How Anti-Marketing and Elitist Design Language Build Brand Loyalty in Western Luxury Avant-Garde Fashion Brands

Hendrawan, Reynald Sulthan (2025) How Anti-Marketing and Elitist Design Language Build Brand Loyalty in Western Luxury Avant-Garde Fashion Brands. Other thesis, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember.

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Abstract

This study examines how anti-marketing practices and elitist design language shape consumer perceptions and brand loyalty within Western avant-garde fashion. Labels such as Rick Owens, Carol Christian Poell, Enfants Riches Déprimés, and Sruli Recht are characterised by minimal commercial visibility, symbolic ambiguity, and aesthetic difficulty, distinguishing them from mainstream luxury fashion. Despite this, limited research has explored how consumers interpret these characteristics and construct meaning in the absence of traditional marketing communication. Drawing on Semiotic Theory, Consumer Behavior Theory, and Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, this study investigates how consumers interpret anti-marketing practices and symbolically complex design, and how these interpretations influence emotional attachment and long-term loyalty. A qualitative phenomenological approach was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who had at least one year of engagement with avant-garde fashion. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), supported by Cross-Case Analysis (CCA). The findings indicate that consumers interpret anti-marketing practices as intentional expressions of authenticity and artistic integrity rather than communicative absence. Elitist design language functions as symbolic difficulty that deepens engagement and reinforces cultural distinction. Brand loyalty emerges through internal meaning-making, identity alignment, and symbolic resonance rather than marketing exposure or promotional reinforcement. The study concludes that avant-garde fashion operates as an interpretative and identity-shaping space in which loyalty is constructed through interpretation rather than persuasion.

Item Type:	Thesis (Other)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Avant-garde fashion, Anti-marketing, Brand loyalty, Elitist design language, Cultural capital
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory > HB801 Consumer behavior. H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5415.15 Branding (Marketing) H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5415.335 Consumer satisfaction
Divisions:	Faculty of Business and Management Technology > Business Management > 61205-(S1) Undergraduate Thesis
Depositing User:	Reynald Sulthan Hendrawan
Date Deposited:	28 Jan 2026 06:14
Last Modified:	28 Jan 2026 06:14
URI:	http://repository.its.ac.id/id/eprint/130922

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