Application of the Functional, Expressive and Aesthetic Consumer Needs Model: assessing the clothing needs of adolescent girls with disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate clothing needs of adolescent girls with disabilities with the application of the Functional, Expressive and Aesthetic (FEA) Consumer Needs Model (Lamb, J.M. and Kallal, M.J., 1992. A conceptual framework for apparel design. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 10, 42–47). Survey data were collected from 33 adolescent girls with disabilities. Functional, expressive and aesthetic considerations of the FEA Model were used to analyse responses regarding satisfaction with specific garment types and general clothing needs. While functional considerations were most often reported, adolescents also indicated a number of expressive and aesthetic considerations. Regardless of their level of clothing interest, the common functional considerations identified were issues with fit and difficulty donning and doffing including difficulty with garment fasteners. Safety was not a consideration identified in the FEA Model but was identified by the adolescents as important when considering their level of satisfaction. Based on the results of this study, recommendation for future applications of the FEA Consumer Needs Model is presented.