The bonding and socializing role of fashion: The Polish case

Fashion is not only a tool for the creation and expression of individual identity and empowerment. It is additionally an active agent of socialization, and its ability to connect humans, non-humans and ideas in complex networks and interactions is equally important. The article analyses the phenomenon of affiliative fashion in the Polish sociocultural context, with a particular focus on the bonding role of fashion. It is based on the results of the author’s research carried out with the unique Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET © ): study of attitudes towards fashion and the ways in which it is practised by Polish women (research carried out under an NCN grant in 2014–17) and Polish men (research carried out under a grant from the Faculty of Sociology of the Adam Mickiewicz University in 2021). The research and method formulated in this way facilitated the capture of multidimensional aspects of fashion along with various personal strategies, which makes these studies unique and extremely valuable.