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Making Fashion Sustainable: Waste and Collective Responsibility

Debbie moorhouse.

1 Department of Fashion & Textiles, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK

Fashion is a growing industry, but the demand for cheap, fast fashion has a high environmental footprint. Some brands lead the way by innovating to reduce waste, improve recycling, and encourage upcycling. But if we are to make fashion more sustainable, consumers and industry must work together.

As the demand for apparel and shoes has increased worldwide, the fashion industry has experienced substantial growth. In the last 15 years, clothing production has doubled, accounting for 60% of all textile production. 1 One particular trend driving this increase is the emergence of fast fashion. The newest trends in celebrity culture and bespoke fashion shows rapidly become available from affordable retailers. In recent years, a designer’s fashion calendar can consist of up to five collections per year, and in the mass-produced market, new stock is being produced every 2 weeks. As with many commodities today, mass production and consumption are often accompanied by mass wastage, and fashion is no different.

In fashion, trends rapidly change, and a drive to buy the latest style can leave many items with a short lifespan and consigned to the waste bin. Given that 73% of clothing ends up in landfills and less than 1% is recycled into new clothing, there are significant costs with regard to not only irreplaceable resources but also the economy via landfilling clothing. At present, it is estimated that £140 million worth of clothing is sent to landfills in the UK each year. 2 Although a significant proportion of recycled fibers are downgraded into insulation materials, industrial wipes, and stuffing, they still constitute only 12% of total discarded material.

The world is increasingly worried about the environmental and social costs of fashion, particularly items that have short lifespans. Mass-produced fashion is often manufactured where labor is cheap, but working conditions can be poor. Sweatshops can even be found in countries with stricter regulations. The transport of products from places of manufacture to points of sale contributes to the textile industry’s rising carbon footprint; 1.2 billion metric tons of CO 2 were reportedly emitted in 2015. 1 Textile dyeing and finishing are thought to contribute to 20% of the world’s water pollution, 3 and microfiber emission during washing amounts to half a million metric tons of plastic pollution annually. 4 Fashion’s water footprint is particularly problematic. Water is used throughout clothing production, including in the growth of crops such as cotton and in the weaving, manufacturing, washing, and dyeing processes. The production of denim apparel alone uses over 5,000 L of water 5 for a single pair of jeans. When you add this to consumer overuse of water, chemicals, and energy in the laundry process and the ultimate discard to landfills or incineration, the environmental impact becomes extremely high.

As demand for fast fashion continues to grow, so too does the industry’s environmental footprint. Negative impacts are starkly evidenced throughout the entire supply chain—from the growth of raw materials to the disposal of scarcely used garments. As awareness of the darker side of fashion grows, so too does demand for change—not just from regulatory bodies and global action groups but also from individual consumers. People want ethical garments. Sustainability and style. But achieving this is complicated.

Demand for Sustainable Fashion

Historically, sustainable brands were sought by a smaller consumer base and were typically part of the stereotype “hippy” style. But in recent years, sustainable fashion has become more mainstream among both designers and consumers, and the aesthetic appeal has evolved to become more desirable to a wider audience. As a result, the consumer need not only buy into the ethics of the brand but also purchase a desirable, contemporary garment.

But the difficulty for the fashion industry lies in addressing all sustainability and ethical issues while remaining economically sustainable and future facing. Sustainable and ethical brands must take into account fairer wages, better working conditions, more sustainably produced materials, and a construction quality that is built for longevity, all of which ultimately increase the cost of the final product. The consumer often wrestles with many different considerations when making a purchase; some of these conflict with each other and can lead the consumer to prioritize the monetary cost.

Many buyers who place sustainability over fashion but cannot afford the higher cost of sustainable garments will often forsake the latest styles and trends to buy second hand. However, fashion and second-hand clothing need not be mutually exclusive, as can be seen by the growing trend of acquiring luxury vintage pieces. Vintage clothing is in direct contrast to the whole idea of “fast fashion” and is sought after as a way to express individuality with the added value of saving something precious from landfills. Where vintage might have once been purchased at an exclusive auction, now many online sources trade in vintage pieces. Celebrities, fashion influencers, and designers have all bought into this vintage trend, making it a very desirable pre-owned, pre-loved purchase. 6 In effect, the consumer mindset is changing such that vintage clothing (as a timeless, more considered purchase) is more desirable than new products because of its uniqueness, a virtue that stands against the standardization of mass-market production.

Making Fashion Circular

In an ideal system, the life cycle of a garment would be a series of circles such that the garment would continually move to the next life—redesigned, reinvented, and never discarded—eliminating the concept of waste. Although vintage is growing in popularity, this is only one component of a circular fashion industry, and the reality is that the linear system of “take, make, dispose,” with all its ethical and environmental problems, continues to persist.

Achieving sustainability in the production of garments represents a huge and complex challenge. It is often quoted that “more than 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined at the design stage,” 7 meaning that designers are now being looked upon to solve the problem. But the responsibility should not solely lie with the designer; it should involve all stakeholders along the supply chain. Designers develop the concept, but the fashion industry also involves pattern cutters and garment technologists, as well as the manufacturers: both producers of textiles and factories where garment construction takes place. And finally, the consumer should not only dispose, reuse, or upcycle garments appropriately but also wash and care for the garment in a way that both is sustainable and ensures longevity of the item. These stakeholders must all work together to achieve a more sustainable supply chain.

The challenge of sustainability is particularly pertinent to denim, which, as already mentioned, is one of the more problematic fashion items. Traditionally an expression of individualism and freedom, denim jeans are produced globally at 1.7 billion pairs per year 8 through mass-market channels and mid-tier and premium designer levels, and this is set to rise. In the face of growing demand, some denim specialists are looking for ways to make their products more sustainable.

Reuse and recycling can play a role here, and designers and brands such as Levi Strauss & Co. and Mud Jeans are taking responsibility for the future life of their garments. They are offering take-back services, mending services, and possibilities for recycling to new fibers at end of life. Many brands have likewise embraced vintage fashion. Levi’s “Authorized Vintage” line, which includes upcycled, pre-worn vintage pieces, not only exemplifies conscious consumption but also makes this vintage trend more sought after by the consumer because of its iconic status. All material is sourced from the company’s own archive, and all redesigns “are a chance to relive our treasured history.” 9

Mud Jeans in particular is working toward a circular business model by taking a more considered, “seasonless” approach to their collections by instead focusing on longevity and pieces that transcend seasons. In addition, they offer a lease service where jeans can be returned for a different style and a return service at end of life for recycling into new fiber. The different elements that make up a garment, such as the base fabrics (denim in the case of Mud jeans) and fastenings, are limited so the company can avoid overstocking and reduce deadstock. 10 This model of keeping base materials to a minimum has been adopted by brands that don’t specialize in denim, such as Adidas’s production of a recyclable trainer made from virgin thermoplastic polyurethane. 11 The challenge with garments, as with footwear, is that they are made up of many different materials that are difficult to separate and sort for recycling. These business models have a long way to go to be truly circular, but some companies are paving the way forward, and their transparency is highly valuable to other companies that wish to follow suit.

Once a product is purchased, its future is in the hands of the consumer, and not all are aware of the recycling options available to them or that how they care for their garments can have environmental impacts. Companies are helping to inform them. In 2009, Levi Strauss & Co. introduced “Care Tag for Our Planet,” which gives straightforward washing instructions to save water and energy and guidance on how to donate the garment when it is no longer needed. Mud Jeans follows a similar process by highlighting the need to break the habit of regular unnecessary washing and even suggesting “air washing.” 10

At the same time, designers are moving away from the traditional seasonal production cycle and into a more seasonless calendar. In light of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Gucci’s creative director, Alessandro Michele, has announced (May 2020) that the Italian brand will end the traditional five fashion shows per year and will “hold shows just twice a year instead to reduce waste.” 12 This is a brave decision because it goes against the practice whereby designers were pressured for decades to produce more collections per year, but the hope is that it will be quickly followed by more brands and designers.

Transparency

The discussion around sustainable fashion practices has led to a growing demand from consumers for transparency in the supply chain and life cycle of fashion garments. Consumers want to be informed. They are skeptical of media hype and “greenwashing” by fast-fashion companies wanting to make their brand appear responsible. They want to know the origin of the product and its environmental and social impact.

Some companies are responding by seeking a better understanding of the environmental impacts of their products. In 2015, denim specializer Levi Strauss & Co. extensively analyzed the garment life cycle to consider the environmental impact of a core set of products from its range. The areas highlighted for greatest water usage and negative environmental impact were textile production and consumer laundry care; the consumer phase alone consumed 37% of energy, 13 fiber and textile production accounted for 36% of energy usage, and the remaining 27% was spent on garment production, transport, logistics, and packaging. 14 This life-cycle analysis has led to innovation in waterless finishing processes that use 96% less water than traditional fabric finishing. 15 As noted previously, transparency here also inspires the wider industry to do likewise. Other companies have also introduced dyeing processes that need much less water, and much work is focused on improving textile recycling.

But this discussion does not just apply to production. Some high-street brands are using a “take back” scheme whereby customers are invited to bring back unwanted clothing either for a discount on future purchases or as a way to offload unwanted items of clothing. Not only might this encourage consumers to buy more without feeling guilty, but the ultimate destination of these returned garments can also be unclear. Without further transparency, a consumer cannot make fully informed decisions about the end-of-life fate of their garments.

Collective Responsibility

The buck should not be passed when it comes to sustainability; it is about collective responsibility. Professionals in the fashion industry often feel that it is in the hands of the consumer—they have the buying power, and their choices determine how the industry reacts. One train of thought is that the consumer needs to buy less and that the fashion retail industry can’t be asked to sell less. However, if a sustainable life cycle is to be achieved, stakeholders within the cycle must also be accountable, and there are growing demands for the fashion industry to be regulated.

With the global demand for new clothing, there is an urgent need to discover new materials and to find new markets for used clothing. At present, garments that last longer reduce production and processing impacts, and designers and brands can make efforts in the reuse and recycling of clothing. But environmental impact will remain high if large quantities of new clothing continue to be bought.

If we want a future sustainable fashion industry, both consumers and industry professionals must engage. Although greater transparency and sustainability are being pursued and certain brands are leading the way, the overconsumption of clothing is so established in society that it is difficult to say how this can be reversed or slowed. Moreover, millions of livelihoods depend on this constant cycle of fashion production. Methods in the recycling, upcycling, reuse, and remanufacture of apparel and textiles are short-term gains, and the real impact will come from creating new circular business models that account for the life cycle of a garment and design in the initial concept. If we want to maximize the value from each item of clothing, giving them second, third, and fourth lives is essential.

Acknowledgments

Thank you for support, in writing this Commentary, to Dr. Rina Arya, Professor of Visual Culture and Theory at the School of Art, Design, and Architecture of the University of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK.

Declaration of Interests

The author is the co-founder of the International Society for Sustainable Fashion.

News from the Columbia Climate School

Why Fashion Needs to Be More Sustainable

The pandemic slowed fast fashion to a standstill. Now as the world opens up and we are socializing and going places, we want to dress up again. But after living a confined and simpler life during COVID, this is a good time to take stock of the implications of how we dress. Fashion, and especially fast fashion, has enormous environmental impacts on our planet, as well as social ones.

Since the 2000s, fashion production has doubled and it will likely triple by 2050, according to the American Chemical Society. The production of polyester, used for much cheap fast fashion, as well as athleisure wear, has increased nine-fold in the last 50 years. Because clothing has gotten so cheap, it is easily discarded after being worn only a few times. One survey found that 20 percent of clothing in the US is never worn; in the UK, it is 50 percent. Online shopping, available day and night, has made impulse buying and returning items easier.

According to McKinsey, average consumers buy 60 percent more than they did in 2000, and keep it half as long. And in 2017, it was estimated that 41 percent of young women felt the need to wear something different whenever they left the house. In response, there are companies that send consumers a box of new clothes every month.

Fashion’s environmental impacts

Fashion is responsible for 10 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and 20 percent of global wastewater, and uses more energy than the aviation and shipping sectors combined.

Impacts on water

Global fashion also consumes 93 billion metric tons of clean water each year, about half of what Americans drink annually.

Cotton is an especially thirsty crop. For example, one kilogram of cotton used to produce a pair of jeans can consume 7,500 to 10,000 liters of water—the amount a person would drink over 10 years. Cotton production also requires pesticides and insecticides, which pollute the soil; runoff from fertilized cotton fields carry the excess nutrients to water bodies, causing eutrophication and algal blooms.

The dyeing process for fabrics, which uses toxic chemicals, is responsible for 17 to 20 percent of global industrial water pollution.

Seventy-two toxic chemicals have been found in the water used in textile dyeing.

Contributions to climate change

To feed the fashion industry’s need for wood pulp to make fabrics like rayon, viscose and other fabrics, 70 million tons of trees are cut down each year. That number is expected to double by 2034, speeding deforestation in some of the world’s endangered forests.

The fashion industry produces 1.2 million metric tons of CO2 each year, according to a  MacArthur Foundation study.  In 2018, it resulted in more greenhouse gas emissions than the carbon produced by France, Germany and the UK all together. Polyester, which is actually plastic made from fossil fuels, is used for about 65 percent of all clothing, and consumes 70 million barrels of oil each year. In addition, the fashion industry uses large amounts of fossil fuel-based plastic for packaging and hangers.

Less than one percent of clothing is recycled to make new clothes. The fibers in clothing are polymers, long chains of chemically linked molecules. Washing and wearing clothing shorten and weaken these polymers, so by the time a garment is discarded, the polymers are too short to turn into a strong new fabric. In addition, most of today’s textile-to-textile recycling technologies cannot separate out dyes, contaminants, or even a combination of fabrics such as polyester and cotton.

As a result, 53 million metric tons of discarded clothing are incinerated or go to landfills each year. In 2017, Burberry burned $37 million worth of unsold bags, clothes and perfume. If sent to a landfill, clothes made from natural fabrics like cotton and linen may degrade in weeks to months, but synthetic fabrics can take up to 200 years to break down. And as they do, they produce methane, a powerful global warming greenhouse gas.

Microplastic pollution

Many people have lived solely in athleisure wear during the pandemic, but the problem with this is that the stretch and breathability in most athleisure comes from the use of synthetic plastic fibers like polyester, nylon, acrylic, spandex and others, which are made of plastic.

When clothes made from synthetics are washed, microplastics  from their fibers are shed into the wastewater. Some of it is filtered out at wastewater treatment plants along with human waste and the resulting sludge is used as fertilizer for agriculture. Microplastics then enter the soil and become part of the food chain. The microplastics that elude the treatment plant end up in rivers and oceans, and in the atmosphere when seawater droplets carry them into the air. It’s estimated that 35 percent of the microplastics in the ocean come from the fashion industry. While some brands use “recycled polyester” from PET bottles, which emits 50 to 25 percent fewer emissions than virgin polyester, effective polyester recycling is limited, so after use, these garments still usually end up in the landfill where they can shed microfibers.

Microplastics harm marine life, as well as birds and turtles. They have already been found in our food, water and air—one study found that Americans eat 74,000 microplastic particles each year. And while there is growing concern about this, the risks to human health are still not well understood.

Fashion’s social impacts

Because it must be cheap, fast fashion is dependent on the exploited labor force in developing countries where regulations are lax. Workers are underpaid, overworked, and exposed to dangerous conditions or health hazards; many are underage.

Of the 75 million factory workers around the world, it’s estimated that only two percent earn a living wage. To keep brands from moving to another country or region with lower costs, factories limit wages and are disinclined to spend money to improve working conditions. Moreover, workers often live in areas with waterways polluted by the chemicals from textile dyeing.

How can fashion be more sustainable?

As opposed to our current linear model of fashion production with environmental impacts at every stage, where resources are consumed, turned into a product, then discarded, sustainable fashion minimizes its environmental impact, and even aims to benefit the environment. The goal is a circular fashion industry where waste and pollution are eliminated, and materials are used for as long as possible, then reused for new products to avoid the need to exploit virgin resources.

Many designers, brands, and scientists — including students in Columbia University’s Environmental Science and Policy program — are exploring ways to make fashion more sustainable and circular.

Since 80 to 90 percent of the sustainability of a clothing item is determined by decisions made during its design stage, new strategies can do away with waste from the get-go.

To eliminate the 15 percent of a fabric that usually ends up on the cutting room floor in the making of a garment, zero waste pattern cutting is used to arrange pattern pieces on fabric like a Tetris puzzle.

Designer YeohLee  is known as a zero waste pioneer, employing geometric concepts in order to use every inch of fabric; she also creates garments with the leftovers of other pieces. Draping and knitting are also methods of designing without waste.

3D virtual sampling can eliminate the need for physical samples of material. A finished garment can sometimes require up to 20 samples. The Fabricant , a digital fashion house, replaces actual garments with digital samples in the design and development stage and claims this can reduce a brand’s carbon footprint by 30 percent.

Some clothing can be designed to be taken apart at the end of its life; designing for disassembly makes it easier for the parts to be recycled or upcycled into another garment. To be multifunctional, other garments are reversible, or designed so that parts can be subtracted or added. London-based brand Petit Pli makes children’s clothing from a single recycled fabric, making it easier to recycle; and the garments incorporate pleats that stretch so that kids can continue to wear them as they grow.

3D printing can be used to work out details digitally before production, minimizing trial and error; and because it can produce custom-fit garments on demand, it reduces waste. In addition, recycled materials such as plastic and metal can be 3D printed.

Sustainable designer Iris Ven Herpen is known for her fabulous 3D printed creations, some using upcycled marine debris; she is also currently working with scientists to develop sustainable textiles.

DyeCoo , a Dutch company, has developed a dyeing technique that uses waste CO2 in place of water and chemicals. The technology pressurizes CO2 so that it becomes supercritical and allows dye to readily dissolve, so it can enter easily into fabrics. Since the process uses no water, it produces no wastewater, and requires no drying time because the dyed fabric comes out dry. Ninety-five percent of the CO2 is recaptured and reused, so the process is a closed-loop system.

Heuritech , a French startup, is using artificial intelligence to analyze product images from Instagram and Weibo and predict trends. Adidas, Lee, Wrangler and other brands have used it to anticipate future demand and plan their production accordingly to reduce waste.

Mobile body scanning  can help brands produce garments that fit a variety of body types instead of using standard sizes. 3D technology is also being used for virtual dressing, which will enable consumers to see how a garment looks on them before they purchase it. These innovations could lead to fewer returns of clothing.

Another way to reduce waste is to eliminate inventory. On-demand product fulfillment companies like Printful  enable designers to sync their custom designs to the company’s clothing products. Garments are not created until an order comes in.

For Days,  a closed-loop system, gives swap credits for every article of clothing you buy; customers can use swap credits to get new clothing items, all made from organic cotton or recycled materials. The swap credits encourage consumers to send in unwanted For Days clothes, keep them out of the landfill, and allow them to be made into new materials. Customers can also earn swap credits by filling one of the company’s Take Back bags with any old clothes, in any condition, and sending it in; these are then resold if salvageable or recycled as rags.

But perhaps the least wasteful strategy enables consumers not to buy any clothes at all. If they are mainly concerned about their image on social media, they can use digital clothing that is superimposed over their image. The Fabricant , which creates these digital garments,  aims to make “self expression through digital clothing a sustainable way to explore personal identity.”

Better materials

Many brands are using textiles made from natural materials such as hemp, ramie or bamboo instead of cotton. Bamboo has been touted as a sustainable fabric because it is fast-growing and doesn’t require much water or pesticides; however, some old growth forests are being cut down to make way for bamboo plantations. Moreover, to make most bamboo fabrics soft, they are subjected to chemical processing whose toxins can harm the environment and human health.

Because of this processing, the Global Organic Textile Standard says that almost all bamboo fiber can “not be considered as natural or even organic fibre, even if the bamboo plant was certified organic on the field.”

Some designers are turning to organic cotton, which is grown without toxic chemicals. But because organic cotton yields are 30 percent less than conventional cotton, they need 30 percent more water and land to produce the same amount as conventional cotton. Other brands, such as North Face and Patagonia, are creating clothing made from regenerative cotton—cotton grown without pesticides, fertilizers, weed pulling or tilling, and with cover crops and diverse plants to enhance the soil.

Textiles are also being made with fibers from agriculture waste, such as leaves and rinds. Orange Fiber, an Italian company, is using nanotechnology to make a sustainable silky material by processing the cellulose of oranges. H&M is using cupro, a material made from cotton waste. Flocus makes fully biodegradable and recyclable yarns and fabrics from the fibers of kapok tree pods through a process that doesn’t harm the trees. Kapok trees can grow in poor soils without much need for water or pesticides.

In 2016, Theanne Schiros, a principal investigator at Columbia University’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center  and assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), mentored a group of FIT students who created a bio-design award-winning material from algae. Kelp, its main ingredient, is fast growing, absorbs CO2 and nitrogen from agricultural runoff, and helps increase biodiversity. With the help of Columbia University’s Helen Lu, a biomedical engineer, the team created a bio-yarn they called AlgiKnit . Having received over $2 million in initial seed funding, the start-up, based in Brooklyn, is scaling up for market entry.

Schiros and Lu also developed a microbial bioleather. The compostable material consists of a nanocellulose mesh made through a fermentation process using a culture of bacteria and yeast. Schiros explained that these bacteria produce cellulose nanofibers as part of their metabolism; the bacteria were used in the fermentation of kombucha as early as 220 BC in what was Manchuria and in vinegar fermentation as early as 5,000 BC in Egypt. Biofabrication of the material is 10,000 times less toxic to humans than chrome-tanned leather, with an 88 to 97 percent smaller carbon footprint than synthetic (polyurethane) leather or other plastic-based leather alternatives. The fabrication process also drew on ancient textile techniques for tanning and dyeing. Schiros worked with the designers of Public School NY  on Slow Factory’s   One x One Conscious Design Initiative  challenge to create zero-waste, naturally dyed sneakers from the material.

Schiros is also co-founder and CEO of the startup Werewool , another collaboration with Lu, and with Allie Obermeyer of Columbia University Chemical Engineering. Werewool, which was recognized by the 2020 Global Change Award, creates biodegradable textiles with color and other attributes found in nature using synthetic biology . “Nature has evolved a genetic code to make proteins that do things like have bright color, stretch, moisture management, wicking, UV protection—all the things that you really want for performance textiles, but that currently come at a really high environmental cost,” said Schiros. “But nature accomplishes all this and that’s attributed to microscopic protein structures.”

Werewool engineers proteins inspired by those found in coral, jellyfish, oysters, and cow milk that result in color, moisture management or stretch. The DNA code for those proteins is inserted into bacteria, which ferment and mass-produce the protein that then becomes the basis for a fiber. The company will eventually provide its technology and fibers to other companies throughout the supply chain and will likely begin with limited edition designer brands.

Better working conditions

There are companies now intent on improving working conditions for textile workers. Dorsu  in Cambodia creates clothing from fabric discarded by garment factories. Workers are paid a living wage, have contracts, are given breaks, and also get bonuses, overtime pay, insurance and paid leave for sickness and holidays.

Mayamiko  is a 100 percent PETA-certified vegan brand that advocates for labor rights and created the Mayamiko Trust to train disadvantaged women.

Workers who make Ethcs ’ PETA-certified vegan garments are protected under the Fair Wear Foundation , which ensures a fair living wage, safe working conditions and legal labor contracts for workers. The Fair Wear Foundation website lists 128 brands it works with.

Beyond sustainability

Schiros maintains that making materials in collaboration with traditional artisans and Indigenous communities can produce results that address environmental, social and economic facets of sustainability. She led a series of natural dye workshops with women tie dyers in Kindia, Guinea, and artisans in Grand-Bassam, Côte d’Ivoire, and collaborated with New York designers to make a zero-waste collection from the fabrics created. The project   connected FIT faculty and students to over 300 artisans in West Africa to create models for inclusive, sustainable development through textile arts, education, and entrepreneurship.

Partnering with frontline communities that are protecting, for example, the Amazon rainforest, does more than simply sustain—it protects biodiversity and areas that are sequestering carbon. “So with high value products that incorporate fair trade and clear partnerships into the supply chain, you not only have natural, biodegradable materials, but you have the added bonus of all that biodiversity that those communities are protecting,” she said. “Indigenous communities are five percent of the global population, and they’re protecting 80 percent of the biodiversity in the world…Integrating how we make our materials, our systems and the communities that are sequestering carbon while protecting biodiversity is critically important.”

The need for transparency

In order to ensure fashion’s sustainability and achieve a circular fashion industry, it must be possible to track all the elements of a product from the materials used, chemicals added, production practices, and product use, to the end of life, as well as the social and environmental conditions under which it was made.

Blockchain technology can do this by recording each phase of a garment’s life in a decentralized tamper-proof common ledger. Designer Martine Jarlgaard partnered with blockchain tech company Provenance to create QR codes that, when scanned, show the garment’s whole history. The software platform Eon has also developed a way to give each garment its own digital fingerprint called Circular ID. It uses a digital identifier embedded in the clothing that enables it to be traced for its whole lifecycle.

Transparency is also important because it enables consumers to identify greenwashing when they encounter it. Greenwashing is when companies intentionally deceive consumers or oversell their efforts to be sustainable.

Amendi , a sustainable fashion brand focusing on transparency and traceability, co-founded by Columbia University alumnus Corey Spencer, has begun a campaign to get the Federal Trade Commission to update its Green Guides, which outline the principles for the use of green claims. When the most recent versions of the Green Guides were released in 2012, they did not scrutinize the use of “sustainability” and “organic” in marketing. The use of these terms has exploded since then and unless regulated, could become meaningless or misleading.

What consumers can do

The key to making fashion sustainable is the consumer. If we want the fashion industry to adopt more sustainable practices, then as shoppers, we need to care about how clothing is made and where it comes from, and demonstrate these concerns through what we buy. The market will then respond.

We can also reduce waste through how we care for our clothing and how we discard it.

Here are some tips on how to be a responsible consumer:

• Buy only what you need
• Look for sustainable certification from the Fairtrade Foundation , Global Organic Textiles Standard , Soil Association , and Fair Wear Foundation  
• Check the Fashion Transparency Index to see how a company ranks in transparency.
• Learn how to shop for quality and invest in higher-quality clothing
• Choose natural fibers and single fiber garments
• Wear clothing for longer
• Take care of clothing: wash items less often, repair them so they last. Patagonia operates Worn Wear , a recycling and repair program.
• Upcycle your unwanted clothes into something new
• Buy secondhand or vintage; sell your old clothes at Thred Up, Poshmark, or the Real Real.
• When discarding, pass clothing on to someone who will wear it, or to a thrift shop
• Rent clothing from Rent the Runway , Armoire or Nuuly

“I think the best piece of clothing is the one that already exists. The best fabric is the fabric that already exists,” said Schiros. “Keeping things in the supply chain in as many loops and cycles as you can is really, really important.”

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I’ve been buying second hand and or making my own clothes my whole life and I’m 72. It makes sense, it’s cost effective and that way you can buy more clothes or fabric. Win win.

So r u saying it is more cheap this way?

yes it does im the youngest of 7 so i get hand me downs it way more ecofrindly to

This is an excellent article! I am writing a paper on sustainable fashion and find this article to be an informative and eloquent resource in my research! Thank you!

What has Fast Fashion done to the labor practices, working conditions and wages of workers in Asian countries and what can be done to promote more sustainable and fair practices in the industry?

Making your own garments from natural, and ideally organic, fabrics is one of the best ways to both love your wardrobe (because the color, fit and design is something that works for you, specifically) and you can incorporate Construction techniques that prolong the life of the seams and the garment overall. just make sure you shrink it first!

Fabric scraps can be saved and repurposed, as solid pieces or patch worked together. A scrunchie. A cloth bag. Menstrual pads. Potholders. Tiny cloth plant pots. Little travel bags to protect shoes, hairdryer, toiletries, to separate socks and underwear. There are high end men’s shirts that incorporate interesting prints inside the collar and cuffs, for example. Then there is the ministry of making quilts. Quilts can be sent to refugees who Use them for warmth at night and for walls by day. they don’t have to be elaborate or elegant, but using a little bit of love and creativity, you can create something attractive. Torn sheets and worn out clothes can be repurposed and using them as fabric to instruct young sewers And how to handle different types of fabric is another worthy use. Imperfect attempts could be useful if the learner turns out a dog bed cover, or little sweaters for those dogs that get cold all the time. Animal shelters are usually very happy to receive these kinds of things.

Sewers can meet together for fabric swaps in the same way that people sometimes get together to do wardrobe swaps. That might be that someone else is done with the exact fabric that would be awesome to mix with something that you have left over.

very interesting. please share with us

Best post. Good to see content like this.

your information is very helpfull.

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• Published: 10 April 2024

Environmentally sustainable fashion and conspicuous behavior

• Sae Eun Lee 1   nAff2 &
• Kyu-Hye Lee   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7468-0681 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  498 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Business and management
• Environmental studies

This study examines the impact of conspicuous consumption on environmentally sustainable fashion brands (ESFBs). Most previous studies have been limited to environmental perspectives; however, research on environmental behavior by conspicuousness has been lacking. This study views the brand as a tool for revealing oneself and examines the moderator brand–self-connection. It utilized a structural equation model with 237 valid questionnaires. Its findings are as follows: (1) Conspicuous consumption, fashion trend conspicuousness, and socially awakened conspicuousness positively affect the word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing of ESFBs. (2) Environmental belief is fully mediated by the environmental norm (EN) and does not directly affect WOM. (3) The more consumers are consistent with ESFBs, the stronger their WOM marketing. They are moderated only by the EN and socially awakened conspicuousness. (4) A higher fashion trend conspicuousness is associated with increased WOM marketing, indicating that such brands are frequently used as a method of self-expression. This study highlights consumers’ socially awakened conspicuousness and fashion trend conspicuousness in relation to ESFBs and discusses some implications.

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Introduction.

The emergence of sustainable consumption as a new trend can be attributed to the growing environmental consciousness (Kerber et al. 2023 ; Zameer and Yasmeen, 2022 ). This is evident in the increasing involvement of fashion brands in the Fashion Pact, a global agreement aimed at promoting environmental sustainability (The Fashion Pact, 2023 ). Patagonia, a company renowned for its commitment to sustainability, conducts various activities under its corporate motto, such as using 98% recycled material and sourcing electricity from 100% renewable sources while maintaining its top position in the outdoor apparel market (Alonso, 2023 ). Additionally, non-apparel industry brands have embraced the pursuit of sustainability. Freitag, a fashion industry brand that produces recycled bags from used truck tarps, has continued to gain popularity over the past three to four years (Ga, 2022 ). Since its launch in 2017 specializing in pleated knit bags crafted from recycled yarn derived from discarded plastic bottles, Pleats Mama has experienced an annual growth rate of 150% on average (Kim, 2022a ). In response to the climate change crisis, which is exacerbated by global warming, even luxury brands such as Burberry, Prada, and Gucci have begun incorporating sustainable fashion products into their collection. Consequently, within the last five years, approximately 30% of consumers have increased their purchase of sustainable products, resulting in a 32% increase in the market share of these products (Ruiz, 2023 ; Tighe, 2023 ). In summary, brands such as Patagonia, Freitag, and Pleats Mama, which prioritize environmental sustainability, article are gaining prominence (Little, 2022 ). This is due to the growing enthusiasm of consumers towards these brands’ environmental sustainability initiatives.

Even if a given brand does not explicitly focus on environmental sustainability, environmental values and beliefs significantly influence consumers’ purchasing decisions, according to research on sustainable fashion (Apaolaza et al. 2022 ; Bianchi and Gonzalez, 2021 ; Park & Lin, 2020 ). Moreover, studies demonstrate that consumers are increasingly resorting to luxury and fast fashion brands—often regarded as the major contributors to environmental pollution—for environmental reasons. This trend is attributable to these brands’ effective sustainable marketing strategies (Neumann et al. 2020 ; Stringer et al. 2020 ; Zhang et al. 2021 ). In other words, through their marketing strategies, these brands are successfully positioning themselves as sustainable choices, which results in meaningful purchase intentions among consumers.

However, these previous studies do not consider fashion’s symbolic function or social meaning. By wearing sustainable fashion brands, consumers seek to demonstrate their commitment to environmental beliefs(EBs). Consumer behavior toward sustainable fashion is not driven by EBs. For other reasons, the purchase is made in a conspicuous context (Legere & Kang, 2020 ; Stringer et al. 2020 ). Numerous studies have documented this phenomenon, with a particular focus on certain conspicuous activities in philanthropic research. Generally known as comprising actions that are motivated by altruistic values, philanthropy is currently being evaluated in terms of its sustainability. For instance, the mission of Or Foundation, a public charity based in the USA, is to establish an alternative model of ecological prosperity (Wong, 2023 ). In fact, private philanthropy has been found to play a key role in sustainable development (Gautier and Pache, 2015 ; Porter and Kramer, 2002 ). However, although such actions spring from good intentions, they also involve certain aspects that are determined by motives other than altruism. That is, philanthropic research indicates that these endeavors are frequently associated with a desire for recognition and respect (De Dominicis et al. 2017 ; Grace and Griffin, 2009 ; Wallace et al. 2017 ). This behavior may stem from a conspicuous desire to be acknowledged by others for social awareness and to receive praise and validation from followers, particularly when such actions are shared on social networking sites (SNS) (e.g., the ice bucket challenge and bracelets for Japanese military sexual slavery grandmothers). Intending to gain respect from others, individuals tend to engage in acts that may be considered as “displaying” or “showing off,” even in the case of eco-friendly purchases and environment-related word-of-mouth (WOM) behavior.

Conspicuousness is evident in less visible charitable activities and fashion products with higher visibility and symbolic value. Regarding luxury fashion products, including those that incorporate sustainable marketing strategies, consumers may still prioritize luxury symbols for their conspicuousness, despite the significance of sustainable beliefs (Ki and Kim, 2016 ; Mishra et al. 2023 ). Consequently, it is essential to investigate whether conspicuous consumption occurs concerning environmentally sustainable fashion brands (ESFBs) rather than luxury brands. By publicly displaying one’s decision to wear an ESFB, one can establish oneself as a socially conscious individual and a fashion leader, potentially leading a new consumption trend or gaining a following. Hence, it is crucial to examine whether consumers’ choices are driven by sustainable beliefs or constitute conspicuous behavior. Consumers want to express themselves through the meaning of a brand. They believe that they “connect” with a brand and choose to wear it for its meaning (Escalas, 2004 ; Escalas and Bettman, 2003 ). Therefore, the more one connects to a brand, the more one can actively wear it to express one’s beliefs. The study’s research questions are formulated as follows:

RQ1. Do consumers truly engage in WOM behavior in relation to ESFBs based on EBs? Do they have no conspicuous intentions?

RQ2. As brands express self-concept, do consumers reinforce WOM behavior to support environmental norms (ENs) and reveal their EBs? What role does the self-brand connection of ESFB consumers play if conspicuous intentions exist?

This study aims to examine the effect of conspicuousness on consumer behavior concerning ESFBs, a topic that is yet to be examined. Conspicuousness is specifically subdivided into that of the fashion trend leader and that of a socially awakened person. Consumers who utilize ESFBs as a means of expressing their identity are confronted with the decision of whether to reinforce environmental behavior or conspicuous behavior. As a result, we must identify consumers’ purchasing motives for ESFBs and flesh out their implications.

Literature review

Environmental sustainability.

Our Common Future, which defines sustainability, posits environmental sustainability as one of the three concepts of sustainable development (society, economy, environment) (Brundtland, 2013 ). Environmental sustainability can be defined as the “maintenance of natural capital,” which involves at least the reduction of the level of resource use or depletion of environmental assets (Goodland, 1995 ). In the aftermath of global warming, concerns regarding the sustainability of natural resources have intensified due to global boiling (Arora and Mishra, 2023 ). Accordingly, environmental sustainability is becoming more important than it was before. According to Morelli ( 2011 ), sustainability is “good” and is frequently abused for expertise or contributions in a certain field, regardless of the actual effects exerted on the natural environment or ecological health. Environmental sustainability should be viewed as an essential human activity for supporting the ecosystem based on sound ecological concepts. Goodland ( 1995 ) describes environmental sustainability as a set of constraints, involving “the use of renewable and nonrenewable resources on the source side, and pollution and waste assimilation on the sink side” (p. 10). Most research on environmental sustainability focuses on exploring what should be done from an environmental perspective (Ögmundarson et al., 2020 ; Koul et al., 2022 ) and the impact each country has on the environment (Yang and Khan, 2022 ; Yang et al., 2022 ). In addition, environmental sustainability is a crucial consideration in business decision-making because it involves finding a balance between economic productivity and minimizing environmental impact (Lou et al., 2022 ). One of these is the study of secondhand consumption (Cuc & Vidovic, 2014 ; Xue et al. 2018 ). Although many companies claim to prioritize sustainability, they often focus on economic and social sustainability rather than issues of environmental sustainability (Brydges et al. 2022 ). Environmental sustainability is frequently compromised in this way for marketing strategies (Salnikova et al, 2022 ; Vesal et al. 2021 ; Villalba‐Ríos et al. 2023 ) or for achieving environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) (Khalil & Khalil, 2022 ; Prömpeler et al. 2023 ). Consumers are no longer fooled by sustainability marketing, which they perceive as greenwashing (Kahraman and Kazançoğlu, 2019 ; Nguyen et al. 2021 ). Accordingly, consumers base their purchases on their knowledge and awareness of brands that advocate environmental activism rather than merely participating in greenwashing (Venkatesan, 2022 ).

Sustainable fashion

Regarding environmental sustainability, the fashion industry encounters significant challenges because it consumes substantial amounts of water, energy, and chemicals while generating disposal problems (Lou et al., 2022 ). At a time when consumer demand for ESG is increasing, various sustainable fashion initiatives have emerged in the industry. Various green branding and eco-labeling initiatives, as well as sustainable logistics practices, have been implemented (Sandberg and Hultberg, 2021 ). H&M and Zara, representative fast fashion brands, are also implementing various sustainable strategies in line with this trend (Dzhengiz et al. 2023 ; Rathore, 2022 ). The growing platform for secondhand fashion after the COVID-19 pandemic serves as a representative example (Kim and Kim, 2022 ). However, many consumers view sustainability assertions in the fashion industry as mere marketing strategies (i.e., greenwashing) and express doubts about the genuineness of these efforts (Szabo and Webster, 2021 ). Brydges et al. ( 2022 ) have also examined the communication strategies employed by fashion companies and found that consumers perceive these strategies as a form of greenwashing aimed at selling sustainability. These concerns have made certain fashion brands, such as Freitag and Patagonia, shift their focus to environmental sustainability. To evaluate the impact of sustainability, Patagonia specifically established the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and spearheaded efforts to develop the Higg Index. This company has developed new processes to address environmental issues and prioritized recycling fibers and using recycled textiles to reduce their landfill waste (Bhuiyan et al. 2023 ; Pandey et al. 2020 ). Consumers are actively supporting and consuming brands that genuinely prioritize environmental sustainability as opposed to merely engaging in greenwashing practices. Consumption is increasing for ESFBs that adhere to the “maintenance of natural capital” (Rathore, 2022 ). However, focus on consumer behavior toward ESFBs is still lacking; thus, it is necessary to investigate consumer perceptions and behaviors concerning these brands.

Hypothesis development

Environmental beliefs and norms.

Consumers are cognizant of the seriousness of environmental pollution and are actively implementing eco-friendly actions. EBs are unshakeable beliefs or attitudes that guide individuals to decide to protect the environment (Gray et al., 1985 ). Inglehart ( 1995 , 1997 ) asserted that as the economy develops and modernizes, EB emerges because people are concerned about the environmental state. Thus, developed country consumers are likely to recognize ESFBs and consume them, knowing that the promotion of various sustainable brands is a marketing strategy (greenwashing) due to the high EB. Environmental norm (EN) is an important and strong motivating factor that influences environmental behaviors and signifies a sense of responsibility or moral obligation to the environment. Additionally, activated and internalized EB helps in overcoming obstacles to individual behavior based on a sense of duty (Babcock, 2009 ). These EBs and ENs are mainly used for research on eco-friendly behaviors, especially those grounded in Stern’s ( 2000 ) value-belief-norm (VBN) theory. Based on the VBN theory, it is hypothesized that individuals with strong environmental values and norms are more likely to engage in sustainable consumption practices, thereby resulting in better environmental behaviors. Additionally, it is expected that consumers in developed countries will exhibit a greater propensity to recognize greenwashing and to consider environmental values and norms, especially when purchasing from environmentally sustainable fashion brands (ESFBs). Furthermore, it is widely believed that ENs serve as a crucial mediator in the relationship between EBs and eco-friendly behaviors, as supported by previous research in areas such as green cosmetics and green hotels (Jaini et al., 2020 ; Ruan et al., 2022 ).

The hypothesis is as follows:

Hypothesis (H1) . EB positively affects EN .

WOM plays a vital role in shaping consumer attitudes and purchasing behavior (Yang et al, 2012 ). Furthermore, with the widespread use of SNS, e-WOM has enabled consumers to easily access evaluations and opinions about various products and services. WOM is a widely applied factor in marketing, and 61% of key marketers select it as one of the most effective marketing tools (Berger, 2014 ). Consumers are gradually adopting more environmentally conscious purchasing practices as their awareness of the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions grows. Specifically, it has been discovered that the acquisition of diverse environmental information through SNS platforms contributes to the growth of pro-environmental behavior (Jain et al. 2020 ). The WOM intention for eco-friendly products refers to the communication between consumers and other people or groups (such as social channels, friends, and relatives.) of experiences about the purchase of such products (Chaniotakis and Lymperopoulos, 2009 ). A significant correlation, according to Chun et al. ( 2018 ), exists between environmental value, belief, attitude, and WOM intention for upcycling products. Gatersleben et al. ( 2002 ) assert that EB can be formed through value awareness and lead to specific behavioral intentions. According to Panda et al. ( 2020 ), environmental sustainability awareness positively impacts both green purchase intention and green brand evangelism. In addition, previous studies have demonstrated that EBs directly influence pro-environmental behavioral intentions and attitudes toward ecotourism (Li et al. 2021 ; Nguyen & Le, 2020 ). As noted in prior research on VBN theory, ENs impact environmental behavior (Stern et al. 1999 ; Stern, 2000 ). Certain studies have examined the influence of norms on predicting pro-environmental attitudes. According to Jansson et al. ( 2010 ), EB, EN, and habit influence Swedish consumers’ willingness to purchase green products. Bakti et al. ( 2020 ) found that different norms (subjective, moral, environmental) affect the WOM regarding the use of public transportation for environmental reasons. Hence, both EBs and ENs significantly influence the WOM behavior toward a brand.

Hypothesis (H2) . EB positively affects WOM .

Hypothesis (H3) . EN positively affects WOM .

Conspicuousness on WOM

The goal-framing theory, proposed by Lindenberg ( 2000 , 2001 , 2008 ), elucidates how goals influence human perception, thoughts, and decision-making processes. According to this theory, human needs can be categorized into three types: gain goals, which involve knowledge and information acquisition; normative goals, which emphasize appropriate behavior based on social norms; and hedonic goals, which prioritize perceived pleasure. In each situation, one goal is typically prioritized over the others; these goals coexist and form a frame through mutual competition. Lindenberg and Steg ( 2007 ) applied the goal-framing theory to explain pro-environmental and pro-social behaviors. They proposed that individuals who prioritize the normative goal are increasingly likely to engage in eco-friendly actions. In contrast, those who prioritize gain and hedonic goals may engage in non-eco-friendly behaviors. This theory has been utilized to support research on various consumer behaviors, including those influenced by environmental beliefs, norms, and other goals and motivations (Mishra et al., 2023 ; Yang et al. 2020 ). Additionally, the pursuit of hedonic goals can explain why consumers pursuing conflicting goals, including normative goals for eco-friendly behavior, may still engage in eco-friendly actions. Liobikienė and Juknys ( 2016 ) contended that individuals with hedonic goals may occasionally engage in environmentally friendly behavior with pleasure and joy. Mishra et al. ( 2023 ) examined the use of the luxury sharing economy in emerging markets. They found that consumer behavior was significantly influenced by the hedonic goal of conspicuousness.

Previous research discovered that conspicuous consumption has a static effect on sustainable clothing purchase intention (Apaolaza et al. 2022 ; Hammad et al. 2019 ). Because sustainable fashion products are fashion goods, they have the characteristics of fashion, such as trends, styles, and symbols. Unlike other sustainable products, a fashion product cannot ignore the attributes of fashion. Clothing is especially used as a means of self-expression. This is because the values and thoughts conveyed through clothing are symbolic and communicate meaning to others. Prior research on sustainable fashion has examined aspects of flaunting one’s social status and showcasing the latest trends in fashion. Additionally, Cervellon and Shammas ( 2013 ) validated the conspicuousness of the symbol of sustainable luxury products. A pursuit of personal style, as demonstrated by Ki and Kim ( 2016 ) enables consumers to make sustainable luxury purchases. The study on sustainable fashion consumption conducted by Lundblad and Davies ( 2016 ) also identified self-expression as a significant determinant. Therefore, showcasing an eco-friendly image, which involves being socially awake and positioning oneself as a fashion leader, can affect WOM, an active eco-friendly purchasing behavior. The following hypotheses can be made:

Hypothesis (H4) . Fashion trend conspicuousness (FTC) positively affects WOM .

Hypothesis (H5) . Social awaken conspicuousness (SAC) positively affects WOM .

Self-brand connection

Self-concept serves as the foundation for symbolic consumption; it originates from the motivation of self-enhancement and maintenance of self-esteem, which express individual values and is interpreted as behavior for social adoption (Greenwald & Farnham, 2000 ; Shavitt, 1990 ). Consumers feel a “sense of self-definition” by consuming products and services and communicating about them to others. That is why they identify with a brand and prefer a brand that can reflect and express their self-concept. In other words, consumers may use a brand as a physical representation of themselves to establish a connection with it; this is known as self-brand connect (SBC) (Escalas, 2004 ; Escalas and Bettman, 2003 ).

SBC positively correlates with behavioral intention, such as brand choice and loyalty, as well as brand attitudes (Escalas, 2004 , Moore and Homer, 2008 ; Naletelich and Spears, 2020 ). When the self-image aligns with the brand’s image is congruent, and when the brand can protect and enhance the self-image, there will be an increase in purchases and loyal customers for the brand. In addition, in comparison to consumers with low SBC, those with strong SBC utilize the brand primarily for self-expression, have more favorable evaluations of the brand, and have higher behavioral intentions. Conversely, consumers with low SBC tend to have low motivation to express their true selves through the brand and have a low attachment to the brand (Ferraro et al. 2013 ).

Consumers are increasingly cognizant of the issue of greenwashing, which is not truly sustainable, and are reluctant to purchase greenwashing brands (Apaolaza et al. 2022 ). The more consumers believe they are eco-friendly, the more likely they are to perceive a sustainable brand as greenwashing and passionately consume more environmentally sustainable brands. In other words, consumers must establish a profound emotional bond with the ESFB that reflects their eco-friendly beliefs and images. Therefore, consumers who express their environmental identity with environmentally sustainable brand (ESB) can be expected to reinforce eco-friendly behavior. The following hypotheses can be made:

Hypothesis (H6a) . SBC moderates between EB and WOM

Hypothesis (H6b) . SBC moderates between EN and WOM

Consumers utilize the brand’s symbolism to show off their identity. Apaolaza et al. ( 2022 ) asserted that a sustainable brand can increase purchase intention through conspicuousness when perceived as useful. In other words, if the utility of revealing one’s identity increases, the possibility of consumption behavior such as WOM increases. Meanwhile, if ESFBs represent their identity, but have a strong motivation to reveal that they are socially aware of eco-friendliness, then it is likely to be used as a means of conspicuousness. The following hypotheses can be made (Fig. 1 ):

Research framework.

Hypothesis (H6c) . SBC moderates between FTC and WOM

Hypothesis (H6d) . SBC moderates between SAC and WOM .

Sample and data collection

The survey focused on fashion brands that prioritize environmental sustainability. First, the concept of ESFBs was explained to university students in the classroom, and brands were recommended to them. The process of brand selection involved considering the definition of environmental sustainability, which we established as the “maintenance of natural capital.” In doing so, we assessed each brand according to the information provided on their websites regarding their corporate philosophy and manufacturing method. Specifically, brands that promote recycling, reusing, and reclaiming, such as utilizing recycled polyethylene terephthalate yarn or repurposing discarded materials, were selected. To confirm whether the selected brand was suitable to be classified as an ESFB, two professors and three doctoral students confirmed the definition of ESFB and face validity. After checking the current awareness of the selected brands using a preliminary survey of 28 graduate students, three brands were ultimately selected as ESFBs in descending order of popularity: Patagonia (USA), Pleat Mama (Korea), and Freitag (Switzerland). Considering Korea’s tendency for other-oriented consumption, questionnaires were administered to Korean individuals aged between 20 and 40 years (Park et al., 2008 ). This demographic was considered suitable for examining tendencies toward conspicuous consumption of ESFBs. The survey focused on the participants’ purchasing experiences or intentions regarding Patagonia, Pleat Mama, and Freitag. The online survey required participants to indicate whether they had experience purchasing the brands in the past before proceeding to the main question. If they had no prior purchase experience with the brands in question, respondents were further asked regarding their purchase intention toward the brands. Only those with high scores proceeded to the main question. Furthermore, the survey was restricted to respondents who recognized the three brands in question as ESFBs. Data was collected through e-mail, facilitated by an online survey company, which also motivated the participants with rewards. Out of the initial 260 respondents who completed the questionnaire, 237 responses were considered reliable after removing the inconsistent or unreliable responses.

Respondents’ characteristics

The demographics of the 237 sampled respondents are as follows: 17.7% were in their 20 s, 37.6% were in their 30 s, and 44.7% were in their 40 s. The average age of 37.37 years was recorded. Of the respondents, 18.1 and 81.9% were men and women, respectively. Several previous studies have exhibited gender effects on sustainable consumption, indicating that women are more active than men (Bloodhart and Swim, 2020 ; Kim, 2022b ). As such, instead of following the population ratio, it can be argued that the sample in this study is representative of the market segment. Of the respondents, 90.7% had a high level of educational background, with the majority holding master’s degrees. The average monthly clothing expenditures of the respondents were $50–100 (37.1%) and $100–200 (27.8%). Table 1 provides more details.

Measurement

In this study, the measurement tools used to identify sustainable fashion WOM, such as belief, concern, and conspicuousness, are as follows. EB scale and EN both consisted of six questions, following Stern ( 2000 ). FTC was composed of three items, as stated by Ki and Kim ( 2016 ). SAC was composed of four items, following Grace and Griffin ( 2009 ), while WOM for consumer brands was also four items, as described by Molinari et al. ( 2008 ). Six items were in SBC, following van der Westhuizen ( 2018 ). All items were measured utilizing a five-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). The final section was composed of questions regarding demographic information (Table 1 ).

Measurement validity and reliability

Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), which is an efficient method for predicting latent variables, minimizes estimation errors. In contrast, AMOS-based SEM, which is covariance-based, is more suitable for analyzing and testing theories in the social sciences (Dash and Paul, 2021 ; Mia et al. 2019 ). Furthermore, the basic assumption of AMOS entails a normal distribution with a minimum sample size of 200 or more, and this is satisfied by this study. Additionally, AMOS (CB-SEM) utilizes the maximum likelihood estimation that is significant to the parameter estimation (Stevens, 2009 ; Westfall and Henning, 2013 ). To verify the reliability and validity of the measurement variables used here, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis (Table 2 ). The model exhibited an acceptable fit: GFI = 0.908; CFI = 0.969; NFI = 0.928; RMR = 0.033; RMSEA = 0.055; χ 2  = 233.328 (d f  = 137); p  < 0.000; normed χ 2  = 1.703. All the items in the model were significant. To verify the convergence validity of the measurement model, we confirmed the significance levels of the average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability (CR), and factor loading (Hair et al., 2010 ). The factor loading of the measurement variable was significant at the 1% level. The AVE and CR values were 0.519–0.790 and 0.764–0.933, respectively; these values are considered high. The Cronbach’s α , which measures reliability, was more than 0.7; thus, internal consistency was confirmed.

Discriminant validity was measured in this study using Fornell and Larcker’s ( 1981 ) recommendations suggested. It refers to a state in which researchers identify that each indicator of a theoretical model differs statistically. It can be calculated by comparing AVE with squared correlations. It is supported when the AVE among each pair of constructs is greater than Φ 2 (i.e., the squared correlation between two constructs) (Table 3 ).

Hyperthesis testing

To verify our hypotheses, we performed an analysis of the covariance structure model. The results are illustrated in Fig. 1 . The hypothesized structural model generated a good fit ( χ 2  = 106.982, df  = 82, p  = 0.033, Normed χ 2  = 1.305, GFI = 0.945, CFI = 0.987, RMR = 0.029, TLI = 0.984, RMSEA = 0.036). EB positively affected EC ( β  = 0.783, p  < 0.000); thus, H1 was supported. The structural model analysis indicated that EB was not affected by WOM ( β  = −0.160, p  = 0.223). Thus, H2 is rejected. EC positively affected WOM ( β  = 0.265, p  < 0.05); thud, H3 is supported. FTC ( β  = 0.219, p  < 0.01) and SAC ( β  = 0.545, p  < 0.001) positively affected WOM; thus, H4 and H5 are supported. The outcomes of the hypothesis testing are presented in Table 4 .

Moderating effect of self-brand connection

The results of the chi-square difference test between the unconstrained model and the measurement weight model were Δ χ 2  = 21.970, d f  = 13, and p  = 0.059. The non-significant change in model fit indicated that the factor loadings were invariant between the two groups, confirming the full measurement-invariance model. For SBC with an EB-WOM link, no significance was detected for the high (β = -0.221, p  = 0.240) and low ( β  = −0.174, p  = 0.317) groups, and no significant differences in path strength were detected by SBC(Δ χ 2  = 0.053, p  > 0.05). The effect of EN on WOM was significant for high ( β  = 0.406, p  < 0.05) and low ( β  = 0.188, p  = 0.343) groups, while those with high EN(Δ χ 2  = 5.049, p  < 0.05) were significantly stronger. For SBC with an FTC-WOM link, no significance was detected for the high ( β  = 0.059, p  = 0.638) and low ( β  = 0.337, p  < 0.01) groups, and no significant differences in path strength were detected by SBC(Δ χ 2  = 3.170, p  > 0.05).

The effect of SAC on WOM was significant for the high ( β  = 0.691, p  < 0.000) and low ( β  = 0.174, p  = 0.121) groups, while those with high SAC (Δ χ 2  = 4.713, p  < 0.05) were significantly stronger. Thus, H6a and H6c were rejected, whereas H6b and H6d were found to be moderate between EN/SAC and WOM in this study (Table 5 ).

As sustainability is perceived as a marketing strategy, greenwashing, many consumers are engaging in consumption behavior toward true ESFBs. Previous studies on sustainable brands did not focus on ESFB, which concentrates on “maintenance of natural capital” such as fiber recycling and the use of recycled fibers. Particularly, fashion products have a way of showing off as symbolism; therefore, studies are focusing on sustainable fashion brands. However, it is necessary to examine whether conspicuousness exists in ESFB. Our findings were as follows:

First, both conspicuous consumption, FTC and SAC, positively impacted ESFB’s WOM. This is a remarkably interesting result, inducing consumer behavior even more strongly than EB. Due to greenwashing, consumers are more enthusiastic about ESFB than sustainable brands. However, this also confirms that consumers choose ESFB to show off as socially advanced and awakened persons. Showing off as a person who is more aware of the environment than others constitutes WOM. This was also chosen by ESFB as a way to flaunt themselves, and it can be viewed in the same context as the previous conspicuousness of charity. ESFB was also discovered to possess an inherent fashion attribute, in addition to the FTC. This is believed to be because ESFBs possess fashion characteristics. Because of the presence of visibility and symbolism, which are the characteristics of fashion, wearing an ESFB can convey the symbol and value of those brands to the observer. This phenomenon is consistent with previous sustainable fashion research (Apaolaza et al. 2022 ; Cervellon and Shammas, 2013 ; Hammad et al. 2019 ). In other words, consumers can show off themselves as socially awakened beings by wearing an EFSB and as trailblazers in fashion trends. Therefore, it will be necessary for a sustainable fashion company to not only put an emphasis on sustainability but also endeavor to reflect the latest fashion trends. Furthermore, brands’ self-image conspicuousness requirements must be met.

Second, it was established that EB had no direct effect as a factor that influenced ESFB’s WOM. This result contradicts the finding that EB directly affects pro-environmental behavior (Li et al. 2021 ; Nguyen & Le, 2020 ). However, in addition to the relationship between EN and EB, as proposed by Stern et al. ( 1999 ) and Stern ( 2000 ) in their VBN theory, ESBN further validates the indirect effect that EB causes behavior through EN. It also supports the goal-framing theory, which posits that normative goals further enhance pro-environmental behavior (Lindenberg and Steg, 2007 ). Because EN is the only way to act eco-friendly, it can be confirmed that consumers should focus more on EN rather than EB, notwithstanding the quality of ESFB.

Third, it was discovered that the strength of WOM increased with the degree of ESFB consistency and only moderated in EN and SAC. EN was a norm that was influenced by surroundings. When engaging in WOM communication by EN companies, consumers who strongly identify with eco-friendly values are more likely to participate in WOM actively. This can reveal through ESFB that they follow the norms well; thus, these actions were a means of showing one’s compliance with the norms. Through the ESFB identity, they increasingly demonstrated their commitment to eco-friendly norms.

In addition, fashion brands hold symbolic value, and higher FTC is associated with increased WOM, indicating that these brands are often used to express one’s identity. Fashion leaders who aim to showcase their fashion-forward image tend to purchase brands that align with their innovative fashion identity. This is why they prefer high-end fashion brands. However, within the framework of ESFBs, this research failed to identify any significant moderating effect between FTC and SBC. Although not statistically significant, individuals with low SBC exhibited a greater intensity of WOM. This finding contradicts previous studies (Apaolaza et al. 2022 ; Hammad et al. 2019 ), which suggested that WOM is stronger among individuals with higher fashion conspicuousness who want to showcase their identity. True sustainability is the identity associated with ESFBs. The finding that WOM is stronger among individuals who do not want to emphasize their eco-friendliness can be attributed to their desire to showcase fashion trends rather than the brand’s eco-friendliness.

This study has several academic and practical implications. First, it expands the existing research on ESFBs by examining their WOM marketing and the conspicuousness associated with consumers buying them. Although prior studies on sustainable fashion focus solely on sustainability aspects, this study acknowledges the existence of FTC and SBC as well. In future research, incorporating consumers’ FTC and SBC into the research model can enhance its explanatory power and provide a comprehensive understanding of ESFBs. Second, fashion trends must be reflected in ESFBs as well. Sustainable fashion research focuses on exploring consumer perceptions of sustainability and marketing strategies. However, as demonstrated by this study, ESFBs are still fashion brands; therefore, they appeal to consumers by staying updated with the latest trends. When consumer interest in sustainability is high, it becomes crucial to develop merchandising strategies that incorporate sustainability while simultaneously attending to the latest fashion trends. Thus, ESFBs necessarily consider prevailing trends as well. Third, this study also emphasizes the necessity of incorporating true environmental sustainability into consumer education. For example, a curriculum or training program aimed at identifying authentic ESFBs, as opposed to those that simply engage in greenwashing, will assist consumers in making informed judgments. Ultimately, this will benefit the environment by discouraging companies from engaging in greenwashing by increasing consumer awareness. Fourth, this study highlights the influence of SBC on ESFBs. Although philanthropy has been extensively studied, the significance of SBC in the context of ESFBs cannot be overlooked. Companies that focus on ESFBs must consider their role in society and strategically utilize SBC, making it more than just a fashion or environmental strategy. Fifth, this study proposes that individuals who are more sensitive to the attention of others are more likely to engage in WOM marketing for ESFBs, with consequences for companies. Moreover, advertising campaigns that capitalize on the identity of individuals who have a strong connection to ESFBs have the potential to exert an effective influence. Lastly, companies that actively pursue social and economic sustainability, rather than environmental sustainability, can prevent consumers’ misunderstanding of greenwashing, especially if they actively implement other sustainability marketing strategies instead of emphasizing ambiguous environmental aspects. In addition, conspicuous consumption promotes social sustainability; therefore, it must be utilized.

This study has a few limitations and provides suggestions for future research. First, an insufficient amount of exploration was conducted on ESFBs. Conducting quantitative research to understand consumer rationale behind the definition of ESFBs and perceptions could provide valuable insights. Therefore, qualitative studies that explore various aspects of conspicuousness related to ESFBs may yield more comprehensive and explanatory results.

Second, to measure SBC, we relied on a simple connection with eco-friendly brands. This may have led to contrasting results when considering fashion-related variables as moderators. Future research could consider refining the measurement of SBC by incorporating more comprehensive and nuanced indicators. Additionally, utilizing qualitative research methods, such as phenomenological studies, could provide a more in-depth exploration of consumer conspicuousness, leading to a broader and more intriguing range of findings concerning ESFBs. This approach may reveal a positive relationship between SBC and fashion-related variables.

Lastly, due to the specific target population of the survey, the generalizability of the findings is limited. The results may have been influenced by the collectivist nature of the surveyed population, which tends to pay more attention to their surroundings. However, it is crucial to consider that ESFBs are also growing in individualistic cultures in the West. Therefore, future studies should investigate potential differences in conspicuousness related to ESFBs among culturally distinct groups, thereby providing insights into cross-cultural variations in the phenomenon.

Conclusions

This study highlights the importance of fashion companies recognizing the evolving consumer perceptions of sustainable consumption due to the prevalence of greenwashing marketing. It is crucial for ESBs to understand that they possess both fashion and conspicuous attributes. Therefore, these brands should incorporate these attributes into their fashion products. Specifically, they should ensure that their products reflect not only the latest fashion trends but also align with consumers’ desire for self-image conspicuousness. Consequently, even as ESBs, companies should not overlook the significance of incorporating the latest trends into their products. By launching products that integrate the pursuit of sustainability with the latest trends, these companies have the potential to build customer brand loyalty.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Lee, S.E., Lee, KH. Environmentally sustainable fashion and conspicuous behavior. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 498 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02955-0

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The Myth of Sustainable Fashion

• Kenneth P. Pucker

Despite high-profile attempts at innovation, the industry has failed to reduce its environmental impact so far.

Few industries tout their sustainability credentials more forcefully than the fashion industry. But the sad truth is that despite high-profile attempts at innovation, it’s failed to reduce its planetary impact in the past 25 years.  Most items are still produced using non-biodegradable petroleum-based synthetics and end up in a landfill. So what can be done? New ESG strategies such as the use of bio-based materials, recycling, and “rent-the-runway” concepts have failed. Instead, we must stop thinking about sustainability as existing on a spectrum. Less unstainable is not sustainable. And governments need to step in to force companies to pay for their negative impact on the planet. The idea of “win-win” and market-based solutions has failed even in one of the most “progressive” industries.

Few industries tout their sustainability credentials more forcefully than the fashion industry. Products ranging from  swimsuits  to  wedding dresses  are marketed as carbon positive, organic, or vegan while  yoga mats made from mushrooms  and  sneakers from sugar cane  dot retail shelves. New business models including recycling, resale, rental, reuse, and repair are sold as environmental life savers.

• Kenneth P. Pucker is a professor of practice at The Fletcher School at Tufts University and was formerly the chief operating officer of Timberland. kpucker31

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Article contents

• Introduction
• The Sector: Women and their Experiences of the Fast Fashion Industry
• Viewing Fast Fashion Through the Sustainable Development Goals
• Achieving Fashion Justice Through the SDGs: What Will it Take?
• The Way Forward

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Fast fashion for 2030: using the pattern of the sustainable development goals (sdgs) to cut a more gender-just fashion sector.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2021

The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh brought global visibility to the human rights abuses experienced by women workers in the garment sector. As the spotlight on this incident dims, the need to hold the fashion sector accountable remains. In this article, we suggest that greater accountability could be achieved through the application of a human rights-informed understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote gender justice in the sector. By drawing on international women’s rights law and sustainable fashion, we demonstrate how sustainability and gender justice are intimately connected, and illustrate what role the SDGs can play in promoting sustainable outcomes that are gender-just. The article unpacks concepts such as sustainability, the circular economy, social responsibility, and ethical fashion, and places the experiences of women workers within this context. Its principal contribution is a set of six requirements to ensure a gender perspective to the fashion industry’s role in implementing the SDGs.

I. Introduction

In a garment factory fire in Manhattan on 25 March 1911, over 100 people, mostly Jewish and Italian women migrants, some as young as 14, died as the factory burnt to the floor because management had locked the doors. Footnote 1 In the years that followed, women workers mobilized. These protests catalysed major law reforms in the United States of America (USA) including social security and unemployment insurance, abolition of child labour, the setting of a minimum wage, and agreements on the right to join a union, all of which are enjoyed today.

Despite the century in between, parallels can be drawn between the 1911 Manhattan factory fire and the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in the Savar Upazila district of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which 1,134 people were killed and 2,500 were injured, mostly young women. Footnote 2 The collapse has been described as the worst garment factory disaster in modern human history. Footnote 3 While the collapse triggered mass protests and what some have called ‘unprecedented international scrutiny’, Footnote 4 years on, accountability for the resulting safety accords remains insufficient as many factories continue to escape scrutiny. Footnote 5 Furthermore, the challenges posed in trying to delineate responsibility between factories on the one hand, and sourcing companies (the brands) on the other, too often results in these sourcing companies avoiding responsibility.

Rana Plaza is just one example that is symptomatic of a larger global fashion sector in which gender inequalities remain rife. Footnote 6 While there are particularities in certain countries and regions where textiles, clothing and footwear (TCF) form a large portion of national exports, the problem is a global one, requiring a global solution. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are considered central to fashion – the sector being the second largest polluting industry in the world. Footnote 7 The link between the SDGs, inequalities and rights at work, for example, are demonstrated in particular in Goals 1, 5, 8, 10 and 17.

Building on these established linkages between the fashion industry and the SDGs, our article revisits the goals of sustainable and gender-just fashion. We demonstrate how the SDGs provide a useful framework for facilitating a more gender-just approach to the fast fashion sector, especially when sustainable development is understood as firmly grounded in human rights.

In our analysis, we draw on two areas of scholarship – international women’s rights law and feminist sociolegal research on the one hand, and sustainable fashion on the other. We layer upon this a new lens to the SDGs through the authors’ practical experiences as, in one case, a women’s rights practitioner and scholar of international law Footnote 8 and in the other instance, a fashion designer and scholar of sustainable fashion. Footnote 9 Our goal is to broaden the scope of the debate by highlighting the gendered concerns that are often given inadequate attention in the fashion sector, partly as a result of the lack of women at the decision-making table. Footnote 10

One of the key barriers to fulfilling the rights of women workers in the fashion sector is that sustainability is not necessarily understood as requiring a gender perspective. While some scholars suggest that gendered considerations have been an ‘integral’ part of the international sustainability discourse since the early 1990s, Footnote 11 others, writing in the context of gender and climate change policy debates, are more sceptical, noting the failure to embrace gendered considerations in all of their complexity. Footnote 12 Although women’s organizations have argued for a more central place for gender in such debates, when coupled with a ‘low level of comprehension’ of what constitutes gender among decision-makers, the end result has been a ‘distinct air of additionality’ rather than a genuine embrace of a gender perspective in many discourses on sustainability. Footnote 13 In other words, we continue to struggle with gender being treated as an add-on rather than a central and core part of policy design.

In this paper, we take the view that a human rights-informed understanding of the SDGs can provide entry points for addressing some of these shortcomings. Specifically, we adopt the perspective that both sustainability and gender justice are indispensable and intertwined, calling for a dramatic re-imagining of the close relationship between the two. In this article, we understand gender justice as an outcome that promotes equitable relationships between women and men, that acknowledges the particular vulnerabilities of marginalized and excluded groups of women, and considers the rights of women to be fundamental to how we define and shape the policies that affect their lives. Footnote 14 In some respects, Goal 5 of the SDGs (gender equality) attempts to underpin this message by highlighting the centrality of gender to achieving all SDGs.

Although this article offers an extensive critique of the garment sector, we acknowledge the importance of garment sector work for women workers, including for household welfare. Footnote 15 In Cambodia, for example, in 2013, the manufacturing sector accounted for 45 per cent of all women’s waged employment; Footnote 16 90 per cent of the sectors’ workers were women, the majority of whom were young migrants from rural areas. Footnote 17 The solution, therefore, is not to be found simply in alternative employment for these women but in steps to make the industry gender-just. Infusing a gender perspective, and understanding the inter-relationship between gender and sustainability, is particularly important given that many technologies needed to drive more sustainable fashion are in their infancy. We therefore seek to provide policy-makers, governments and businesses with practical responses, accepting as a starting point the clear intersections between gender and sustainability. Footnote 18

In section II, we set out the context in which women participate in the fashion sector globally – as workers and consumers, but rarely as decision-makers. We also discuss concepts such as sustainability, corporate accountability, and the circular economy. In section III, we introduce the SDG framing of the fast fashion sector, including the link between sustainable development and existing business and human rights (BHR) frameworks. Section III concludes by elaborating on the potential and limitations of existing domestic and global legal frameworks for addressing gender inequality and exploitation. We use this brief analysis as a springboard for our suggestions on how to promote greater gender justice in the fashion sector through the lens of the SDGs. Section IV, which forms the core of this article and our main discussion of the SDGs, views the fashion sector through six requirements identified by the authors, which we propose are essential to deliver more gender-just and sustainable outcomes. Our goal is to demonstrate why and how issues such as responsible consumption, taxation and participation should be viewed through a gender perspective and how the SDGs offer concrete targets by which governments and businesses can be held to account. While acknowledging the SDGs’ limitations, this article provides solutions for how the existing SDGs framework, and the significant policy and financial attention it has attracted, can be used to advance gender justice in the fashion sector.

II. The Sector: Women and their Experiences of the Fast Fashion Industry

Women workers dominate the fast fashion industry, particularly in South and Southeast Asia, Footnote 19 where much of the global garment supply occurs. Women form the majority of the workforce: in 2018, both H&M Footnote 20 and Inditex Footnote 21 reported a workforce composed of 74 per cent and 75 per cent women. As will be demonstrated, current global policies and national laws do not adequately regulate the sector, its supply chains, or its impact on workers, particularly when we demand a gender perspective to these laws and policies.

Women and Fast Fashion

The workplace policies of companies engaged in the fashion industry – often part of large and complex supply chains – have a disparate effect on women and men. Mia Mahmudur Rahim offers a useful definition of global supply chains as a quasi-hierarchical relationship between buyers and producers; a long-term relationship in which the dominant party is the buyer who defines the standards that must be met by all parties in the supply chain. Footnote 22 A central element in the system’s design is the tendency for multi-national retailers and brands to source their products from labour-intensive countries, where the ‘desperate’ desire of governments to obtain and maintain foreign income leads to weak standards from the host country (i.e., where the operations occur) for wages and work conditions. Footnote 23

Underlying the entire system is informality. Footnote 24 Informal labour – untaxed and unregulated – is at times the most dominant feature of employment relations in countries such as India Footnote 25 and Cambodia, Footnote 26 and to a lesser degree Bangladesh. Footnote 27 Where informality is widespread, some scholars place far greater importance on oversight and accountability of states to fulfil their obligations to protect human rights, given the limitations in seeking accountability from corporations. Footnote 28

In both formal and informal contexts, experiences of inequality manifest in many complex ways. These include gender pay gaps; sexual harassment and violence; lack of access to remedies for abuses of women’s rights; and lack of protection for women’s human rights defenders. Footnote 29 One well-documented example from the garment sector highlights the lack of hydration and restroom breaks which have increased the risks of urinary tract infections faced by women workers. Sexual and reproductive health rights are further undermined by lack of soap, water and sanitary napkins. Footnote 30 Such experiences are endemic in countries that are the world’s primary producers of fast fashion, including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Footnote 31

Women’s experiences as workers in sweatshops and the commodification and exploitation of garment workers are two sides of the same coin. Footnote 32 The transition from fashion being produced by skilled, primarily male, artisans to mass assembly lines of unskilled, poorly remunerated workers has led to the feminization of the labour force. Footnote 33 Women fashion workers are paid less as they are viewed as secondary earners who are easier to discipline, and less likely to negotiate and unionize. Footnote 34 These risks are exacerbated under more casualized, informal and vulnerable working conditions Footnote 35 where women workers face additional discrimination and harassment.

While the garment sector has offered women an opportunity for economic independence, it has not yet resulted in their economic empowerment as women continue to face barriers in decision-making processes and control of their income. In short, the gendered nature of the fashion sector and the gendered impacts of the inequality it creates and sustains are well documented. A nuanced gender-just response is therefore essential.

Understanding Sustainability, Corporate Accountability and the Circular Economy

Before moving to the core of this article, it is important to provide some context in terms of how we understand the concept of sustainability. Jennifer Farley Gordon and Colleen Hill frame sustainable fashion as encompassing ‘a scope of fashion production or design methods that are environmentally and/or ethically conscious’, with the term ‘sustainable’ often used interchangeably with ‘eco’, ‘green’ or ‘organic’. Footnote 36 At the same time, scholars acknowledge the lack of a consensus over the definition. Footnote 37 This is due, in large part, to the subjectivity that surrounds sustainability, making it a term which is ‘intuitively understood, yet has no coherent definition’. Footnote 38

A further definitional challenge is the general absence of environmental standards that have been enacted specifically for the fashion industry. This absence of sector-specific regulations risks confusion within the sector and a definition of ‘sustainable fashion’ that is open to interpretation. Footnote 39 Entire articles and literature reviews have been devoted to the plethora of definitions of ‘sustainable fashion’. Footnote 40 According to one such review, sustainable fashion has become a ‘broad term for clothing and behaviours that are in some way less damaging to people and/or the planet.’ Footnote 41

‘Sustainable fashion’ is frequently embedded in the ‘circular economy’ concept, an approach that aims for a mode of utilization of materials in manufacturing that is infinitely recyclable: a continuing – circular – chain. This notion of a circular economy is popular with both business and policy-makers. Footnote 42 Yet there is no universal definition Footnote 43 and over 114 different definitions of ‘circular economy’ have been identified. Footnote 44 These definitions tend to include the principles of reduce, reuse, recycle and recover. Footnote 45 For this discussion, put simply, the circular economy concept describes an industrial economy with a zero-waste approach, where generation of waste and pollution is minimized by maintaining the value of products and materials for longer, in part, by keeping them in circulation. Footnote 46

Sustainable fashion can also encompass the umbrella term ‘ethical fashion’. Catrin Joergens defines ethical fashion as ‘clothes that incorporate fair trade principles with sweatshop-free labour conditions while not harming the environment or workers by using biodegradable and organic cotton’. Footnote 47 Anders Haug and Jacob Busch, in their analysis, acknowledge Joergens as the most cited on the topic of ‘ethical fashion’ but offer a counter approach. Footnote 48 Instead of a focus on output, they focus on the central roles of the producer and the buyer in ethical fashion and identify the ethical obligations of the actors involved in the production, mediation and consumption of fashion objects. Footnote 49

Social responsibility in relation to ‘sustainable fashion’ is said to exist ‘when all human interaction in the clothing supply chain work in good working conditions and are paid a fair living wage’. Footnote 50 It can refer to the working hours, working conditions, health and safety of the working environment, and the worker’s pay. This term is often used interchangeably with the terms ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainable’ fashion. Evidently, there is significant overlap in definitions but also differences in the depth and rigour of key concepts. The lack of clarity behind commonly used terms has made the fashion industry extremely susceptible to companies ‘greenwashing’ or using misleading advertising to promote regular products as ‘sustainable’. Footnote 51

Due to the multiplicity of definitions and concepts, we argue for an approach to sustainable fashion that includes design, materials and processes that are, in a measurable way, environmentally and ethically conscious. Our definition also expands on the umbrella term ‘ethical fashion’ to include gender justice as an intrinsic and embedded part of a sustainable fashion industry. Such an approach, which encompasses women’s and worker’s rights simultaneously with a core focus on the environment and sustainability, allows us to reflect on the extent to which fast fashion companies’ business models are focused on the promotion of consumption and production. Footnote 52 As will be discussed in section IV, current practices run counter to SDG 12, which is focused on sustainable consumption and production.

Transitioning into a more sustainable fashion sector is not as simple as adopting new technological fixes at a future time. Footnote 53 Unlike new sustainable technologies, the abuses of the rights of female workers in the sector have tangible solutions that can be addressed now. It is for this reason that we seek to use the SDGs as a tool – albeit limited and flawed – to progress towards the goal of gender-just sustainable fashion.

III. Viewing Fast Fashion Through the Sustainable Development Goals

In this section we introduce the SDG framing of the fast fashion sector. There are clear links to be drawn between sustainable development and BHR frameworks. Moreover, as will be seen, despite the weaknesses of the SDGs, they show significant potential for creating stronger gender justice in the fashion sector. This section of the article concludes by elaborating on select legal responses to gender inequality and exploitation. While these national and regional laws have their limitations they can work alongside the SDGs and aid in filling gaps in a way that can facilitate greater gender justice in the fashion sector.

Exploring the SDGs’ Potential and Acknowledging Limitations

The SDGs provide a useful framework for achieving a greater level of gender justice in the fast fashion sector, in particular when grounded in key BHR frameworks. The SDGs reference the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) as a core framework, establishing an important link between the BHR and sustainable development agendas. In essence, this connection clarifies that respecting human rights should be the foundation of businesses’ contribution to the SDGs.

Our article seeks to bring greater visibility to the potential of the SDGs to foster a more sustainable and gender-just approach to fashion. However, it is important to acknowledge the criticisms that have been directed to them: their drafting, their content, their measurement; and likely success. Here, we set out four of the most significant critiques. First, the SDGs’ orthodox approach to economic growth is left unchallenged in their current design. Footnote 54 The emphasis lies on increasing productivity and employment while social protection and redistributive policies are given secondary value. Footnote 55 Moreover, insufficient attention is paid to the reality that (women’s) unpaid care and domestic work sustain growth. Footnote 56 We are, therefore, arguably at loggerheads, where economic growth depends on women’s unpaid domestic care and reproductive work, and yet women’s equality cannot be achieved without transforming care – to achieve its recognition, redistribution and reduction. Footnote 57

Second, there is an evident power dynamic in the global policy-making arena, one that the SDGs do not entirely challenge. Some scholars critically note that while all states sat at the decision-making table to draft the 2030 Agenda, this cannot be equated to equal participation. Footnote 58 Nonetheless, other scholars are less sceptical, seeing the SDGs as a truly ‘global’ agenda relevant for both high- and low-income countries. Footnote 59

Third, and possibly most importantly, despite the advocacy efforts of the Women’s Major Group in calling for the integration of a gender perspective in the SDGs, concerns remain that women’s rights to development and the importance of women’s agency have been treated as add-ons. Footnote 60 Such an approach also tends to treat ‘women’ as a monolithic category. The extent of this problem becomes even more evident if we consider the relevance of women’s multiple identities as workers in the garment sector. Inga Winkler and Meg Satterthwaite, for instance, highlight the SDGs’ failure to call for data disaggregated on the basis of race or ethnicity. Footnote 61 The broad SDG agenda obscures a holistic and nuanced understanding of women’s experiences of poverty and marginalization and the barriers they face to full and equal participation in societies and economies. Footnote 62 Participation in this sense is far from the reality of the majority of the most marginalized women.

Finally, there are limitations to what quantification can achieve in measuring progress on sustainable human development. Sally Engle Merry pointed out in extensive detail the limitations of quantification when it comes to human rights issues. Footnote 63 Indicator-based projects frequently fail to give sufficient attention to cultural and social differences. Indicators may be ill defined, often without the most affected people involved in their design; and the resulting data easy to manipulate. Footnote 64 However, as others have noted in response, including one of the co-authors of this article, if we want accountability – and of course we do – quantitative approaches may offer many advantages when compared with using resource-intensive qualitative approaches alone. Footnote 65 The quantitative approach to accountability for development offered by the SDGs has much value to add in terms of comparability, within countries, over time, and across countries; and to motivate momentum, and monitor progress globally, towards these agreed ends.

While acknowledging these notable shortcomings in the framework of the SDGs, our approach in this article is to work within the existing system to identify what can be salvaged in the push for more equal and sustainable development. The potential is particularly notable if the SDGs are understood through a human rights lens. After all, it would be remiss to ignore the significant investments in and attention that the SDGs have garnered, from policy-makers, governments, businesses, and other stakeholders with key duties and responsibilities for ensuring that business activities are conducted in a manner that respects human rights. The SDGs have moved inequalities ‘centre stage’ with their aspirational language and rallying cry that no one will be left behind. Footnote 66 Moreover, the undeniable relationship between business and human rights has already been well acknowledged. Footnote 67 We therefore are explicit in our acknowledgement of the SDGs’ shortcomings while accepting the utility of working with the international policy instruments that occupy the space.

Key Business and Human Rights Developments Applicable to Addressing Gender Injustice in the Fashion Sector

Here, we turn our attention to the legal environment in which the SDGs operate. Specifically, we use the limitations of these instruments but also their potential to develop a human rights-based understanding of the SDGs in the context of the fashion sector. The global shift towards the language of sustainability, inclusive growth and the UNGPs framework has been a fundamental step towards addressing the systemic inequality sustained by the fashion sector. These norms have inspired local, regional and global policy-making. Footnote 68 One scholar even refers to the ‘dizzying array of soft-law mechanisms such as voluntary guidelines, declarations, corporate codes of conduct and multi-stakeholder initiatives’. Footnote 69

At the same time, the effectiveness of these norms is hindered by, among other things, the traditional mindsets of factory owners that focus on generating profits at all costs, government inefficiencies that undermine initiatives, and weak commitment on the part of the global buying firms and retailers when it comes to adhering to these policies. Footnote 70 In the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, it has been suggested that the nature of national preferences combined with a general regional norm against interference are also undermining progress. Footnote 71 Moreover, given the extent to which businesses are now attuned to ‘human rights lingo’, there is a notable risk in multi-national corporations ‘know and show’ efforts. Footnote 72 What can result is the utilization of human rights language and frameworks in policies and reports by buyers in supply chains that act to disarm critiques without making fundamental changes to the context that led to these criticisms in the first place. Footnote 73

The purpose of this section is to place the SDGs in the context of other frameworks and instruments, particularly where they already incorporate a gender perspective, and consider how they can help operationalize the SDGs. Moreover, if we recognize existing gaps, the value in bringing together the SDGs and BHR frameworks to accelerate progress becomes even more evident.

The UNGPs and the Gender Guidance

The UNGPs provide 31 principles to act as a framework for greater accountability by businesses for abuses that take place in their operations and business relationships. Footnote 74 Endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011, they set the expectation that businesses respect human rights through undertaking ‘human rights due diligence’. Among other things, the UNGPs call on states to offer guidance to businesses on how to effectively consider issues of ‘gender, vulnerability and/or marginalization’ Footnote 75 and to support businesses to identify the heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence. Footnote 76

The UNGPs do not, however, systematically address issues of gender inequality, and have been criticized for their framing around ‘vulnerability’ and focus on sexual and gender-based violence. The UNGPs lack a call for ‘gender-responsive human rights due diligence’ that would render visible and respond to embedded gender norms, complex cultural biases, and power imbalances throughout supply chains. Footnote 77 The requirements of truly gender-responsive human rights due diligence will vary from context to context, although some common aspects can be identified across industries, sectors and countries. Without this more rigorous, rights-based understanding of due diligence, we risk a dilution of corporations’ responsibilities, which have largely been seen as voluntary, self-regulatory and limited in their understanding of gender-based abuses. Footnote 78

In response to such critiques of the UNGPs on gender and women’s rights, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights in 2019 developed a ‘Gender Guidance’ which provides a framework for states and businesses to take gender-responsive and gender-transformative measures in their interpretation and implementation of the UNGPs. Footnote 79 Notably, the Gender Guidance makes several references to the fashion industry, for example, on supply chains, informal work, sexual harassment and modern slavery. Footnote 80

Taking a gender-responsive approach to human rights due diligence can help to identify and address the different risks and vulnerabilities that female workers face. In response, some companies have begun to adopt policies that provide for equal pay and employment benefits and prohibit discrimination among full-time salaried employees. While a positive step, these initiatives ignore the reality of the vast majority of women workers in the sector who are informal and contract workers and therefore unable to benefit. Footnote 81 Meaningful stakeholder engagement is also key, as reflected in SDG 5.5 on ensuring women’s full and equal participation. Footnote 82 Although there are clear limitations to what corporations alone can do to challenge systemic inequality, they must acknowledge its existence and take concrete steps to ensure that they do not perpetuate or benefit from it. Footnote 83

Despite their lack of real engagement with gendered human rights abuses, ten years after their adoption, the UNGPs have established themselves as a ‘normative platform’ that has aided widespread convergence of national and international regulatory initiatives. Footnote 84 This includes the incorporation of the UNGPs into legal and policy instruments including the 2011 Communication on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the European Union (EU) Directive No. 2014/95 on non-financial reporting. While the call for more hard law – such as a treaty addressing the human rights obligations of businesses – continues, the potential and value in the UNGPs in guiding soft law and national practice has been acknowledged as a crucial step in laying the foundations for a more ambitious, legally binding approach in the long term. Footnote 85

‘Modern Slavery’ Regulations

Several jurisdictions in recent years have attempted to introduce regulations to identify, address and eradicate exploitation in supply chains. Footnote 86 Many of these ‘modern slavery’ regulations specifically include the supply chains of major fashion businesses within their scope; however, few have done better than the SDGs in integrating a gender-responsive approach. Footnote 87

In 2015, the United Kingdom (UK) enacted its Modern Slavery Act, creating an obligation on corporations with a turnover of more than UK£36 million – around 13,000 companies – to report on the steps they have taken to identify instances of slavery and trafficking in their supply chains or in their own businesses or to disclose a failure to undertake such due diligence. Footnote 88 Meanwhile, in 2016, the Netherlands introduced a Child Labour Due Diligence Law ( Wet Zorgplicht Kinderarbeid ) which took effect from 1 January 2020 Footnote 89 while France adopted a ‘duty of vigilance’ law in February 2017. Footnote 90 The French law establishes concrete obligations to prevent exploitation within the supply chains of large multi-national firms carrying out a significant part of their activity in France. Footnote 91 In the EU, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive requires around 8,000 large European companies to disclose their policies, risks and responses related to respect for human rights. Footnote 92

However, arguably none of these laws could be considered good practice global examples from a gender perspective, particularly for the lack of an explicit call for the adoption of gender-responsive due diligence processes and the collection of gender-disaggregated data. Footnote 93 A good practice law would also address environmental damage alongside human rights abuses, as the French law does. Footnote 94

One final limitation of these ‘modern slavery’ regulations is the tendency to outsource due diligence and reporting to third parties. What often results is a ‘template’ approach to reporting. Footnote 95 Enforcement of these laws and transparency are challenging, with the legislation only as good as the actionable intelligence that can be brought to law enforcement. Footnote 96 These limitations are exacerbated by the reality that few modern slavery laws impose appropriate penalties. Footnote 97

International Labour Organization Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (2019)

In 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted the landmark Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. Footnote 98 It adopts a broad definition of violence and harassment while calling on governments to take steps to protect workers, with particular acknowledgement of women’s greater exposure to exploitation. Importantly, it applies in both the formal and informal economies and sets out a wide scope in terms of the spaces that are brought within the bounds of the Convention. Footnote 99 This includes the workplace itself, but also spaces of rest, and places where workers use sanitary, changing and washing facilities as well as the commute to and from work. Footnote 100

The Convention has the potential to protect millions of workers who are otherwise marginalized and at risk in insecure, low paid, unsafe jobs. Footnote 101 Explicitly acknowledging the disproportionate effect of violence on women at work, it identifies the need for a gender-responsive and intersectional approach that includes groups such as women migrant workers who may need particular protection. Footnote 102 Importantly, the Convention recognizes that interventions to address harassment and violence must not result in women’s exclusion from the workplace or other forms of retaliation. Footnote 103 Beyond the fact that there is significantly greater visibility today than ever before to the issue of gender-based violence, Footnote 104 the Convention’s influence may be enhanced through the SDG 5’s parallel attention to gender-based violence as one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world today. Footnote 105

IV. Achieving Fashion Justice Through the SDGs: What Will it Take?

This article argues for the importance of understanding sustainability and gender justice as intimately connected. In this section, we offer a perspective on how the SDGs can be advanced, in the context of the fashion sector, to promote sustainable outcomes that are gender-just. See Table 1 for a list of the 17 SDGs. Footnote 106

Table 1. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals

Many of the 17 SDGs and their 244 indicators are applicable to the fashion sector. Given the comprehensive nature of the SDGs and related indicators, this exercise is naturally illustrative rather than exhaustive. Nonetheless, the most pertinent goals and indicators have been prioritized to offer readers a lens into the areas with the most potential to advance progress. Goal 5, focused on the achievement of gender equality, is one of the most obvious in understanding fast fashion from a gender perspective, but many other goals and targets prove relevant.

Six Requirements for Gender-Just and Sustainable Fashion

Below we set out the six key requirements that we have identified as essential to enabling the SDGs to fulfil their potential in advancing gender justice in the fashion sector. This list draws on the most pertinent SDGs and their targets when it comes to accountability for sustainable and gender-just fashion. The requirements capture the multi-dimensional experiences of women workers, seek to respond to and challenge the notion of the ‘monolithic’ women worker by recognizing multiple and intersecting identities, and offer a broader understanding of accountability beyond a narrow focus on the workplace.

Responsible Consumption

Responsible consumption is potentially the fundamental step towards sustainable and gender-just fashion. Target 12.2.1 of SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production entails capturing the material footprint per capita and per GDP. Material footprint refers to the total amount of raw materials extracted to meet final consumption demands. Footnote 107

In the context of sustainable fashion, this target is linked to the circular economy and the elimination of the ‘throwaway’ culture that the global fast fashion business model has been built on. Footnote 108 Estimates suggest that 80 billion garments are produced every year. Footnote 109 This excess cycle of production and consumption has an undeniable environmental toll. Some estimates suggest that the fashion industry is responsible for 10 per cent of global carbon emissions and 20 per cent of global waste water. Footnote 110 Unsurprisingly, quantifying the effect of such production on the working conditions of workers is a difficult task.

Sustainable consumption from the demand side is therefore a key part of the response. Research shows that consumer-level compassion-based interventions can raise awareness about the dangerous and unfair conditions women fashion workers face and alter consumption patterns to become more sustainable. Footnote 111 Other studies have demonstrated that while ethics will not trump certain considerations shaping fashion decision-making – cost, appearance, durability – they are certainly a consideration. Footnote 112 Consumers need persuading to make human rights-based decisions, in the same way that they are persuaded by brand, quality, price and product characteristics. Footnote 113 Awareness about SDG 8 that cements the links between consumption and workers’ rights can pursuade consumers in adopting sustainable practices, which in turn can incentivize fashion brands to prioritize circular economy models.

Tax as Gender-Just

Domestic resource mobilization is essential for sustainable development, raising important questions about how countries can finance this development. Taxation as a source of government revenue can make an essential contribution to a country, community and infrastructure where workers are based. By acknowledging the relationship between corporate tax, public revenue raising, public spending and public services, we can see how a gender-just approach to the fashion sector can help to address some of the social and economic inequalities women face. Moreover, given that, to date, the human rights framework has only made limited progress in addressing the issue of justice and tax distribution in a meaningful way, measuring progress against the SDGs could catalyse new initiatives in this area.

In terms of a gender-just approach, it is important to acknowledge how the absence of taxes to support infrastructure and social protection is likely to affect women more than men. In Asia, for example, the ILO has reported that women do 4.1 times more unpaid care work than men. Footnote 114 Women’s unpaid contribution to social reproduction remains too often invisible and comprehensive social protection schemes are under-funded by governments. Footnote 115 This unequal share of care work must be contextualized in the reality that garment workers are frequently migrant women, who have moved to industrial zones or export processing zones to work in factories. Footnote 116 This model of employment often involves leaving behind children to be cared for by other (usually female) family members, where they too may lack support. Relevantly, SDG Target 5.4.1 tracks the proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age and location. The recognition of unpaid work in the SDGs should be used to draw attention to the reality that gendered labour currently sustains the global economy in ways that frequently undermine women’s rights. Footnote 117

In response, we draw direct lines between the potential for a rigorous and monitored system of corporate taxation and increased government resources for the benefit of women workers. This might include safe public transport, street lighting and childcare. The issue of women’s mobility, and barriers to safe access caused by, for example, gender-based violence, might be resolved in part if transport services catering exclusively to women were introduced. Without such reforms, the prospects for many women who live in areas characterized by poor physical accessibility and inadequate transport service provision will remain limited. Governments must guarantee social protection for women workers to also address the burden of social reproductive work, and its consequences, typically borne by women. Footnote 118 The implications in terms of intergenerational transfers of poverty are evident.

This issue raises a regulatory loophole whereby companies such as H&M often do not own production factories, but rather, define themselves as buying their products from ‘independent suppliers’. In the company’s own words, in light of these ‘local representative procurement offices’, ‘H&M accordingly has no trading activity that creates business income and is therefore not in a position to pay corporate income tax in the countries where the representative offices are located’. Footnote 119 Fashion companies have been criticized for incorporating in countries that are tax havens to avoid paying taxes. Footnote 120 Zara’s parent company Inditex was the subject of extensive critique from civil society organizations and in turn shut down its operations in Ireland after using its Irish-based ITX Fashion subsidiary to avoid paying EU€585 million in taxes during the period 2011–2014. Footnote 121

A key gap therefore is the return by multinational companies – through taxation – to the countries in which they operate, that could otherwise contribute to an increase in available resources for the producing country to spend on public infrastructure – everything from roads and lighting, public housing, and healthcare services in close proximity to factories; or childcare facilities, either near factories or in home-towns where children of migrant women are left in the care of families, and guaranteed social protection. Footnote 122 The SDGs provide an approach that connects these issues of gendered social reproduction and garment workers’ rights and offer a framework to address the need for attention to corporate taxation in the fashion sector.

Voice as Gender-Just

Women make up the majority of garment workers, but their voice and participation in corporate and government decision-making remain marginal. The low levels of women’s representation on boards and in leadership roles in major corporations is one manifestation of gendered power relations within business activities and Target 5.5.2 of the SDGs tracks the proportion of women in managerial positions. Footnote 123 It is important, however, to shift away from using women’s participation at a senior level in businesses as a proxy for equality of representation in the workplace in general.

This problem becomes particularly stark when we consider the variety of spaces where women work and where they are most marginalized from workplace decision-making. In this respect, SDG 8 brings visibility to the absence of voice for some of the world’s most marginalized workers. SDG 8.8 seeks to protect the labour rights and working environments of, among others, migrant workers and women migrants in particular. Trade unions have improved representation, but the approach of these organizations to gender equality has often been piecemeal and many women fashion workers remain un-unionized. This is one factor, intertwined with fear of retaliation, that leads to under-reporting of human rights abuses in the workplace. Footnote 124 In light of this, women’s rights organizations have taken steps to mobilize for themselves to advocate for improvements to working conditions. Footnote 125

Home-based workers in the fashion industry are a particularly invisible category. Some female workers prefer or require the flexibility of home-based work, including because they face cultural obstacles to working outside the home, but this kind of work is less monitored, often involves piece-rate pay, and precludes workers from organizing, putting them at risk of lower pay and poorer working conditions. Footnote 126 Unlike factory workers, many suffer from fewer choices, limited bargaining power, and no mobility. Footnote 127 Their employment is often informal and outsourced, creating a low-cost flexible workforce that is easily exploited. Footnote 128

Shifting the business accountability model therefore requires creating avenues for home-based fashion workers to safely report abuse. In this sense, the landmark Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (see above), is essential for the achievement of the SDGs. Removing some of the barriers to reporting that are an inherent condition of home-based work must also be prioritized. This includes recognizing some of the very context-specific aspects of such home-based work where a female worker’s only contact with the buyer may be through a male relative, against whom they may wield limited power.

Living Wage as Gender-Just

There is an indisputable relationship between the price of clothing, profit produced, and the wages set by corporations. Fashion manufacturing is considered the classic example of a ‘buyer-driven chain’ where retailers hold all the power when they negotiate with factories. Footnote 129 Factory owners are often only legally obliged to pay the minimum wage. Footnote 130 Moreover, to offer competitive prices, factories often necessarily push workers harder and give them unrealistic deadlines. If workers fail to meet deadlines, they frequently suffer wage penalties. In the words of Jennifer Rosenbaun, USA Director of the Global Labour Justice: ‘We must understand gender-based violence as an outcome of the global supply chain structure. H&M and Gap’s fast fashion supply chain model creates unreasonable production targets and underbid contracts, resulting in women working underpaid overtime and working very fast under extreme pressure.’ Footnote 131 By contrast, the Global Living Wage Coalition defines a living wage as: Footnote 132

The remuneration received for a standard workweek by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and her or his family. Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, health care, transportation, clothing, and other essential needs including provision for unexpected events.

The goal of shifting beyond mere employment to a living wage is closely related to SDG 8: the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all. Target 8.5 seeks to achieve the full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people, and people with disabilities. The ending of poverty in all forms for everyone (SDG 1) includes essential targets related to social security (Target 1.3). Pertinent to the fashion sector, this target brings within its scope social protection floors that include maternity payments, unemployment and disability insurance.

As such, gender justice must extend to a broader corporate and government understanding of the living wage. It is important to also situate the worker in the community in which they live and work. Local economies are often dynamic and adapt to the change in wages. In Cambodia, the inability of the living wage to keep up with rising rent has catalysed mass protests among garment workers. Footnote 133 If increases in the living wage are simply absorbed by a handful of property owners and vendors, it fails to benefit garment workers. These realities must also be acknowledged and are encapsulated in a more community-based understanding of the worker’s experiences as discussed in the following section.

Community as Gender-Just

SDG 6 seeks the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Women and girls are specifically acknowledged as being forced into situations where they are put at risk. Target 6.2.1 seeks to document the proportion of the population using safely managed sanitation services including handwashing facilities with soap and water. The need for planned and well-managed migration policies is also acknowledged in Target 10.7 while safe and affordable housing is also a target under 11.1. These targets highlight some of the basic limitations of the garment sector for many workers, particularly when we acknowledge the experience of workers – many of whom are internal migrants – off the factory floor.

Research evidences the close links between women’s experiences within and outside of factories. In garment producing countries like Cambodia and Bangladesh, women workers are frequently migrants from rural and remote communities who have travelled to the capital. Footnote 134 Inadequate policing, overcrowded rental areas, poor hygiene and sanitation, poor lighting, and the distance between rental rooms and toilets have been found to increase the risk women face of violence. Footnote 135 Given the isolation many women migrants face when moving into areas where garment sector work is available, Footnote 136 promoting access to reproductive health services and knowledge about access to reproductive health services is equally important. Migrant women may also be subject to racial discrimination and are at greater risk of exploitation when they lack adequate documentation. Footnote 137

SDG 6 therefore offers much value in bringing visibility and a more comprehensive understanding of the living and working conditions of women in the sector. These experiences, both on and off the factory floor, highlight the significance of the broad scope of ILO Convention 190 that encompasses violence and harassment ‘occurring in the course of, linked with or arising out of work’, including during commutes and at employer-provided accommodation. Footnote 138

Accountability as Gender-Just

The need to guarantee women access to effective remedies when confronted with rights abuses is a core human rights principle. Women’s access to justice is the subject of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s General Recommendation No. 33. Footnote 139 Yet formal justice, let alone a gender-sensitive justice system that is independent, impartial, credible, and acts with integrity in the fight against impunity, Footnote 140 may be far from reach for many women workers.

Gender-based violence against women within the workplace as well as off the factory floor – especially in communities surrounding the factories – needs to be a central concern for the fashion sector. Target 5.2.2 seeks a reduction in the portion of women suffering various forms of violence – physical, sexual or psychological – by individuals other than their partners. Research shows the extent to which women workers have to travel, often on unlit streets, to and from their housing to work, facing the risk of harassment, theft, and forms of sexual violence. Footnote 141

Subcontracting, where a factory sends a worker to another factory without the knowledge of the buying fashion brand, is a challenge in supply chain transparency and heightens exposure to exploitation. Footnote 142 In such contexts of subcontracting, the fast fashion company (the buyer) shifts accountability to the supplier (the factory), who in turn is able to blame the subcontractor for workers’ rights abuses. Ultimately, the subcontractor blames the individual worker. Footnote 143 There is little consequence for this way of operating and consequently, the practice continues with impunity.

Moreover, numerous barriers – financial and linguistic, as well as fear – may undermine attempts by workers to seek re-dress for the failure of employers to pay a living wage or for abuses of workers’ rights to freely join a trade union and exercise their freedom of expression or assembly. This sixth prong in our framework – access to remedies for affected workers – calls for an expansive understanding of justice, and an inclusive approach to the injustices that need to be remedied. SDG 16 addresses the promotion of just, peaceful and inclusive societies. Target 16.1, to ‘significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere’ creates an entry point to bring visibility to the realities of gender-based violence for workers. The garment sector has a key part to play in addressing violence at work for women garment workers and creating an enabling environment for gender-responsive due diligence to monitor incidence of violence and respond where cases are identified, both in and beyond factories. Footnote 144 At the same time, Target 16.3, which includes ‘[ensuring] equal access to justice for all’, is essential to ensure an approach to justice that goes beyond the injured gendered body and guarantees redress for a range of human rights abuses, including unequal pay and gender-based discrimination. Footnote 145

V. The Way Forward

The SDGs are far from perfect. Most fundamental among their limitations is their failure to challenge structural power relations among nations and businesses that are otherwise intended to be equally governed by these goals and targets. They risk reinforcing stereotypes that have underpinned at times false distinctions between the Global North and Global South and clouded deep inequalities that exist within countries. A holistic and nuanced understanding of women’s experiences of poverty and marginalization is often lost in pursuit of aggregation, whereas disaggregation is essential to challenge the notion of the monolithic woman and to bring out the intersectional experiences of those who are most marginalized and excluded.

At the same time, the SDGs are a highly visible policy instrument that resonates beyond the walls of the UN. Their uptake by many policy-makers, civil society and the media should come as no surprise and their limitations should not overshadow the potential of the SDGs as a framework for enhancing a gender-just and sustainable response to the fashion industry. Perhaps unexpectedly, the SDGs have become a way to benchmark fashion companies’ commitments to sustainability and worker’s rights. The SDGs’ user-friendliness among civil society is a big win. Non-governmental organizations whose work lies in auditing the impact of fashion companies, including on women workers, and the investigative journalists working to challenge fast fashion, have a capacity to shine a light on problems such as inadequate wages, unpaid or underpaid overtime, and the inadequacy of working conditions, through the lens of the SDGs in a way that may resonate more strongly with policy-makers. It is rare for a global policy instrument to be as accessible as the SDGs and its targets.

At the same time, while accessible, many might consider the 17 goals and 244 indicators overwhelming. What we have sought to achieve in this paper is to lay a clear pathway to maximize the SDG’s potential to promote a more sustainable and gender-just fashion sector. The SDGs may seem counterintuitive to the economic interests of fashion companies. Reliance on self-regulation in the form of annual reports also has its limits. Footnote 146 Acknowledging these limits, we have sought to demonstrate the ways in which the SDGs can promote sustainable outcomes that are just for women. Arguably, greater buy-in is needed to operationalize the SDGs’ potential, such as the targets that call for consumer education on their contribution to the material footprint as well as the need for governments to develop effective corporate taxation systems alongside social protection floors. Moreover, the more powerful actors in supply chains need to come on board in order to use their bargaining power to negotiate a more holistic arrangement for workers.

At the same time, the SDGs illustrate the centrality to gender justice of demanding an outcome that extends beyond full and productive employment, including a living wage. The SDGs also have other clear wins from which we can draw, no doubt the result of extensive lobbying among women’s rights advocates. In turn, working in conjunction with the SDGs offers potential to unearth new ways of quantifying and valuing women’s unequal burden of care. Our analysis has also highlighted the ways in which the SDGs may aid in bringing about a more holistic understanding of gender justice. The goals can be used to make visible the multiplicity of spaces in which women move through their days, from workplaces, to markets, schools, and the street. In turn, there also needs to be an evolution in the accountability of fashion companies to ensure that their workers have affordable housing and food, as well as water and sanitation, and healthcare both on and off the factory floor. The six requirements we have presented in this paper, have the ability to bring out these deeply intertwined obligations.

A century has passed since Manhattan’s 1911 factory fire. However, much needs to be done to better embed into law and translate into practice protections for women workers. Importantly, while international and national norms are starting to acknowledge the need for gender-responsive approaches to the rights of fashion workers, gaps remain in practice. The SDGs, which have garnered significant public attention, offer a chance to re-shine the light on the human rights of the women workers in this field.

The authors declare none.

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91 Stéphanie Poirot, ‘Devoir de Vigilance des Entreprises: Entre Hard et Soft Law, Une Réponse au “Social Washing”?’, The Conversation (24 May 2018), http://theconversation.com/devoir-de-vigilance-des-entreprises-entre-hard-et-soft-law-une-reponse-au-social-washing-96451 (accessed 2 June 2021). The law came into effect in March 2017, but with the proposed civil penalties for violating corporations struck down following a decision of the Constitutional Council. See Décision No. 2017-750 DC, Conseil Constitutionnel (23 March 2017).

92 ‘Directive 2014/95/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 Amending Directive 2013/34/EU as Regards Disclosure of Non-Financial and Diversity Information by Certain Large Undertakings and Groups Text with EEA Relevance’, 32014L0095, 22 October 2014, 330.

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100 Ibid, art 3(f). See also Sahan, note 98 , 292.

101 Sahan, note 98 , 89–90.

102 Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, note 99 , art 6.

103 Ibid, art 10(h).

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109 ENDEVR, note 108 .

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111 Sonia M Geiger and Johannes Keller, ‘Shopping for Clothes and Sensitivity to the Suffering of Others: The Role of Compassion and Values in Sustainable Fashion Consumption’ (2018) 50 Environment and Behavior 1119.

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115 Shirin M Rai and Beth Goldblatt, ‘Introduction to the Themed Section: Law, Harm and Depletion Through Social Reproduction’ (2020) 3:2 European Journal of Politics and Gender 171.

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120 Alex Crumbie, ‘Clothing Companies and Tax Havens’, Ethical Consumer (5 September 2019), https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/fashion-clothing/clothing-companies-tax-havens (accessed 2 June 2021); Tax Justice Network, ‘New Ranking Reveals Corporate Tax Havens Behind Breakdown of Global Corporate Tax System; Toll of UK’s Tax War Exposed’, Tax Justice Network Blog (28 May 2019), https://www.taxjustice.net/2019/05/28/new-ranking-reveals-corporate-tax-havens-behind-breakdown-of-global-corporate-tax-system-toll-of-uks-tax-war-exposed/ (accessed 2 June 2021).

121 Marc Tataret, Tax Shopping: Exploring Zara’s Tax Avoidance Business , ( Greens/EFA Group , 2016), https://www.globaltaxjustice.org/sites/default/files/TAX_SHOPPING_-_Greens-EFA_report_on_Inditex_-_08_12_2016.pdf (accessed 2 June 2021).

122 Studies of Bangladesh and Cambodia discuss a range of infrastructure needs. These may differ, depending on whether children of migrant women workers remain in their care or in the care of families at the point of origin. See Chowdhury , Mohammed M M , Hoque , Nazamul and Kabir , Jonayed , ‘ Work-Life Balance of Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh: An Imperial Investigation ’ ( 2015 ) 15 : 7 Global Journal of Management and Business Research 18 Google Scholar ; Fiona H McKay and Hayley J McKenzie, ‘Life Outside the Garment Factories: The Lived Experiences of Cambodian Women Garment Factory Workers’ (2020) 16:4 International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care 415.

123 Vijeyarasa, note 10 , 86.

124 Kate Hodal, ‘Slavery and Trafficking Continue in Thai Fishing Industry, Claim Activists’, The Guardian (25 February 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/feb/25/slavery-trafficking-thai-fishing-industry-environmental-justice-foundation (accessed 2 June 2021).

125 Prieto-Carrón , Marina , ‘ Bringing Resistance to the Conceptual Center: Threats to Social Reproduction and Feminist Activism in Nicaraguan Commodity Chains ’ in Dunaway , Wilma A (ed.), Gendered Commodity Chains: Seeing Women’s Work and Households in Global Production ( Stanford : Stanford University Press , 2013 ) 225 . Google Scholar

126 Bourke-Martignoni and Umlas, note 19 , 33.

127 Minney, note 95 , 43.

128 Human Rights Council, note 84 , 51.

129 Gereffi , Gary and Korzeniewicz , Miguel , Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism ( Connecticut : Praeger Publishers , 1994 ). Google Scholar

130 Minney, note 95 , 45.

131 Kate Hodal, ‘Abuse is Daily Reality for Female Garment Workers for Gap and H&M, Says Report’ The Guardian (5 June 2018), https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/05/female-garment-workers-gap-hm-south-asia (accessed 16 September 2021).

132 Global Living Wage Coalition, ‘What is a Living Wage?’ https://www.globallivingwage.org/about/what-is-a-living-wage/ (accessed 2 June 2021).

133 David Sen, ‘Phnom Penh Garment Workers Protest Hike in Rent’, Khmer Times (22 April 2019), https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50596897/garment-workers-protest-hike-in-rent/ (accessed 2 June 2021).

134 Ahmed, note 15 ; Nishigaya, note 116 .

135 Taylor , Alice , Women and the City: Examining the Gendered Impacts of Violence and Urbanisation ( Johannesburg : ActionAid International , 2011 ) 30 . Google Scholar

136 Mucci , Nicola et al , ‘ Migrant Workers and Psychological Health: A Systematic Review ’ ( 2020 ) 12 : 1 Sustainability 120 CrossRef Google Scholar ; Bin Wu and Jackie Sheehan, ‘Globalization and Vulnerability of Chinese Migrant Workers in Italy: Empirical Evidence on Working Conditions and Their Consequences’ (2011) 20:68 Journal of Contemporary China 135.

137 Minney, note 95 , 43.

138 Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, note 99 , art 3.

139 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, ‘General Recommendation No. 33 on Women’s Access to Justice’, CEDAW/C/GC/33 (23 July 2015).

140 Ibid, para 1.

141 Taylor, note 135 .

142 Minney, note 95 , 22.

143 Hayley Mlotek, ‘Fast Fashion at the End of the World’, The New Republic (19 December 2019), https://newrepublic.com/article/156065/fast-fashion-end-world (accessed 2 June 2021).

144 Vijeyarasa, note 10 .

145 Kapur , Ratna , ‘ Brutalized Bodies and Sexy Dressing on the Indian Street ’ ( 2014 ) 40 : 1 Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 9 . CrossRef Google Scholar

146 For instance, a recent study of South Africa shows that while the private sector has a pivotal role to play in countries being able to meet the SDGs, only 6 per cent and 11 per cent in 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 financial year ends, respectively, have incorporated the SDGs into their business model and strategies as reported. See Haywood , Lorren K and Boihang , Mothusi , ‘ Business and the SDGs: Examining the Early Disclosure of the SDGs in Annual Reports ’ ( 2020 ) 38 : 2 Development Southern Africa 1 , 6. Google Scholar

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• Volume 7, Issue 1
• Ramona Vijeyarasa (a1) and Mark Liu (a2)
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2021.29

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In search of fashion’s sustainability seekers

Young, urban fashion consumers actively seek out sustainable options, but most shoppers remain neutral to the idea. In fact, many find it challenging to figure out what actually constitutes “sustainability,” with a long, complex list of potential factors to consider.

This could change, however, as millennials and Gen Zers reach both the age and income levels to apply their eco-conscious values and beliefs to their wardrobes. In turn, this demand could spur clearer messaging and more sustainable practices from brands.

These findings are from a recent McKinsey survey in the United Kingdom that looked at consumer sentiment about sustainability in clothing, footwear, and accessories. 1 Our survey was conducted in October 2021 with more than 850 UK consumers. Despite increased awareness about the importance of sustainability, the fashion industry’s environmental footprint remains significant. Companies create far more products than they can sell, and more than half of all global fiber produced is polyester, a material that requires a great deal of energy for extraction and processing and that lingers in the environment for a long time. 2 Ruth Alden Wicker, “Why, exactly, is polyester so bad for the environment?,” EcoCult , January 19, 2021. In total, the fashion industry emits  about the same quantity of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per year as the economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.

As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) transparency continues to grow in importance, fashion companies will likely feel pressure to do more. For example, starting next year, the UK government will require listed companies to publish net-zero transition plans and set company targets to mitigate their climate risk. Certain public companies will also be required to disclose climate-related financial information that follows standards set by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Sustainability seekers

One-quarter of respondents to our survey indicated that they are concerned about sustainability-related issues (Exhibit 1). These consumers go out of their way to buy secondhand items and to look for clothing made with environmentally friendly material, such as recycled polyester. Our research shows that this group, which is willing to pay 15 percent more for sustainable options, is more likely to consist of urban millennial women with moderate to high incomes (Exhibit 2). The factors that these sustainability seekers care most about are the lowering of GHG emissions, the preservation of natural habitats for animals, practices that don’t harm animals, and the use of renewable energy (Exhibit 3).

In contrast, about half of our survey respondents were ambivalent about sustainability, while another one-quarter emerged as a strong counterbalancing contingent. These consumers said that they were actively not interested in seeking out sustainable fashion choices.

As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) transparency continues to grow in importance, fashion companies will likely feel pressure to do more.

One factor that is likely holding these consumers back is a general confusion about the term “sustainability.” Customers rely most on brand websites and product tags when evaluating fashion brands and products (Exhibit 4). But these sources often contain a bewildering array of sustainability features, credentials, and claims, impairing a consumer’s ability to make easy, educated choices. No shared understanding exists among consumers (or brands) about what exactly “sustainability” means, which features matter most, or where to find information about a particular brand’s sustainability commitment. It can be even harder to find independent sources that help distinguish between authentic sustainability claims and greenwashing.

Fashion brands have a significant opportunity to deliver clear, straightforward information on their practices (both at and before the point of sale), as well as frictionless postpurchase options that consumers can use to mitigate the impact of their fashion choices.

Fashion brands have a significant opportunity to deliver clear, straightforward information on their practices.

The opportunity for circular fashion

Although most consumers in our survey said that sustainability does not actively influence their purchasing decisions, responses were different when we asked about an item’s end of life. Only 24 percent of respondents said they go out of their way to buy products from sustainable brands, while some 46 percent of consumers said they would want to purchase items that could be easily donated to charity (Exhibit 5).

This finding highlights a fertile landscape for the development of circular business models. Because fashion will always be driven by a desire to seek novelty, a sustainability paradox is inevitable: in our survey, the consumers most engaged with sustainability are also those most likely to generate waste by renewing their wardrobes every season (Exhibit 6). To create more value for these shoppers, brands can design their products to be repurposed once a consumer is finished with them. This sustainable loop, if managed well, would lessen consumers’ dependence on entirely new products, allow companies to do more with less, and reduce the fashion industry’s planetary impact.

As the fashion and textile industries strive to reduce their environmental footprint and consumers grow increasingly aware of our changing climate, we expect consumers’ desires for sustainable fashion to grow. Brands that help people to understand and mitigate the impact of their fashion choices place themselves in a leadership role on this important issue and in a stronger position to drive sustainable growth.

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International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research

• Open access
• Published: 28 May 2018

An exploratory study on up-cycling as the sustainable clothing life at home

• Sooyoen Shim 1 ,
• Jisoo Kim   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1951-5429 1 &
• Youngjoo Na 1  

Fashion and Textiles volume  5 , Article number:  14 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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The textile and fashion industries are difficult to achieve sustainability because they are made up of long supply chains. Also, it cannot rely only on the industries for sustainable. Thus, it is important that consumers have to practice at home. Therefore, it is necessary to give the ideas that can be done at home, promote the importance of practice, and present a variety of practical ways. We executed focus-group interview to understand sustainable clothing and the attitude and status of up-cycling in families. Situation analysis for the attitude and up-cycling of sustainable clothing is available with various participants in each group upon fluency of up-cycling method, information share ability, and the degree of understanding in clothing-fiber production process. It showed that they make selective purchase of sustainable fashion products in families, washing and control for minimizing of environmental impact and energy consumption, and recycling and used articles trade, a way of life for sustainable clothing.

Introduction

Sustainability has become recognized as an important issue for clothing retailers during the last decade, with increasing demand from consumers for products which are environmentally and socially sustainable (Joergens 2006 ). Sustainable consumption will require consumers to buy less, use products longer and produce less waste (Tilikidou and Delistavrou 2004 ). Interest in sustainable clothing production and consumption is growing and the rapid increase in the size of the sustainable clothing market implies that consumers are concerned about sustainability (Shaw et al. 2006 ). The clothing sector has responded to this type of publicity and to consumer demand, with the introduction of small-scale ethical clothing retailers and the launch of sustainable ranges by larger retailers, mainly based on organic cotton products or Fair Trade production (Goworek et al. 2012 ). Now the preoccupancy of fast fashion in clothing industry represents the trend of current society which is sensitive to fashion, rather than quality and physical life of product. Producers built up mass production system by outsourcing so as to be competitive by lowering the price, and consumers, with the decreased burden, become intemperate in spending. Repetition of intemperate production and consumption has led to various problems and resource waste, and clothing wastes became a social issue.

The issue of clothing wastes requires urgent reconsideration as 3% of wastes discharged from each household is clothing (Fletcher 2008 ). As clothing wastes weigh significant impact not only on environment but also on economic loss, fundamental solution is required and sustainable clothing life draws attention. In order to maximize sustainability in the clothing industry, the producers as well as the role of consumers and especially the role of households are now important. Previously, households were regarded as a passive position to purchase and consume manufactured goods, but now consumers must actively implement sustainability as a productive consumer for sustainable living as a final determinant of their lifestyle.

Various studies are vigorously being carried out on the topic of sustainability. However, most of these studies are about sustainability focused on the producers (Chi 2015 ; Brito et al. 2008 ; Na and Na 2015 ), and the ones about family-focused sustainable clothing life are insufficient. Whereas the role of families are important since they are the final consumer and the subject of product use and waste in clothing life, there are insufficient amount of studies focusing on this topic. And most of the studies focusing on consumers are the ones about consumer attitude and consumption behavior (Maineri et al. 1997 ; Follows and Jobber 2002 ; Joergens 2006 ), with a narrow focus only on the eco-friendly and ethical characteristics, providing it difficult to understand the broad sense of sustainability encompassing the environment · economy · society · cultural elements.

Up-cycling is effective in expressing our own personality without unnecessary spending, and satisfying the desire for pursuing creative and novel material. This study examined the attitude and practice for sustainable clothing life in families, and focused on up-cycling among the practice of sustainable clothing life in families for proliferation of sustainable clothing life.

Literature review

Sustainability and clothing.

‘Our Common Future’ of Bruntland Committee defined sustainability as ‘Satisfying the need of current generation while not impeding what future generation requires (Merchant 1989 ).’ Like this, sustainability prepares guidelines in a long term view, considering the impact of present behavior weighing on future generation.

Although many studies narrowly view sustainability by limiting it only on environmentalism, sustainability encompasses the entire area of society and culture. We have to take into consideration the sustainability in economic, social and cultural areas of the world, while trying to recognize and minimize the impact of uncontrolled human behavior on environment. Recognizing that one-sided economic growth upon limited resource cannot be continued, sustainability preserves environment and is based on stable and long term profit-making and qualitative growth. Also it pursues harmonized development of community and does not overlook social responsibility. And it expands environmental protection or qualitative growth of economy, places importance on mental value and ethics, and fosters cultural diversity (Na 2011 ).

Sustainable clothing is thought of mainly in eco-friendly context, but the evaluation territory of sustainability is enormous, encompassing areas such as fair production structure, economic vitality and qualitative growth, and consumers rational spending pattern and pursue of variety. When destroying sustainable fashion, we can safely return to the globe, and it should be made so that it can be used again. And we should produce according to sustainable processes, without causing environmental damage, and products should be done, not focusing on producer, but focusing on users. In particular, we need to pay attention to inter-supplementary relation between consumers and producers, and subjective attitude, which can realize and finish the value of clothing in families after production (Fletcher 2008 ). Where slow fashion is a sustainable approach to fashion production and consumption, it focuses greater attention on ‘valuing and knowing the object’ (Clark 2008 ). This means understanding the process of raw material to finished product as part of the experience of consumption. This form of sustainable consumption is centred in a consumer value system that engages with experience values over self-enhancement values (Manchiraju and Sadachar 2014 ).

Up-cycling and clothing

The term up-cycling was first used by Reiner Pilz in 1994, when he gave the meaning ‘to grant more value to old product’. Up-cycling is compared with down-cycling, which is recycled in manner of losing significant part of existing characteristics or merits mainly while passing through mechanical and chemical processing. On the other hand, up-cycling is defined as the type of ‘recycling in rise in value’ (Choi et al. 2014 ).

The 1st target of up-cycling is to reduce wastes, and it repeats and circulates the life cycle of products by changing its use in the final stage of product life cycle, without going through the entire process of planning, production, and consumption of product. This corresponds to the sustainability where re-designing refines environmental impact and recovers natural ecosystem. It also is, in principle of sustainable design, to re-think the design for realization of re-cycle of material circulation and symbiosis of human and nature, and up-cycling minimizes the process by maximum use of original functions, based on re-cycle of wastes. This leads to the refining of environmental impact, and we can see that up-cycling is based on sustainability rooted in re-design and re-think of symbiosis.

The fast fashion phenomenon has revolutionized the clothing industry over the past decade. Changing consumer attitudes to apparel consumption, linked with low-cost production and sourcing of materials from overseas industrial markets has led to a culture of impulse buying in the fashion industry, where new styles of clothing are available to the average consumer every week. Consumers are practicing up-cycling, which is important in the era of fast fashion at home (Turker and Altuntas 2014 ).

This study executed Focus Group Interview in order to understand the attitude and status of up-cycling in families in respect to sustainability upcycling potency at home. A qualitative research method was used in order to gather and analyze trend from the interview data. Focus Group Interview as a research method is not to make generalized deductions as in a mass survey, but to comprehend various persons’ recognition of specific circumstances and experiences by targeting a various range of participants. A total of 30 participants participated in an event on sustainable clothing were grouped into 8 groups for the Focus Group Interview. Situation analysis for the attitude and up-cycling of sustainable clothing was performed in each group for the following criteria: fluency of up-cycling method, ability to share information, the degree of understanding in the clothing-fiber production process (i.e. positive practices of sustainable clothing), and proficiency with the sewing machine in the upcycling process (Table  1 ).

In this study, interviews of 30–50 min were performed for each group, spanning a period of 2 months (February to March of 2015). Verbal agreements from participants were obtained following the explanation of the purpose and method of the study and the general content of interview. Interviews were recorded under the agreement of the participants. The main content corresponding to the subject, unexpected answers, atmosphere of the interview, and individual lifestyles and background of the participants during the interview were noted and recorded. Questions were open-ended and given in an order that induced natural transition from one topic to another as it would in a casual group discussion. The recorded details of the Focus Group Interview were documented and analyzed, focusing on the content corresponding to the study purpose. The analysis and details of each group were taken into account when asking follow-up questions.

The format of the interview (Krueger and Casey 2000 ) included these types of questions in the following order: opening question, introductory questions, transition questions, key questions, and ending questions.

Opening questions: The purpose of the opening question was to encourage all the participants to be acquainted with the group discussion, and instead of focusing on the personal experiences, general questions regarding the factual side of the topic were asked.

Introductory questions: These questions introduced each of the study topics to the participants, as well as being open-ended enough for the individuals to respond freely while engaging them to brainstorm about the topic of sustainable clothing in their personal homes.

Transition questions: These questions were designed to slowly shift the focus into key questions for the study. Participants were encouraged to make connections with their personal experiences and the study topic.

Key questions: Questions directly pertaining to the individual knowledge and experience of the participants in their home practices of upcycling were asked. More time for response was given to each individual in order to for the participant to give a full, detailed account of their background status, methods practiced, upcycling knowledge and tips, along with other relevant personal accounts.

Ending questions: As a conclusive question, the participants were asked to reflect upon whether their knowledge on upcycling and their practices at home were in sync. The interviewer summarized the discussion at the end, and asked the participants if anything else need to be added to the discussion summary, giving more time for the participants to review the group discussion (Table  2 ).

Results and discussion

Sustainable clothing in families, attitude for sustainable clothing.

Participants who believed that family-focused sustainable clothing practices should be done mentioned the role and importance of upcycling in families. They think that families have discretion for the practice of sustainable clothing, and told that they tried to practice this on purpose.

‘At the end, it is my family who determines whether to use the product, although it is the producers that make it. (Participant 3)’

‘When families recognize such effect (on sustainability), companies will practice sustainable measures eventually. There is no effect when only producers practice it. (Participant 6)’

‘I think behaviors among families are more important, because if we do not execute sustainable behaviors ourselves, the intention of producers will never be realized, even if sellers do produce sustainable products. (Participant 23)’

On the other hand, participants who focus on the role of producers in sustainable clothing said that the role of producers is more critical, as many environmental and social problems arise in the course of production.

They thought in receptive position, without subjectively thinking about the role of families in clothing sustainability. They also answered that families practice sustainable clothing according to the intention of producers. This behavior was considered to be a more passive behavior than the former, since families are not productive consumers, but passive followers in this case.

‘Producer has great responsibility. We are in a receptive position as we choose products, and we can only do it when they produce them. I think we have no options to select when the producers just make products to be discarded after one-time use. (Participant 2)’

Practice of sustainable clothing in families

Selection of sustainable fashion products Participants, as the result of interview, were interested in sustainable fashion products, and told the interviewer that they were cooperative in buying sustainable products. Many products purchased by the study participants were eco-friendly products: products practicing social responsibility, up-cycled products, and durable products for long-time wear.

Also participants were much interested in social enterprises in textile industry, and they positively thought of the impact that social enterprises weigh on society, considering that social enterprises are based on sustainability.

‘I enjoy shoes brand ‘T’. They say that if I buy one pair of those shoes, I would be donating another pair to the refugees in the world. Along with satisfaction that I did a good thing over the fact that I bought what I need, I am interested in what things are there beyond the fact that I simply bought things. (Participant 12)’

And it appeared that the participants chose the product that could be used for a long time for the practice of sustainable clothing in families while aiming for fast fashion. Although they purchased SPA brand product because of competitive low price of fast fashion, it showed that the sustainability factors besides price apply to buying decision as consuming consciousness gets increased, and they chose and bought the clothes to wear for a long time, without being swayed by temporal fashion.

‘I bought brand “oo” because of its low price. But, now I rarely buy SPA brand. Because they are really for one season, being much too sloppy with one time washing…. Sometimes I think about why I buy clothes that I will discard soon. (Participant 26)’

Sustainable washing and control The participants also thought much of the impact on environment during washing and control process. They consider the amount of detergent and washing temperature, and told that they purchase the clothes where contamination could easily be removed by partial washing or cleanness could be maintained without frequent washing. Checking the material when buying and recognizing that the frequency of washing gets different depending on materials were important considerations. And they answered that they prefer the clothes which do not require ironing; this can be a clothing behavior, considering sustainability beyond the simple convenience of control.

Recycling and used articles trade As a result of interviews, most of the study participants do not destroy clothing products whose psychological lifespan expired, but seek ways to use them again. Participants told that they do not scrap clothes, but practice sustainable clothing in families by extending the lifespan of those clothes, for subjective sustainable clothing in families. They recycle the clothes in various ways, from mending the size through re-form to mending the men‘s clothes to fit to the body of women, or correcting the silhouette past with fashion, or changing the usage completely. It has shown that this recycling not only weighs positive impact on environment, by reducing the clothes wastes, but also gives economic saving effect and usage of the article for a long time with affection after recycling. Also they get emotional satisfaction with a way of life in recycling hobbies.

It has shown that they donate them to acquaintances, beside Beautiful Store, Citizen Marketplace and used articles trade. Most of the study participants think much positively about ‘donation’ of unused articles to acquaintances as gifts or ‘Passing on’, and think that it is the most non-obligative and effective way.

‘I use Beautiful Store whenever I arrange my closet. At first I thought donating to Beautiful Store would be cumbersome, but with continuation of such donation, now I don‘t think it’s so difficult. (Participant 5)’

‘I open marketplace for used articles like this each week. Now neighbors bring their unnecessary articles by themselves (knowing that I sell at used articles marketplace). It is also exciting to watch and meet new people at the marketplace. (Participant 9)’

‘There are many clothes we don‘t wear because we are tired of it, or they don’t fit anymore. My mother gathers such clothes and gives them to my cousins. We don‘t have time to re-form these clothes for ourselves again. Giving them to those who need them is the best. (Participant 28)’

Up-cycling in families based on sustainability

Attitude towards up-cycling in families.

The study participants voiced recycling as one of the methods for sustainable clothing in families, and thought of up-cycling as a kind of recycling. They explained up-cycling as ‘recycling, re-use, re-modeling,’ and said that up-cycling newly commercializes used articles or changes their usages, and has aspect of raising the value and quality of commodity in used articles. They thought up-cycling in families weigh positive impact on environment, and there was a participant who said that he got interested in up-cycling by the up-cycling brand products of ‘S’, ‘F’, ‘U’ and brand story. The common thought of the up-cycling participants is that up-cycling is the recent trend topic.

Degree of understanding participants’ Degree of understanding of up-cycling was classified into three types: (i) the type that distinguishes up-cycling and down-cycling, (ii) the type who heard about up-cycling or encountered the books, lecture, and articles with subject of up-cycling, and infer about up-cycling as similar in meaning with recycling, but there were also some who could not distinguish up-cycling from down-cycling or recycling. Finally, there was participant type (iii) who never heard of up-cycling or encountered relevant media about it.

The younger in age of the participant, the higher the degree of understanding about up-cycling, and they answered that they had opportunity to encounter up-cycling. When explaining the meaning of up-cycling, they compared it with down-cycling, and said it is recycling of raised value.

‘I think up-cycling is to make an A product into an A+ product. I think that, with recycling, they make more value in the products. (Participant 17)’

‘Simple recycling could deteriorate the quality, and isn’t up-cycling adding a new value to the quality which existing product has? (Participant 5)’

Participants in higher ages were unfamiliar with the word ‘up-cycling,’ and they could not relate it with the concept, thinking that the practice of their own is simple recycling, despite the fact that they already practice up-cycling unknowingly. They were ashamed of not knowing the meaning of up-cycling, as it is English, and felt uncomfortable when asked about the word ‘up-cycling.’ On the other hand, they smoothly talked about it in relation with their own experiences, when asked by correcting the word ‘up-cycling’ to ‘recycling of raised value.’

And the participants in low degree of understanding also said they naturally understood the difference between up-cycling and down-cycling as they shared various stories. Participants who never distinguished between the two, heard their various experiences with up-cycling and down-cycling also understood up-cycling upon talking about their own experiences, while actively participating in discussion, which showed that they are indeed interested in up-cycling with routine activities, though they did not establish the meaning of up-cycling in real life.

Path for acquiring information Participants said that the path they get information was through ‘the brand that sells up-cycling products’, ‘newspaper or magazine’, and ‘internet blog posts’.

Participants said that how they could distinguish up-cycling from recycling was because they understood the meaning of up-cycling by seeing the method of up-cycling. In particular, they said they were attracted to up-cycling by viewing various up-cycling methods and their results on internet blogs, and realized that there are many relatively simple up-cycling methods that they can practice in families.

‘Clicking on a unusual lug photo on the main of web-site ‘N’, I saw an article which introduced a method to make by twisting old T-shirt, saying that it‘s up-cycling. It was interesting and amazing. And seeing that it was simpler than I thought, I thought I could give it a try. (Participant 7)’

Participants who got information about up-cycling through its brand were much interested in up-cycling product itself, rather than the method and value of it, and said they got interested in up-cycling due to up-cycling product in that brand. And they recognized up-cycling brands as social enterprises. Though they think they contribute to society by purchasing up-cycling product, they felt attraction to the up-cycling product itself, and said they bought it thinking it is more excellent in design compared with existing product.

‘In newspaper I saw an article introducing up-cycling brands as social enterprises. It was the first time I encountered up-cycling. (Participant 13)’

‘While searching for the bag of ‘F’ on internet, I realized that they made it with old banner. After that I got to know the word up-cycling when searching for the photos. (Participant 24)’

However, not all participants who recognize up-cycling method, up-cycling brand, and up-cycling product could understand the meaning of up-cycling’s ‘recycling of raised value’ and distinguish it from down-cycling. It shows that in families they get more interested in the result, the product, rather than the meaning of up-cycling.

Relation between knowledge and practice of up - cycling As an important factor on the course of decision-making and information process, many studies (Howard and Schwartz 1980 ; Laroche et al. 2001 ) conducted research of knowledge as major influence factor which leads behavior. The knowledge about up-cycling can be defined as understanding of individual‘s various experiences and the concept and method for up-cycling, and personal idea of up-cycling (Kim and Kim 1999 ). But, this study about up-cycling practices in families showed that the degree of knowledge for up-cycling and practice of up-cycling have no direct relation.

On the other hand, it showed that the information of recycling materials and information about up-cycling weigh impact on practice of up-cycling. The knowledge about specific method could induce up-cycling, and when recognizing the information about securing of materials, skills for sewing machine, method to effectively use up-cycling product, the practice of up-cycling is positive. Most of participants telling the difficulty in up-cycling practice said ‘because of poorness in handling the instrument like a sewing machine’, and it matches with advanced study of Vining and Ebreo ( 1990 ) which compared the knowledge, motive, and demographic characteristics between recycling persons and non-recycling persons, saying that the more information and knowledge one has about recycling materials, method, recycling products, the more one is familiarized with recycling and frequent practice.

Dickson ( 2000 ) said about purchase behavior of up-cycling product that the more in understanding of up-cycling, the higher the interest in up-cycling product and the will to purchase, and the more they understand the ethical characteristics of product, the higher the trend to purchase that product. But this study showed that they purchase thinking that up-cycling product itself has better level than other existing product, design, and quality. Rather, they said that they became interested in up-cycling when purchasing up-cycling product and listening to the background story and materials of such product, even though they had no information about up-cycling.

Case of satisfaction/dissatisfaction of up-cycling in families

Satisfaction.

Scarcity Participants in the study mentioned the scarcity as the biggest value of up-cycling product. In particular, telling about the scarcity of materials, they said that it is the product made by recycling of wastes has scarcity, and it is attractive that it was uniquely made with unexpected materials. They said up-cycling product is fresh in standardized clothing, and it was an effective way to express their personalities.

Like this, up-cycling in families fostered productive spending upon necessity and subjectivity, not following the image made by others or society. And up-cycling product in families can express the originality of producers escaping from standardized ready-made product with analogue manufacturing style, and participants evaluated this as valuable with due to its handicraft characteristics and its scarcity.

‘It was really pretty to see what‘s made of unused jeans or bags, as it’s unique and original. It seems attractive to mend them according to the purpose we want. (Participant 12)’

‘Frankly, the clothes these days are really similar. They sell fashion product here and there all the same…. They all again make it when entertainers wear it. But, if I make mine as I want, it would be one and only, and it will cost less than the ones sold in the market. Participant 18)’

Emotional satisfaction It showed that up-cycling is a hobby and they get emotional satisfaction when searching for and being familiarized with new up-cycling method. They said that, as a hobby, up-cycling is relatively less in monetary burden and has merit to take it easy in daily life.

The course of searching for and planning up-cycling method could be the time to find ego and the relation with old articles and this led to emotional satisfaction. It is contrary to today‘s spending action which depends on fashion without identity, thus it could prevent abnormal hedonic spending.

‘First, I feel happy when I make this. Being idle at home, I get depressed, but when I do this I receive praise…. And it‘s like I’m pleased to see people liking what I made. (Participant 8)’

‘When there’s a lot of stress on my mind, I try to focus on making new articles while looking around my home, without minding anything. I can then forget worries, feeling myself as useful. It‘s a really good hobby for me. (Participant 26)’

‘Whenever I make up my mind at home, up-cycling is just doing it with things to be discarded. It‘s less in burden without big money. While unused things get accumulated at home… (Participant 25)’

Formation of affection Modern people had no reason to have affection to what they possess, as they easily buy things and discard them. But, participants said they got affection for clothes with up-cycling. They said they cannot easily discard up-cycling product they made and use them for a long time with affection.

‘As it is a necessary article that I made by myself, I get more attached to it. It‘s different from the articles I bought without thinking much. (Participant 27)’

Economic effect Practice of up-cycling brought economic effect. First, unnecessary spending is reduced as they can adjust spending desire through up-cycling, and it showed that there‘s economic saving effect because up-cycling re-uses articles to be discarded, such as using remaining cloth or clothes from past season.

‘Recycling at home, I feel like I‘m a smart housewife. Reducing waste and not discarding things…. (Participant 27)’

And up-cycling makes people share product with others, and further sell articles in citizen marketplace or open market with a much lower price, producing profits. Part of the proceeds from this sales go to food support project for alienated class, library program support project, causing much more positive economic effect, compared with a simple spending life.

Participants who affirmatively talked about economic effect were housewives. As they became interested in recycling and up-cycling, they said they developed a habit to look once more before discarding anything, and it helps in family budget through the reduction in purchase of articles. On the other hand, students in their 20s did not mention the economic benefits, but they have a rather negative recognition about spending for up-cycling. This, as a result, shows the difference in securing of up-cycling materials.

Dissatisfaction

Recognize time and energy as expenses Whereas they recognize the necessity and value of recycling and up-cycling in family clothing, they answered that too much energy and time is spent due to passive reason in practicing up-cycling. And compared with ready-made product minding on having spent time and energy, participants who think that buying ready-made product is much more economic was skeptic in practice of up-cycling.

‘Without hand skill I never think of or have courage to do it. I think it‘s better to buy cheap clothes, rather than putting so much effort (energy). It takes so long to make, and I can use them for a long time compared with not having much time. Buying necessary articles is fast and easy…. (Participant 6)’

‘Re-forming also becomes labor costly with the efforts, and nowadays labor costs are much too expensive. But, I think buying the clothes at shopping mall is convenient and cheaper and more effective. (Participant 12)’

Like this, participants understand positive effect of up-cycling, but short-term economy became an obstacle in families, they compared and chose economy for the time and energy cost of sustainability and up-cycling. The effect of sustainability should be understood in long-term view, and cheap product can be superior as families are more interested in direct and short-term economy. Therefore, it showed that emphasis only on long-term effect such as sustainability of up-cycling is difficult to activate up-cycling behaviors in families.

Methodological limit Participants who are afraid of in-person practice of up-cycling thought they should have sewing machine or specific skills for the practice of up-cycling, and were rather worried that their own practice of up-cycling could bring deterioration of quality, feeling burden in practice of up-cycling.

‘I am worried that I‘m not familiar with making things. I don’t dare touch it, thinking, what if I deteriorate the value when I fiddle with it. (Participant 21)’

Participants who think they have no hand skill or need specific skills for up-cycling of clothes were passive about up-cycling, but told their intention of participation, telling they need education program about up-cycling.

‘There‘s basic patterns in clothes. And it‘s like that some people are unable to re-form and don’t think of trying, as they can make use of lines and sense of wearing it, if they don‘t have pattern skills for it. (Participant 24)’

‘If there are much public programs for necessary skills for up-cycling, that is, sewing machine handling program, I‘d like to do it after learning them…. But, there‘s no such option for me. (Participant 11)’

And they showed negative opinion in repeated making of unnecessary product, as they practice only a simple method by ‘having materials’, ‘with limitation in making’, rather than practicing of up-cycling upon necessity. Beside this they talked about negative factors in practice, such as ‘space for up-cycling is insufficient’, ‘purchase new and side materials for up-cycling, as using of waste only is part when doing up-cycling’.

‘Doing up-cycling is not just using the things that are to be discarded, we should buy the materials for it. I’m not sure if I will wear it after doing up-cycling …. Then it’s ultimately a waste. (Participant 5)’

Limitation in quality We can see that quality dissatisfaction for recycling product was the biggest part, and the part of quality was the weakest in use of recycling product in the study of Choi et al. ( 2014 ). Participants in this study also talked about the quality in up-cycling product, many opinions were that they cannot utilize the function of product though they do up-cycling because of insufficient hand skills, or up-cycling product is ‘poor’, ‘unclean’, and that the quality gets deteriorated even with up-cycling due to weak durability as the product itself used for up-cycling material are produced according to fast-use and fast-discarding. Actually, the result of interview showed that they quality could be assured when the practice of up-cycling in families was commercialized with good-quality product materials, with high degree of satisfaction and long-term use.

And they answered that when doing up-cycling, the clothes were weak and unclean with trace of use in up-cycling material itself, falling the sense of satisfaction.

‘As it’s a good thing, I can do it once or twice. But, there‘s doubt if this is solid, and it was much insufficient in that aspect, because of feeling that up-cycling product was made by thinning out of something. (Participant 11)’

‘With many of SPA brand these days, doesn’t the re-forming itself with the cloth of SPA brand cause deterioration of quality? SPA brand is much thin and not very good in the cloth itself. The quality doesn’t look good as it is made so that the cycle rotates much too fast, and buying the cheap product in the market seems better than making something with such low price materials. (Participant 12)’

This study performed the research for the purpose of status of sustainable clothing and up-cycling in families. In particular, this study shared routine experiences of individuals in families in various ways through interaction of participants in comfortable atmosphere via group interview, and researcher suggested significant implication of such results by in-depth understanding of the attitude and experience of participants.

It showed that they lay stress on the practice of sustainable clothing in families, and make efforts for sustainable clothing in families, considering the family as subjective consumer. It showed that they make selective purchase of sustainable fashion products in families, washing and control for minimizing of environmental impact and energy consumption, and recycling and used articles trade, a way of life for sustainable clothing.

Participants talked about recycling as one of practice methods for sustainable clothing in families, in particular, up-cycling area expansion of sustainable clothing in families could be expected for ‘recycling of raised value’.

Participants thought that up-cycling would weigh positive impact on environment, and they could practice environmental sustainability by reducing wastes, as they actually do up-cycling with use of waste in families. And as up-cycling‘s way of life they practice qualitative consumption by reducing unnecessary spending, and further created earnings by selling up-cycling products made in families at citizen marketplace.

And up-cycling product is valuable with its scarcity, and could escape monotonous living by expressing their own personality, and enjoy high emotional satisfaction living as up-cycling becomes a hobby. Therefore, it showed that up-cycling raises cultural, social sustainability.

They said they cannot easily discard up-cycling product they made and use them for a long time with affection. Like this sustainable characteristics of up-cycling appeared in families, and it is thought that up-cycling will be helpful in creation of new values and developmental availability in sustainable clothing.

This study has its meaning that it raised the understanding of the attitude and aspect of sustainable clothing in families in psychological aspect, but has difficulty in generalization as it is a qualitative study targeting small group of participants. Therefore, quantitative research targeting large group of participants should be supported in future study.

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SS conducted a literature review and focus group interview, JK summarized the focus group interview results, and YN made the overall conclusion. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Shim, S., Kim, J. & Na, Y. An exploratory study on up-cycling as the sustainable clothing life at home. Fash Text 5 , 14 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40691-018-0129-1

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European Journal of Marketing

ISSN : 0309-0566

Article publication date: 27 February 2020

Issue publication date: 27 February 2020

The sustainable fashion (SF) literature is fragmented across the management discipline, leaving the path to a SF future unclear. As of yet, there has not been an attempt to bring these insights together or to more generally explore the question of “what is known about SF in the management literature and where could the SF field go from there?”. The purpose of this paper is to bring together the field to identify opportunities for societal impact and further research.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review was conducted from the first appearances of SF in the management literature in 2000 up to papers published in June 2019, which resulted in 465 included papers.

The results illustrate that SF research is largely defined by two approaches, namely, pragmatic change and radical change. The findings reveal seven research streams that span across the discipline to explore how organisational and consumer habits can be shaped for the future.

Research limitations/implications

What is known about SF is constantly evolving, therefore, the paper aims to provide a representative sample of the state of SF in management literature to date.

Practical implications

This review provides decision makers with insights that have been synthesised from across the management field.

Originality/value

This review identifies knowledge gaps and informs managerial decision making in the field, particularly through serving as a foundation for further research.

• Sustainable fashion
• Ethical fashion
• Marketing ethics
• Sustainable business models

Acknowledgements

The authors declare there are no conflicts of interest in this study.

Mukendi, A. , Davies, I. , Glozer, S. and McDonagh, P. (2020), "Sustainable fashion: current and future research directions", European Journal of Marketing , Vol. 54 No. 11, pp. 2873-2909. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-02-2019-0132

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47 Official Sustainable Fashion Statistics

Fast fashion brands that rose to prominence in the early 2000s are now under increasing scrutiny for the environmental damage they cause.

As a result, industry data shows a new wave of eco-conscious consumers are turning towards sustainable fashion brands instead.

Today we present the latest official sustainable fashion statistics , verified and updated for 2024.

Our research reveals the current state of the industry, the demand for clothes made from sustainable materials, and the projections for the future in this sector.

We also look at the scale of the waste, pollution, water consumption, and environmental damage caused by fast fashion, which demonstrates just why a change to sustainable clothing and circular business models is necessary.

Sustainable Fashion Industry Statistics

Sustainable fashion demographics, fast fashion environmental impact.

Sustainable fashion refers to brands that source, manufacture, distribute and sell their goods in a way that minimizes their environmental impact.

This might include reducing carbon emissions, using organic or recycled materials, biodegradable packaging, and paying workers a fair wage.

These sustainable fashion facts highlight an industry that has experienced rapid growth in recent years and can yield significant opportunities over the next decade.

How big is the sustainable fashion industry?

The sustainable fashion market has seen significant growth in recent years, as attitudes toward environmentalism have changed.

• The sustainable fashion industry is currently worth over $6.5 Billion.
• It is expected to grow to $10.1 Billion by 2025 . By 2030 that number is expected to hit $15 Billion.

Is sustainable fashion a growing industry?

Sustainable and ethical fashion has experienced rapid growth in recent years, and the rate of growth is projected to accelerate in the future.

• The average annual growth rate of the ethical fashion market is 8.3% . This could grow to 9.7% a year by 2030.
• Furthermore, products marketed as sustainable are expected to grow 5.6 times faster than those that were not.
• The Asia Pacific region accounts for 36% of the global ethical fashion market, the largest global share.

Is sustainable fashion profitable?

Sustainable fashion brands that can establish themselves as trusted names in this space have the potential to be profitable as well as do good.

There are significant opportunities in the eco-friendly and sustainable fashion market segments that indicate a genuine profit potential in the coming years.

• The eco-friendly clothing segment will grow by $1,574.2 million in global annual sales by 2025.
• The organic segment, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 16.2% , is expected to be the fastest-growing segment.
• The market for organic baby clothing was worth $1.79 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow to $2.81 billion by 2029.
• A transition to a sustainable textiles industry could create 18 million additional jobs globally by 2030.
• Solving the issues associated with fast fashion could provide a $192 billion boost to the global economy by 2030.

These statistics show us who is buying sustainable and ethical fashion (and also who is not, and why).

They also demonstrate a genuine demand for more "slow fashion" and the factors that are stopping more people from buying from sustainable brands.

What demographic buys the most fast fashion?

Statistics show that fast fashion brands do target particular demographics, and traditionally these brands have directed their advertising toward younger people.

Social media platforms, and the influencers that market products on them, have been one of the driving forces behind the growth of cheap, low-quality, and disposable clothes.

The data shows that the low prices associated with fast fashion often encourage multiple purchases. But overall sales in this sector are falling.

• Women under 35 are the largest target demographic for fast fashion retailers.
• 54% of people believe that social media influencers have been at least partly responsible for the rise in mass-produced clothing. This figure rises to 73% of people aged 18-24.
• 26% of people are inspired by family and friends when making their fashion choices, but 17% say they rely on Instagram , a figure that has more than doubled compared to 5 years ago.
• The average online purchase contained around 3 items at a time.
• However, 46% of fast fashion retailers reported a drop in sales since 2020.

What demographic buys the most sustainable fashion?

An increasing environmental awareness, especially amongst some younger people, has begun a shift away from fast fashion towards more ethical, sustainable, and environmentally friendly fashion.

Young and middle-aged men are most likely to stick solely to sustainable clothing brands , and those that do are also more likely to buy second-hand or recycled clothes .

• Men aged between 25 and 44 are most likely to say that they only buy sustainable fashion.
• 73% of British consumers who only buy sustainable brands are also happy to buy second-hand clothes.
• 75% of Gen Z respondents said they bought pre-owned clothes to reduce consumption.

Do Millennials care about sustainable fashion?

Despite generally having less disposable income, millennials are more likely to be willing to spend more on sustainable, environmentally conscious, upcycled clothing , and ethical fashion brands.

• 73% of Millennials say that they are willing to pay more for sustainable brands.

Do consumers want more sustainable fashion?

Yes, these 7 market research statistics show that there is substantial consumer demand for sustainable fashion.

However, some consumers are worried about greenwashing in this space, and others don't know where to find sustainable clothing.

• 72% of US consumers are aware of sustainability and environmental issues surrounding the fashion industry.
• 55% of US consumers are interested in buying sustainable clothing.
• However, 48% do not know where to find sustainable clothing brands.
• 69% of Vogue readers consider sustainability to be an important factor when deciding on a new fashion purchase.
• 38% of consumers say that one of their main priorities is for fashion brands to reduce their impact on the environment.
• 38% of Vogue readers buy as much sustainable fashion as possible, and a further 46% say that they sometimes buy. Only 2% are not interested in making sustainable purchases.
• ⅓ of US consumers would buy all their clothing at a sustainable store if they knew where to find one.

It's no secret that there are serious environmental concerns around the way the fashion industry currently operates .

But how bad is it, and what might happen if the sustainable fashion revolution does not take off? These statistics lay bare the truth, and some of it is worse than you might expect.

How much pollution does the fashion industry produce?

These statistics show the extent to which the fashion industry contributes to both water pollution and climate change.

• Fashion is considered to be the second-highest polluting industry in the world.
• The fashion industry is responsible for 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions each year. It produces around 4% of total global greenhouse gas emissions - more than shipping and aviation combined.
• Around 70% of the fashion industry’s emissions came from upstream activities (these include the production of materials, preparation, and processing).
• 20% of global freshwater pollution is caused by textile treatment and dyeing.
• The carbon footprint of the clothing industry could be reduced by 63% by switching to renewable clean energy sources.
• If no further action is taken over the next decade, the industry’s GHG emissions are likely to rise to around 2.7 billion tonnes a year by 2030, reflecting an annual volume growth rate of 2.7%.
• At its current rate, the fashion industry will use up 26% of the entire global carbon budget (based on a 2 degree scenario) by 2050.
• Making fashion a circular economy could reduce 33% of the CO2 emissions associated with textile production.

How much waste is due to fast fashion?

The statistics demonstrate that fast fashion encourages overproduction, overbuying, and therefore massive amounts of textile waste.

• Between 80 and 100 billion new clothing garments are produced every year.
• Global clothing production in 2000 was double what it was in 2014.
• 87% of the materials and fibers used to make clothing will end up in either incinerators or landfills.
• That’s one truckload every second .
• Only 1% of clothes will get recycled into new garments.
• In the average UK household, ⅓ of clothes have not been worn in the last year.

Why is fast fashion unsustainable?

The fast fashion industry is driven by profits and very rarely uses sustainable materials in its products. Instead, these fashion companies create garments using non-renewable resources which, by their very definition, cannot be sustainable.

They also exploit workers in their supply chain who are subjected to unacceptable working conditions and do not get a fair wage.

• The textile industry uses 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources every year.
• 60% of all clothing materials are derived from plastic, which is made from fossil fuels. These include nylon, acrylic, and polyester.
• 93% of fashion companies still do not pay their workers a living wage.

How does fast fashion affect water pollution?

The data clearly shows that the fashion sector does not as a whole use sustainable practices, and does a huge amount of damage to our rivers and oceans.

• Textile production uses 93 billion cubic meters of water every year.
• The fashion industry is responsible for 20% of total wastewater globally.
• Textile dyeing is the second-largest polluter of water globally, behind only oil.
• It takes 2,000 gallons of water to make just one pair of jeans.
• Synthetic man-made fibers account for 35% of microplastics released into our oceans.

It's no secret that the fashion industry is under a huge amount of public pressure over the negative environmental impact of its carbon emissions, water consumption, and pollution.

But is that fair, and is sustainable fashion the answer?

These sustainable fashion statistics should allow you to come to your own conclusion based on evidence rather than opinion.

Are you concerned about the environmental and health impact of synthetic fibers? Would you be prepared to pay more for clothing made from sustainable raw materials such as organic cotton? Would you go further and buy garments made from recycled plastic or fibers, or even shop second-hand?

The data shows that for an increasing number of consumers, the answer is yes.

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Textile recycling and buying secondhand can keep fabric waste and used clothes out of landfills. | iStock/undrey

A bit of retail therapy can feel like harmless fun. Yet getting a great deal on a new shirt or pair of shoes may come with a hidden price tag: greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and the mistreatment of workers and animals. The average cotton T-shirt, for example, requires about 700 gallons of water to make. A fast-fashion polyester top is made from petroleum, sheds microfibers, and may spend decades decomposing in a landfill.

And the apparel industry’s footprint has been expanding. Global fiber production has more than doubled since 2000, and consumers are buying more clothes as fast-fashion brands churn out inexpensive looks. To mitigate the environmental and social issues associated with the apparel industry, companies and consumers alike must shift toward sustainability, says Barchi Gillai , the associate director of the Value Chain Innovation Initiative (VCII) at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “It’s a responsibility that all of us share,” she says.

In a new white paper , Gillai and her colleagues examine the production processes behind three essential everyday materials: polyester, cotton, and leather. Coauthored by Hau Lee , VCII’s faculty codirector and a professor emeritus of operations, information, and technology; Jessica Landzberg , MBA ’23; and Nina Sabharwal , MBA ’23, the paper explores each material’s unique impacts and details potential solutions.

Polyester is a durable, lightweight material composed of fibers made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is derived from fossil fuels. The production of polyester and other synthetic fibers requires large amounts of energy, accounting for about 1.35% of global oil consumption. This results in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Possible solutions to these problems include switching to renewable energy and substituting virgin polyester with alternative materials such as biosynthetics and fibers that utilize carbon dioxide waste.

The cotton supply chain starts on a farm instead of a factory, but it also has a unique set of environmental impacts. Cotton cultivation often involves a variety of pesticides that can cause serious health issues in farm workers and contaminate freshwater systems, soil, and animal habitats. Cotton also consumes large amounts of water. To address these issues, cotton growers can implement non-chemical methods of pest control such as crop rotation and conserve water through drip irrigation.

Leather production has also grown over the past three decades. One of the primary concerns surrounding leather goods is animal cruelty. To ensure ethical sourcing of raw hides, brands can utilize certification programs that verify the humane treatment of farm animals. However, acquiring raw materials is only the first step in leather production. Transforming these raw hides into wearable fabrics requires several chemical-heavy processes, many of them relying on toxic materials. Moreover, 30%-45% of the toxic chromium used in the tanning process is not absorbed in the leather, and can potentially contaminate the environment when it is discarded. Finally, as much as 75% of the leather that enters the production process of leather goods does not end up in the finished product. Rather, these scraps and leftovers will likely be sent to landfills or incinerated.

Slowing down fast fashion

A garment’s impact continues even after it has been sold. Used garments often wind up in landfills or incinerators, wasting potentially valuable and non-renewable resources, and releasing greenhouse gases as they decay. The paper offers a range of strategies that clothing brands can adopt to increase the lifespans of garments and improve their reusability and recyclability. For instance, high-quality garments with timeless designs may be enjoyed for many years. Switching to single-material composition can make fabrics easier to recycle. And garments made from 100% natural materials are more suitable for composting.

Unfortunately, some of the available solutions that address a problem in one part of a product’s life cycle might lead to unwanted consequences later on. For example, while producing polyester from recycled PET uses less oil, fabrics made from these materials tend to release more microfibers into the environment. “We’ve seen quite a few of those solutions that are helpful in one respect, but also have some drawbacks to them,” Gillai says. “It’s therefore important to figure out the total environmental impact of any solution we consider implementing.” The paper recommends that manufacturers use life-cycle assessments to help them choose solutions that offer the most positive impact throughout a garment’s lifespan.

While some companies have taken steps in the right direction, the apparel industry as a whole is showing no signs of becoming more sustainable. This is largely due to the popularity of “fast fashion”: low-quality garments with frequently-changing designs that are mass produced for little cost and viewed by consumers as almost disposable. The rise of fast fashion has fueled a surge in garment production, leading to an increase in textile waste.

The paper encourages companies to find new ways to generate revenue without producing more garments. One option is to start garment collection or buyback programs in conjunction with opening secondhand stores where consumers can purchase pre-owned items at a discount. “Slowing down the rate of production doesn’t have to come at the expense of profitability,” Gillai says.

Gillai also highlights the importance of textile-to-textile recycling. “Such closed-loop, garment-to-garment recycling solutions not only keep textile waste out of landfills, but also reduce the amount of resources that we use to make clothes, as well as the pollution associated with these production processes.”

While much of the paper describes how companies can practice sustainability, it ends with a discussion of the important role played by consumers. “To achieve meaningful results it is crucial for consumers to take a part in this effort,” Gillai says. “Try to donate items that are still wearable. Consider buying secondhand clothes. And think of renting items needed for a special occasion,” she advises. “If we embrace the need for change and if our shopping habits reflect this understanding, then we can help drive change in this industry.”

Sustainable Fashion Consumption

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There are so many ways the fashion industry is harming the planet. Pesticides used to grow crops to make natural fabrics like cotton are reducing biodiversity . Toxic dyes pollute waterways . Fossil fuels are used to make synthetic fibres, often woven into cheap clothes bought by the armful and worn just a few times before they are discarded . This kind…

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Fast fashion is harming our planet — these 4 tips can help you build a more sustainable wardrobe

Assistant Professor of Consumer Sciences, Université Laval

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Maryse Côté-Hamel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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As sunny summer days return in the northern hemisphere, you may be looking to refresh your wardrobe. The allure of a whole “new you” is pervasive, and the foundation of many a successful marketing campaign.

Indeed, as the weather changes and we spend more time outdoors, you may need lighter summer clothing. However, before you run out to H&M, it is worth considering how you can sustainably add to your wardrobe while limiting its carbon footprint.

Sustainably adding to your wardrobe involves questioning your needs and taking your time shopping for each piece to understand how and where it was made — the antithesis of the fast fashion which has come to dominate global shopping trends.

These four tips can help you build a more sustainable wardrobe.

No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

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Fast becoming unsustainable

Fast fashion refers to the rapid production and distribution of clothing to reflect the latest trends. Since the early 1990s, technological improvements, lower costs of production and streamlined supply chains have significantly shortened fashion cycles. Clothes today can be made and sold to consumers at a low price within just a few weeks of being designed.

Two seasons — autumn/winter and spring/summer — were common in the Western fashion industry just a few decades ago. Nowadays, some retailers offer tens of small seasons a year . This constant churning of trends pushes consumers to update their wardrobes frequently by encouraging disposability .

While easier on the wallet, the consequences of the fast fashion industry are myriad. According to the United Nations Environment Programme , the global fast fashion-dominated clothing and textile sector is responsible for two to eight per cent of all global carbon emissions and nine per cent of annual microfibre pollution to oceans.

In addition, fast fashion uses about 215 trillion litres of water annually, the equivalent of 86 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. Moreover, workers are often exploited in inhuman conditions for little pay while shareholders pocket skyrocketing profits.

In response to these criticisms, a growing number of fast-fashion retailers, such as H&M and Zara , are claiming to take steps towards reducing their environmental footprint. These outlets claim, for instance, that they have replaced synthetic fibres and polyester, made from oil and petroleum, with natural and recycled ones.

However, the ubiquity of greenwashing across the fashion industry makes it hard to tell if these claims have any weight.

Sustainable shopping?

In the face of such serious concerns, how can anyone hope to shop sustainably?

The first, and in many ways most crucial, step is to simply commit to slowing down your approach to fashion itself by embracing sustainable fashion and shopping ethically to help put the brakes on overproduction and overconsumption .

1 - Buy less, buy better: While forgoing shopping or opting for hand-me-down and secondhand options is preferable to buying new from a sustainability standpoint, such avenues may not always be possible. Therefore, try and buy fewer items of a higher-quality from sustainably conscious brands . Being careful with where, and what, you purchase can help limit the negative environmental and societal impacts of our clothing purchases.

However, most fashion retailers do not control the entire supply chain and, thus, cannot guarantee the sustainability of their clothing . This means consumers must be diligent when shopping and make informed choices themselves.

Recycling and clothing rental are valid options, however, it is worth noting that textile recycling can be expensive and not without environmental impact in terms of both materials and carbon footprint.

If you do opt for a clothing rental service, then avoid using online services that rely on delivery. Likewise, if you must purchase your clothes online, then avoid fast fashion sites like Temu in favour of buying directly from manufacturers you trust.

2 - Repair, reuse and recycle : Prolonging clothing life by wearing pieces over several years and mending it when required, rather than throwing it away, can also be a great way to reduce the environmental footprint of your wardrobe . Even paying for a pair of jeans to be professionally repaired will likely be considerably cheaper than buying new — saving you money in the long-run.

Patagonia, a California-based outdoor gear retailer, encourages consumers to “repair, reuse, and recycle” items. They practice what they preach, using materials, among others, made of recycled bottles since 1993 .

Read more: Giving Canadians the 'right to repair' empowers consumers, supports competition and benefits the environment

The French government recently introduced a country-wide program to subsidize clothes and shoe repairs with the aim to reduce the amount of clothing thrown away. Check to see if your area has similar programs and petition for their creation if not.

3 - Prioritize natural fibres: Opt for natural fibres such as organic cotton, linen, silk, hemp and bamboo. Ideally, clothing should be durable, locally manufactured and made from fair-trade, sustainably sourced natural materials .

While natural fibres are ideal for everyday clothing, synthetic high-performance materials are essential in athletic wear or water-resistent outdoor apparel that can withstand the elements. Recycled materials and other “circular” manufacturing processes should be sought out for these needs where possible.

4 - Choose simple, timeless pieces : Clothing, such as jeans, should be worn for as long as possible and be made from safe, recycled or renewable materials . The design of the garment should also be minimal. For instance, distressed jeans require the use of several toxic chemicals to give them their worn-out appearance.

Forgo ever-changing trends — such as the short-lived Regencycore or Barbiecore — and add to your wardrobe slowly. Make sure that every item you buy is a good fit and aligns with your current lifestyle.

Read more: Microplastics and nanoplastics have been found throughout the human body – how worried should we be?

In today’s world of high turnover fast fashion, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed or despondent at the relative lack of sustainable options. However, it is possible to add to your wardrobe sustainably by questioning your needs and taking your time shopping for each piece to understand how and where it was made.

In time, you may even come to appreciate a smaller well-curated wardrobe of timeless pieces that you can wear for years, and not just a few weeks.

• Climate change
• Biodiversity
• Human rights
• Global warming
• Consumerism
• Microplastics
• labour rights
• Fast fashion
• Eco fashion
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Sustainable fashion: conceptualization, purchase determinants, and willingness to pay more.

1. Introduction

2. literature review, 2.1. what is sustainable fashion, 2.2. the impact of traditional fashion, 2.3. principles of sustainable fashion, 2.4. key purchasing determinants of sustainable fashion, 2.4.1. consumer knowledge, 2.4.2. environmental beliefs, 2.4.3. willingness to pay more, 2.4.4. purchase intention, 2.5. the impact of price on sustainable fashion purchases, 3. conceptual model, research hypotheses and research proposition, 4. methodology, 4.1. sample and sampling, 4.2. questionnaire structure, sections and scales, 5.1. results for what sustainable fashion means to consumers, 5.2. results from the pls-sem, 5.2.1. measurement model, 5.2.2. structural model, 5.2.3. multigroup analysis, 5.3. results for willingness to pay how much more, results for how much do consumers value sustainable fashion, 6. discussion, conclusions, limitations, contributions, and future research, 6.1. a discussion of the results, 6.2. research conclusions, 6.3. limitations, 6.4. future research, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Pires, P.B.; Morais, C.; Delgado, C.J.M.; Santos, J.D. Sustainable Fashion: Conceptualization, Purchase Determinants, and Willingness to Pay More. Adm. Sci. 2024 , 14 , 143. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14070143

Pires PB, Morais C, Delgado CJM, Santos JD. Sustainable Fashion: Conceptualization, Purchase Determinants, and Willingness to Pay More. Administrative Sciences . 2024; 14(7):143. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14070143

Pires, Paulo Botelho, Cláudia Morais, Catarina J. M. Delgado, and José Duarte Santos. 2024. "Sustainable Fashion: Conceptualization, Purchase Determinants, and Willingness to Pay More" Administrative Sciences 14, no. 7: 143. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci14070143

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Sustainability should be ‘default’ for companies, most americans believe.

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Two-thirds of Americans believe sustainability should be the “default” for companies, according to new research.

The survey of 2,000 general population Americans revealed that 67% believe sustainable products and services should be the standard for companies, not something they need to search for.

And 44% would go so far as to remove unsustainable options from the market entirely — saying companies shouldn’t be able to sell them.

Commissioned by  Avocado Green Mattress  and conducted by Talker Research, the survey revealed 71% would like to see more regulations in place, to ensure products and services are sustainable.

This may stem, in part, from failed attempts to be sustainable in the past: 32% have purchased something from a company they thought was sustainable, only to find out later that it wasn’t.

Twenty-two percent even admit they’ve “given up” trying to purchase a sustainable product or service because of how difficult it was to find.

Despite the difficulties they might face, the survey found respondents have a desire to be sustainable.

Ten percent said they “always” purchase sustainable options; for those who don’t always do so, 73% said they’d like to do so more frequently.

The expense of sustainable options was the No. 1 thing stopping respondents from purchasing them more often (57%), followed by difficulty in telling what’s actually sustainable (48%).

Respondents also said a lack of availability (30%) stops them from purchasing sustainable options — and others don’t have time to research what is and is not sustainable (26%).

The survey asked respondents if they felt knowledgeable about different sustainability and ethical certifications for products or companies: 9% said they’re “very knowledgeable,” while 29% said “somewhat knowledgeable.”

“Certifications not only protect human health by ensuring quality and safety standards but also protect our environment by verifying sustainable sourcing, manufacturing and business practices,” said Christine Carpio, Sr. Manager, Community + Social Impact. “They can also help guide customers to choose brands dedicated to creating products that are better for people and the planet, ensuring our choices today resonate responsibly tomorrow.”

Half of respondents (51%) were “extremely” or “very” likely to purchase something when it had a certification they were familiar with.

But just the presence of a certification impacts respondents: 22% said even if they’re unfamiliar with the specific certification, seeing it would make them “extremely” or “very” likely to make the purchase.

The survey put Americans’ knowledge of certifications to the test — and found respondents might have more to learn.

When provided several definitions and asked which described “Certified B Corporation,” only 17% of respondents selected the correct answer: A company meets high standards of verified performance, accountability and transparency.

And they were less knowledgeable about “Green America” — only 6% correctly said it means, “A company is committed to using business as a platform for social change.”

On the other hand, 34% were familiar with the “Forest Stewardship Council” certification: selecting the right option, “Products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits.”

“Greenwashing is a challenge. In reality, most brands don’t have the certifications or environmental credentials to back up their claims,” said Laura Scott, Director of Brand Marketing. “Certifications can help consumers determine whether a brand is trustworthy or if they’re being duped by false advertising.”

Survey methodology:

This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 general population Americans was commissioned by Avocado Green Mattress between June 20 and June 24, 2024. It was conducted by market research company  Talker Research , whose team members are members of the Market Research Society ( MRS ) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research ( ESOMAR ).

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Luxury travel and fashion meet for seychelles’ manta ray awareness.

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The collaboration will be a bespoke collection of limited-edition swim trunks that are designed to ... [+] increase awareness about Seychelles’ incredible manta rays and to protect our oceans.

Luxury adventure-travel specialist, Explorations Company , has announced a partnership with luxury British swimwear company, LOVE BRAND & Co. The collaboration will be a bespoke collection of limited-edition swim trunks that are designed to increase awareness about Seychelles’ incredible manta rays and to protect our oceans.

The exclusive ‘ Which Way To The Tropics ’ collection, inspired by the majestic manta ray and cerulean waters of the Indian Ocean, will feature two designs by Founder and CEO of LOVE BRAND & Co., Oliver Tomalin. The collection’s goal is to support marine conservation and research efforts in the Seychelles and the vital work being done as part of the Seychelles Manta Ray Project (SMRP).

Manta ray populations have suffered drastic declines around the world over the past decades as a result of by-catch and targeted fishing practices. As mantas grow and reproduce slowly, the impact of these unsustainable pressures on global populations has put them at risk of extinction. In the Seychelles, mantas are not currently impacted by such targeted fishing efforts, largely due to the remote and isolated nature of their gatherings. The resident populations in the Outer Islands of the Seychelles archipelago therefore represent an exciting opportunity to understand more about this enigmatic species, and to develop effective conservation strategies to protect them from future threats both regionally and across the Indian Ocean.

The SMRP was established in 2013 by the Save Our Seas Foundation and The Manta Trust and, in partnership with The Alphonse Foundation, has now identified 470+ individual manta rays over the past decade using photographs of the unique pattern of spots present on the belly of each manta. Research efforts by the SMRP to better understand the population size, movement patterns, and connectivity of manta rays across the Seychelles have also included satellite and acoustic tagging studies, and investigations into the feeding ecology at aggregation sites, all of which have served to highlight important habitats for the species in the archipelago, including behaviours unique to different atolls.

Guests visiting the Seychelles with Explorations Company are encouraged to experience (and play a ... [+] part in) the crucial work being carried out for the manta rays.

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Through the promotion of its research efforts alongside sustainable ecotourism, the SMRP is expanding its understanding of the biology and conservation needs of mantas in order to protect them through developing informed, local area-based management and national policy such as Marine Protected Areas. Guests visiting the Seychelles with Explorations Company are encouraged to experience (and play a part in) the crucial work being carried out here, participating in weekly manta surveys, swimming with mantas and better understanding the behaviours of these magnificent, charismatic creatures.

“We are delighted to partner with the impact-led luxury travel brand, Explorations Company. With a shared love of luxury travel and shared values and respect for the natural world, our collaborative print ‘Which Way to The Tropics’ highlights the ongoing need to protect our oceans, and the breath-taking world within them. We are happy to support the brilliant conservation and research efforts of the Seychelles Manta Ray Project alongside our friends at Explorations Company, through this collaboration,” says Oliver Tomalin, Founder and CEO of LOVE BRAND & Co.

“Conscious travel that allows one to make a direct contribution to the region is at the core of what we do at Explorations Company. We’re committed to protecting our planet and therefore it’s a joy to join forces with a like-minded, responsible brand like LOVE BRAND & Co. to help raise awareness of the brilliant work currently being undertaken as part of the Seychelles Manta Ray Project. Not only do we love this capsule collection, we hope future clients will (love and) get to wear it when they travel with us to magical destinations like the Seychelles, where we offer the opportunity to be involved in such projects, making a positive contribution all whilst enjoying oneself on holiday,” says Nicola Shepherd, Founder of Explorations Company.

The collection’s goal is to support marine conservation and research efforts in the Seychelles and ... [+] the vital work being done as part of the Seychelles Manta Ray Project (SMRP).

As part of Explorations Company’s commitment to philanthropic travel and in support of the critical work undertaken by the foundation and sister projects, for each trip booked to the Seychelles through Explorations Company, the firm will donate 2.5% of the trip value (over the next 12 months) to the Alphonse Foundation for the Seychelles Manta Ray Project. Likewise, LOVE BRAND & Co. has pledged to donate a minimum of over $1,000 USD this year.

‘Which Way To The Tropics’ collection features men’s and children’s swim shorts with two designs. It will be available across Love Brand & Co boutiques from 10 July 2024 and available to purchase online from 12 July 2024.

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