research

Although religion affects consumers’ decision-making, influences their CB and instils values related to modesty and altruism, this influence may vary according to the religion being followed or to the individual’s degree of religiosity, therefore it is crucial to explore the multidimensionality of religiosity (Mathras, et al. 2015) instead of treating religious consumers as a homogeneous group. It was also concluded that one’s level of religious commitment “cannot be determined simply by what she wears, with age, marital status and education found to have far greater impact on a woman’s choice of clothing than religiosity” (Bachleda, Hamelin, and Benachour, 2014).

This literature review concluded that Christian consumers tend to be more price-sensitive and look for discounts, and when it came to clothing purchases, Evangelical Christians were more impacted by their faith than Catholics (Caixeta, et al. 2012). Similarly, these consumers enjoy using their clothing as an expression of their religious beliefs, wearing garments and accessories with slogans and symbols related to their faith (Ornella, 2019; Neal, 2017), while more fashion-conscious Muslim women are more likely to participate in unique apparel consumption because they want to distinguish themselves from their peers and display their individuality (Aruan and Wirdania, 2020; Kartajaya, et al. 2019; Hassan and Harun, 2016).

Regarding the impact of Religiosity on pro-environmental and sustainable fashion attitudes (Razzaq, et al. 2018), it was found that Christians tend to believe that it is God’s plan for humans to have sovereignty over nature, but Muslims believe in the notion of environmental responsibility (Perera and Hewege, 2018) because they are expected to follow the religious values of generosity, sincerity (Marhana, et al. 2012) and prioritise collective welfare over personal benefit (Hwang, 2018). Nevertheless, it is still considered that “when companies invest in sustainability, they will be able to attract consumers who have higher spirituality as well as religiosity” (Iqbal, and Khan, 2020). Subsequently, while marketing actions must be different for different religious groups, most faiths maintain strong beliefs about modesty and aversion to flaunting/bragging, status consumption and display of sexuality, therefore reacting better to communication strategies based on brand values, quality and simplicity (Mitterfellner, 2020; Farrag and Hassan, 2015; Putrevu and Swimberghek, 2013). Nonetheless, as mentioned in Rodrigues, Sousa, and Torres (2022) brands should adopt a diverse mindset and try to deliver targeted messages that accommodate for the varying spiritual backgrounds of their customers.

Finally, the main theoretical contributions of the present work are in the presentation of various explorations about the effects of religious commitment on the consumption of fashion, as well as in the mapping of previous discussions about the intersection of religiosity and CB. In terms of future research, it is suggested to determine the degree of influence of religious digital influencers on the fashion CB of religious consumers, study the intersectionality of Modest Fashion, as well as a focus on Christian consumers - to understand the differences between these Western religious women and visibly Muslim (Tarlo, 2010) veiled women who tend to be the protagonists of studies on the interfaces of fashion and religion. This will bring theoretical contributions, as these women are underexplored within the business of fashion, as well as being able to guide researchers in the field of fashion, culture and society.