1st Edition

Eco-Friendly and Fair Fast Fashion and Consumer Behaviour

Edited By Mark Heuer, Carolin Becker-Leifhold Copyright 2018

    The make-take-waste paradigm of fast fashion explains much of the producer and consumer behavior patterns towards fast fashion. The evolution from a two-season fashion calendar to fast fashion, characterized by rapid product cycles from retailers and impulse buying by consumers, presents new challenges to the environment, workplace and labour practices.

    This book provides a comprehensive overview of new insights into consumer behaviour mechanisms in order to shift practices toward sustainable fashion and to minimize the negative impacts of fast fashion on the environment and society. Concepts and techniques are presented that could overcome the formidable economic drivers of fast fashion and lead toward a future of sustainable fashion.

    While the need for change in the fashion industry post-Rana Plaza could not be more obvious, alternative and more sustainable consumption models have been under-investigated. The paucity of such research extends to highly consumptive consumer behaviours regarding fast fashion (i.e. impulse buying and throwaways) and the related impediments these behaviours pose for sustainable fashion.

    Written by leading researchers in the field of sustainable fashion and supported by the Textile Institute, this book evaluates fashion trends, what factors have led to new trends and how the factors supporting fast fashion differ from those of the past. It explores the economic drivers of fast fashion and what social, environmental and political factors should be maintained, and business approaches adopted, in order for fast fashion to be a sustainable model. In particular, it provides consumer behaviour concepts that can be utilized at the retail level to support sustainable fashion.

    Introduction

    Section 1 - The Fast Fashion Phenomena and Its Consequences from a Sustainability Point of View

    Chapter 1: Rana Plaza as a threat to the fast fashion model? An analysis of institutional responses to the disaster in Germany

    Chapter 2: Evaluating fast fashion: examining the micro and the macro perspective

    Section 2 - Fast Fashion and the Consumer

    Chapter 3: Mind the gap; fashion consumers’ intentions and behaviors

    Chapter 4: Drivers and obstacles of ethical fashion consumption

    Chapter 5: Knowing better, but behaving emotionally: strong emotional undertone in the fast fashion consumption

    Chapter 6: From myopia to boycott: consumer acceptance of, and resistance to, fast fashion

    Chapter 7: Enabling sustainable behaviours through M-Commerce app design: focus on the fast fashion industry

    Section 3: Alternative Models for a Sustainable Fashion Consumption

    Chapter 8: Consumer colour and style preferences: a new approach to tackling the textile waste conundrum

    Chapter 9: Looking backwards and forwards in sustainable fashion: comparison of two social enterprises to circulate used clothes

    Chapter 10: Innovative sustainability in South Asian garment supply chains: the case of MAS Holdings in Sri Lanka

    Chapter 11: Sustainable fashion: a hybrid business model for social, economic, and environmental responsibility in Haiti

    Chapter 12: Product service systems: a viable business model for fashion brands?

    Chapter 13: Redirecting the fashion industry toward eco-effective practices

    Chapter 14: To wear or to own? Influences of values on the attitudes toward and the engagement in collaborative fashion consumption

    Section 4: Supply Chain Insights

    Chapter 15: Evaluating social transparency in global fashion supply chains

    Chapter 16: A for Fabrics: Innovation and waste prevention

    Chapter 17: From sustainable sourcing to sustainable consumption: the case of DBL Group in Bangladesh

    Conclusion

    Biography

    Carolin Becker-Leifhold studied Business Administration and Sustainability Management. Since 2015 she has worked as a research assistant at the University of Ulm, Germany, in a third-party project for sustainability in the textile industry. She is also a PhD student at the University of Ulm and is writing her PhD thesis about ​​Sharing Economy and collaborative clothing consumption.

    Mark Heuer is an Associate Professor of Management at the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University, USA. Mark previously held positions in the governmental, nonprofit, and private sectors for over 30 years. His research interests include sustainability, social issues management, and national culture.