What does fashion tell us about consumer's identity? Our research explores how fashion reveals consumer identity by examining a novel trend: naming fashion products after people. Currently, about one-third of fashion items carry human names, yet we lack a clear understanding of why brands adopt this strategy and its impact. When and why do brands choose to name products after people? How do the meanings of specific names influence a product's positioning and pricing? Does the identity conveyed by these names shape consumer perceptions and influence their fashion choices? Understanding these dynamics sheds light on how brands use the rich identities tied to names as a unique marketing tool. We propose that this naming strategy is influenced by a brand’s status. For example, middle-tier brands might face more pressure to differentiate themselves in an increasingly uniform fashion market. Additionally, we predict that the "social currency" of names—factors like perceived ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or emotional resonance—may translate into actual product pricing. Using a dataset of 300,000 women’s fashion items from Nordstrom, we found empirical support for our hypothesis.
