Sustainability in Luxury Fashion Business

This chapter highlights the importance of exploring sustainability issues for luxury brands, and then it summarizes the key highlights of each chapter of this book (i.e., chapter 2 to 10). We start by addressing the question “Is sustainability an attainable goal for luxury brands?”. Through the discussion of the tensions between the luxury brand traditional operations and sustainability, this chapter provides the reasons for luxury brand incorporating sustainability goals into their operations, while continuing their focus on quality and artisanship.

Luxury and sustainable fashion goods are like any consumer product; they are material culture, laden with meaning beyond their utility. The value of a fashion good—whether luxurious, sustainable, or both—is largely symbolic rather than economic (Crane & Bovone in Poetics 34:319–333, 2006), though the economic value allows for a greater distinction between levels of goods. Consumers utilize these embedded values to make their personal values visible to themselves and others. Utilizing discourse analysis, we offer here an explication of the separate yet interlacing domains of ‘luxury’ and ‘sustainability.’ This is an attempt to locate, if only briefly, the shifting domains of these oft-employed concepts. Stella McCartney, Eileen Fisher, and Brunello Cucinelli served as case studies for this analysis due to their general ascension as preeminent sustainable luxury fashion brands. Central to this success has been their ability to use discursive practices that effectively communicate their company ethos. Whether that ethos is then connected to their product is questionable and will be explored here.

This conceptual study addresses the sustainable development (SD) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of global luxury brands and their lack of information dissemination on these endeavors to the luxury consumer market. Strategies for global luxury companies to connect their consumers to the sustainability messages that underlie their core values and inform their business operations are still nascent in the luxury brand management literature. A case study tracing the SD and CSR initiatives of leading luxury conglomerate, LVMH, since the inception of its environmental department (i.e., 1992–2017) was conducted alongside an in-depth historical review of the larger luxury goods industry. This approach allowed for concurrent examination of LVMH’s sustainability initiatives over time and within the context of the evolving luxury goods environment (e.g., changing luxury consumer motivations and values). Data were collected from primary and secondary data sources. Two theoretical foundations, experiential marketing (e.g., Atwal & Williams, 2009; Pine & Gilmore, 1998) and sustainable luxury value (Hennigs et al., 2013), shaped the study. Findings revealed a conceptual framework for sustainable luxury brand communication (SLBC) that can serve as a guide for global luxury brands with sustainability programs in varying stages of development. The SLBC framework proposes the order in which brands communicate their SD and CSR initiatives to the luxury market, with the goal of educating and helping fuel the shift in consumer values toward a more sustainable paradigm. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on luxury brands’ sustainability programs and their impact at the consumer and corporate-level.

Today’s consumers are increasingly concerned with social and environmental issues, leading to more conscientious consumption decisions and practices. As the core consumers’ characteristics are vastly different between luxury and mass fashion brands, it is expected that consumers’ social media responses would be highly varied as well. Therefore, this study aimed to explore consumer social media behavior when exposed to corporate sustainability messages and discover potential differences in responses between luxury and mass fashion consumers. To achieve the objective of the study, 89,290 raw data were obtained from Twitter through Python. Given that there might be differences in consumer responses toward corporate 378 sustainability messages between luxury and mass fashion brands because of distinctively different characteristics in their target consumers, this study explored 380 consumer social media behavior and looked for potential differences in responses 381 between the two groups of consumers. After analyzing over 89,000 tweets and 382 retweets made by 11 luxury and 11 mass fashion brands as of March 2017, the 383 study found several interesting results. Overall, the analysis of Twitter messages suggests that luxury fashion brands are less communicative with consumers about their sustainability activities than mass fashion brands. This indicates fewer tweet and less loud, yet effective in what they communicate might be luxury brands’ strategies. Indeed, the findings do show that consumers look for leadership in luxury brands, as they tend to like or retweet more messages generated from luxury brands when their messages are focused on sustainability.

While consumers’ increasing demands for luxury leather goods drives luxury brands to secure supplies of exotic and high-quality animal skins, animal welfare activists have attempted to raise the public’s awareness of cruelty in the luxury fashion supply chains. Adopting the attribution theory, this study aims to uncover the pattern of consumers’ responses to the issue of animal cruelty in the luxury fashion industry. Data were collected from consumers’ responses to animal cruelty as revealed in PETA (People of Ethical Treatment of Animal)’s video on YouTube. Data analysis revealed distinct blame attributions and coping strategies, which depend heavily on viewers’ attitude toward the video content. Findings from this study suggest that consumers’ blame attributions are dispersed among different stakeholders, with luxury fashion brands and their customers treated as the causes of animal cruelty, slaughterhouse workers, and humans in general treated as perpetrators, and PETA and commenters that support PETA’s message treated as accusers. Implications for the luxury fashion business and animal welfare promotion are discussed.

Animal experiments have been considered necessary procedures for safety verification and effectiveness validation in developing the products that directly affect the human body, such as medicines or cosmetics (Baumans, 2010; Hajar, 2011). For ending animal testing, social media can be a useful and effective tool for those opposed to animal testing and has been shown to produce measurable results (Wilkinson, 2014). The current research regarding sustainability and animal testing hasn’t sufficiently taken advantage of the large-scale data set available online. By applying data-mining-based social network analysis, this study used the French cosmetics company NARS as an example to examine how public awareness and reaction to animal experiments is spread on social media. To quantify and identify the online discussion of Instagram and Twitter users across time, we analyzed two networks of hashtags connected through user posts. To generate the nodes, we first crawled all posts containing #animaltesting within four months for Instagram, one week for Twitter. In both networks, nodes are hashtags created by users when they publish posts on certain events. The findings will be useful for cosmetics companies, lawmakers, and animal advocacy organizations in understanding the network and information flow on social media and, in turn, know what information should be posted on social media to engage social media users and build positive brand reputation.

As one of the luxurious fibres, cashmere is a fine natural fibre extracted from the underbelly of a unique goat primarily found in Asia. Cashmere fibre is used to make a variety of fashion and luxury woollen products such as scarves, shawls, pullovers and cardigans. Similar to fine wine or cheeses, it can be argued that the inherent value of cashmere to the consumer relates to both the properties of the product itself (softness, fineness), and the traditions and practices associated with its production. India is the traditional hub of cashmere products for centuries, and the handmade Indian cashmere products are unmatched in artisan expertise, range, design, appearance and quality. In the last few decades, due to technological advancements in manufacturing practices, the automation of cashmere manufacturing is fast replacing the centuries-old traditional practices. As a result of these changes, the industry in India is currently facing sustainability issues. This research aims to determine how, and to what extent, automation is impacting traditional cashmere manufacturing processes and how these practices can be integrated for sustainability. To achieve this, we intend to explore cashmere luxury value chains and study the impact of automation on the value generation stages of these chains. This study will be carried out in the context of traditional craft industry making transition to the global, consumer age. Finally, based on the research aim, propositions are presented to address and integrate these aspects for future research. Through this work, a contribution to the body of knowledge surrounding cashmere industry is expected.

A common understanding of “sustainability” is to manage the resources today so that future survival can be secured. Many people focus on the issue of environmental protection, and recycling. Yet, there are other perspectives of sustainability. Firstly, at the micro-level, will the demand of fur products as luxury products be sustainable? Are there any supporting reasons for the survival of the demand of fur products? Secondly, will the supply of fur products diminish? Are there evidences of the continuation of the supply? Will the man-made substitute of fur, namely faux fur, replace the genuine fur? Thirdly, at the macro-level, what kind of political impact will the fur industry create to help her own survival? Fourthly, how about the social and economic impact that the fur industry creates to ensure her existence? Is the economy of the fur-producing country heavily depending on the tax from fur industry? Is the employment also depending heavily on the fur industry? Consequently, is there a holistic model of sustainability in the fur industry? Will this model be able to explain how the existing resources affect the future survival? In this chapter, a qualitative holistic model of sustainability of the fur industry is proposed. The research method consists of both secondary data research and primary data that are acquired through interviewing delegates of different roles in the fur industry. The results were compared to check if they are coherent. Finally, the result was analyzed. The holistic model was extracted accordingly.

In recent years, many fashion brands and retailers have been under pressure to achieve environment-friendly production and operations. To reduce carbon footprints, retailers are seeking ways to adopt energy efficiency technologies (EETs), to have better control of energy consumption through technology improvement or substitution. The application of EETs has been researched in developed countries, such as the European Union and the USA, in areas of public and mainly manufacturing sectors. Some large-scale general merchandise retailers, like Walmart, are also widely reported for their adoption of adopting ISO 14001 environment management system, and ISO 50001 energy management system, and many EETs. However, it is not clear how EETs are being implemented in luxury retailers, which tend to be smaller in size located in major metropolitan cities. The energy efficiency of retail shops in major fashion cities, such as New York, London, Paris, and Hong Kong (HK) is largely neglected in the literature. To explore how luxury sector retailers in major cities implement EET, we selected HK as our research context. HK, being one of the largest and competitive luxurious product markets (HK’s all retail sales in 2016 was US$56 billion of which luxury products amounted about US$10 billion), has long been suffered from light pollution due to the spot lights on large billboards on buildings, and the window display of brick and mortar stores on the street. The lightings are always on that also brings serious concern on energy consumption. This chapter shall review the application of EETs, such as renewable energy technologies, sophisticated lighting devices, battery technologies, energy-saving devices, and smart energy management, in the luxury sector retail industry of HK. In this paper, we reviewed both drivers and barriers of the application of EETs in the HK’s luxury retail sector. The discussions are based upon interviews of renowned luxury goods retail chain stores in HK. Six luxury and premium brands (i.e., jewelry, luxury watches, fashion) retail chain stores are chosen, and in-depth interviews were conducted with their senior managements, who are responsible for the decisions of EETs adoption (if any). The samples include both private and publicly listed companies, and their number of stores range from 5 to thousands retail outlets in HK and China. We believe the findings could be applied into other retailers in luxury sectors. A conceptual model, Energy Sustainability Strategy Model on EETs adoption, is also proposed.

Sustainable luxury seeks for the ancestral meaning, quality of materials, and artisanship (Gardetti & Torres, 2003). According to the Alliance of Artisan Enterprise from the Aspen Institute, the artisan enterprise is valuable for native communities because it creates jobs and preserves ancient techniques (Aspen Institute, 2012). The program “Maestros Costureros” is an initiative that brings artisans and designers to collaborate, co-create, and discuss on design, artisanship, and luxury as a commitment to cultural heritage, peace, and economic development (Fucsia, 2016a). The artisans are from different regions in Colombia where the Colombian armed conflict existed for more than 50 years (Hough, 2011). The designers are scholars and technical experienced individuals in fashion design and management, with national and international exposure (Fucsia, 2016a). This initiative led by FUCSIA, a fashion magazine, and LCI Bogota with the support of Artesanías de Colombia, Inexmoda, and Club Colombia aims to create economic opportunities for artisans by facilitating their understanding of the current market through a creative collaboration with renowned fashion designers. The aim of this work is to explore the creative collaboration between artisan and designers through the analysis of “Master Sewers” program, the role of the different stakeholders, and how it relates to sustainability in the luxury fashion supply chain. The findings suggest that “Master Sewers” program is designed and implemented to improve the artisans’ skill set in the design and marketing of their handmade products to fill the gaps in access to the marketplace. The fashion designers gained in the cooperation by reaching a genuine source of inspiration that resonates with their roots. The products were exhibited in an official ceremony in LCI Bogota, an academic institution specialized in creative arts, and they are sold in a diversity of boutiques in Bogota, Colombia, South America (Artesanías de Colombia, 2016a). This research seeks to contribute to the Springer series in Sustainability in Luxury Fashion Business by providing a case study in the interconnection between artisanship and luxury for sustainability through the co-creation program “Master Sewers,” a multi-stakeholder initiative for the revitalization of artisanal techniques and economic development for a better and more sustainable fashion.