Sustainability in Fashion

This chapter provides an insight for the idea of the book and a brief overview of sustainability in the fashion industry. The chapter further introduces the content of the book and finishes with acknowledgements.

Our study examines sustainability in the fashion industry, and argues for increasing consumers’ awareness of the natural world, with the goal of broadening their perspectives to include not only personal gratification but also the pressing need to combat processes harmful to nature. By applying traceability—the ability to trace an item through every stage of production—to the realm of fashion supply chains, consumers can make informed purchase decisions based on what appeals to them on a personal level and also on a given item’s environmental and social impact.

Organisations are increasingly keen to communicate their efforts to address sustainability and encourage consumers to adopt sustainable behaviours. Fashion retailers have begun to acknowledge and address growing consumer concerns about the negative impact of fibre, fabric and garment production on the environment and workers. This chapter considers how sustainability, in terms of the concept of organic cotton, is communicated to and interpreted by fashion consumers as they evaluate eco-labelling during the purchase decision-making process. It begins with an overview of organic cotton farming methods, followed by a critical analysis of the literature on ethical and conscious consumption, with specific consideration of the barriers and drivers of organic cotton consumption, and how eco-labels affect consumer perceptions of environmental issues. Finally, a summary of the current presence and marketing of organic cotton in the UK fashion market is provided.

This chapter investigates consumers’ perceptions of sustainable fashion. This exploratory qualitative research is based on 16 in-depth interviews, which investigate consumer perceptions of sustainable garments. Data revealed that there are clear differences between male and female perceptions, with females being more inclined to follow, what has been described, as a short-term trend, whilst males seem to be more resistant. Practically, this research contributes by highlighting areas of improvement with existing communication strategies. This study found that demographics might have an impact on the purchasing decision of sustainable fashion, which needs to be investigated further.

This chapter investigates ethical consumption patterns and the link to purchasing sustainable fashion within the UK fashion industry. A quantitative research approach was utilised to investigate whether there is a relationship between the participants’ demographics and in how far they characterise themselves as being ethical through the CTR decision tree analysis. Age emerged as a major determinant, with work status further providing an indication on whether consumers are shopping at independent shops.

This chapter investigates current techniques by upcycle and sustainable fashion brands to communicate features and benefits of products and their value to consumers and society. Analysis from 14 in-depth interviews featuring nine ethical fashion brands and five sustainable fashion experts (CSR professional, activist, sustainable fashion writer, and closed loop production specialists) provide comprehensive perspectives from field experts and practitioners. Key industry perspectives on communication and consumer issues on sustainability, design, and behaviour change are presented. Discussions on demands; effectiveness of techniques; and current strategies employed by brands and designers to communicate in-store and via multi-channel media are also covered in this chapter.

This chapter lays grounding for principles in a circular economy from the fashion viewpoint. Chapter presents following approaches; design for longevity, design for services, design for reuse in manufacture, design for material recovery and new business models for circular economy. Building a circular economy system and transformative business for fashion requires a new system level and radical innovations. Therefore, also the key stakeholders and their roles for this transformation are discussed. At the end of the text design principles for circular economy are highlighted.

This chapter investigates the relationship between consumers and sustainable fashion products, revealing views closely intertwined with the product offering provided by clothing retailers and brands, through mutual influence. The chapter draws both from the literature and a research project, which aimed ‘to explore the technical, behavioural and strategic obstacles to implementing innovative and sustainable product development processes that could enhance clothing longevity’ (Oxborrow et al. 2017). Fashion retailers and brands can acquire information about consumer attitudes through formal methods organised by consumer insights teams, such as retailers’ regular online questionnaires to selected consumers and focus groups between buyers and consumers to discuss new product samples face to face. The information acquired by these methods is exclusive to the companies concerned however, and would usually be closely guarded, remaining with the large organisations who can afford to employ their own market research teams or consultancies, whereas our study comprises findings which are applicable and freely available to companies of all sizes and can therefore have a wider potential impact upon the fashion industry. The extant literature has identified a gap for an improved understanding of consumer perspectives on sustainable clothing (see, e.g. Oxborrow and Claxton 2016; WRAP 2012), which this chapter seeks to address by investigating views on purchase, maintenance and disposal of garments.

As the lowest level in the subcontracted supply chain, homeworkers are invisible and subject to exploitation. Existing codes of conduct and monitoring schemes favor the rights of the visible workforce employed in industrial settings in tier 1 factories. We conducted qualitative field research with the Self Employed Women’s Association’s (SEWA) embroidery center in New Delhi, India. Findings provide understanding of the sustainable management policies and practices that have been put in place to assure global buyers that homework can be carried out in ways consistent with standards for human rights, making it a protected component of sustainable supply chains.

There are a growing number of two-sided platforms providing innovative approaches to consuming fashion by means of sharing. However, the high failure rate of these entrepreneurial endeavours suggests that better knowledge of the barriers faced by these platforms is paramount. This chapter proposes a study of user satisfaction and dissatisfaction with mobile reselling and swapping platforms, which are conceptualized as being part of the sharing economy. By adopting the SERVQUAL measurement and extending it to mobile word-of-mouth user evaluations in app stores, this chapter identifies “app design”, “product portfolio”, “reliability”, and “structure” to constitute the key factors, which might promote or prevent interested users from adopting these new practices. By means of adopting content analysis on textual app reviews from the US iTunes app store, this chapter expands our understanding of the possibilities and pitfalls of working with this new form of naturally occurring data.

This chapter provides insights into current environmental trends impacting on the global fashion industry. The rise of secondhand luxury fashion and in particular vintage is examined; this sector having witnessed the largest growth in recent times. Aside from the natural resource issue, there has been an alarming rise in the negative impacts of increased cyclical effects of garment production on the environment. With an increase in pollution and scarcity of resources, it can be argued that fashion firms will need to better understand how to trigger behavioural shifts towards slower consumption and develop new sustainable business models. With secondhand retailing thriving as a business format, this chapter provides a conceptual review of the attitudinal and behavioural motivators towards sustainable consumption for an evolving and significant sector, set within the context of the circular economy.