Re-arranging dressing practices: The role of objects in spreading ugly luxury

How do ugly luxury objects, in terms of their materials, design, and marketing communication efforts, trigger changes in consumers' enactments of good taste? This article explores the trend of ugly shoes to understand how consumer practices, under a specific taste regime, change in relation to a luxury object deemed ugly at first sight. Using the lenses of practice theory and extended materiality, we demonstrate that objects, competences, and meanings evolve together and are destabilized and restabilized into new rearrangements as consumers interact with ugly luxury objects. More specifically, we show that every element belonging to an ugly luxury object's extended materiality (i.e., materials, design, and meanings from marketing communication efforts) works to trigger changes in taste regimes.

Automated summary

This article explores how consumer practices change in relation to luxury objects deemed ugly, using the lenses of practice theory and extended materiality. It shows that objects, competences, and meanings evolve together and are restabilized into new rearrangements as consumers interact with ugly luxury objects.