The Fast Fashion Dilemma
How can companies promote sustainability, when they still pursue sales and popularity among consumers?
Clothing has become a crucial aspect of our self-expression, over the years the fashion industry has expanded and evolved, providing its loyal consumers with a never-ending supply of pieces to choose from. Being stylish, dressing in accordance with your environment, making a statement or simply putting on something comfortable – the fashion industry is ready to respond to any of your requests. Starting from the 1980s the shortening of the clothing’s life cycle started to occur rapidly (Pérez-Bou and Cantista, 2023), introducing the concept of ‘Fast Fashion’, which is almost inseparable from our daily consumption habits nowadays. Moreover, in the period from 1994 to 2014 the production of clothing had increased by 400%.
Before we move any further, the main characteristics of fast fashion must be outlined. The name is self-explanatory, the ‘fast’ nature is present in both production, consumption, and disposal of clothing. Fast fashion implies cheap and quickly made clothing, which represent current fashion trends, and which is doomed to have a short period of usage, as the trends change, and the initial poor quality of the garments speedily deteriorates. Fast fashion poses two extreme threats to our environment, in causing astronomical amounts of clothing waste and in fostering unethical and unsustainable means of production. The former can be illustrated by the fact that nearly 450,000 tons of clothing are exported from the US annually to the low and middle-income countries and later distributed among second-hand stores. Some fast fashion companies, such as Zara, Gap and H&M have been involved in the processes of cutting or burning their old clothing to prevent them from being resold or recycled. The latter is connected to the environmentally challenging process of producing the garments. Even natural fabrics, such as cotton, require copious amounts of water, energy, and chemicals to be manufactured and dyed.
Following such devastating impacts of the fashion industry on our environment various activists and companies have started to express their concerns in search for effective solutions. A recent study by Kaner and Baruh, involving focus groups from Turkish clothing buyers, identified the crucial aspect of sustainable literacy, which is required to navigate the overcrowded information pool concerning environmental topics (Kaner and Baruh, 2022).
The attitude-behavior gap shows consumers’ lack of awareness of sustainable options, difficulties to process the proposed ideas and even lack of trust in sustainable promises. Such problems reflect both the ecological impact and the social aspects of sustainability. During the analysis of the focus groups’ responses 5 sustainability focus points in relation to clothing production were identified: (1) materials and production procedure; (2) environmental impact, such as the carbon footprint of clothing production; (3) animal welfare; (4) human welfare; (5) post-purchase product care (Kaner and Baruh, 2022).
In addition, 4 consumers’ personas were introduced: (1) romantic optimists, who have a strong belief of small changes contributing to the bigger picture; (2) egocentrics, who adopt in environmentally friendly practices only if such change benefits them directly; (3) confused Alecs, who even though being the most educated and sustainable group, feel the burden of climate crises the most and are doubting their extensive knowledge; (4) finally, the gloomies, who are highly pessimistic about the impact of any activism or actions (Kaner and Baruh, 2022).
As a following, each of the 4 personas requires a special approach when it comes to receiving any information on the sustainable alternatives and environmental problems (Kaner and Baruh, 2022):
Romantic optimists are easily responsive to the emotional appeal and positive reinforcement of their actions.
Egocentrics want to know how much and in what ways they can benefit from purchasing more sustainable products. In example, receiving tangible information about the higher quality, longer use time etc.
Confused Alecs value credited and digestible information, they value transparency about the means of production, the used material, and human resources.
Gloomies prefer to be informed about a clear impact, the exact actions’ consequences.
The overall pool of consumers is diverse and complex in its composition, which can make it hard for producers to identify strategies of promoting their products. When it comes to sustainability, the responsibility is often placed on the consumer, often the production companies will try to make their actions less harmful due to political pressure. In example, the study claims that under the influence of international agreements, such as the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action (2018), or the Fashion Pact (2019), various fast fashion brands turned to more sustainable fabrics or organized special campaigns in collaboration with environmental organizations (Pérez-Bou and Cantista, 2023).
However, there is still the gap between sustainable behavior of consumers and the sustainable behavior of firms. Producers want their products to be bought, while conscious consumers want to slow down the consumption. We are left with two conflicting behaviors, producers substitute their promotion to consume with the promotion to still consume, but this time – their more sustainable options. This creates uncertainty, and makes certain buyers, for example the ‘gloomies’, to remain skeptical about the validity of firms’ claims.
The question remains: how can companies promote sustainability, when they still pursue sales and popularity among consumers? We propose that the answer may be found in the cultivation of post-purchase product care, as well as collaborative clothing consumption (Brand, Jacobs and Taljaard-Swart, 2023). To be truly sustainable, companies should try to educate their buyers on how to take care of their products. Such simple instructions as the temperature of the wash, ironing and sewing up holes can be overlooked by consumers, even if they are always present on the clothing tags. People can be reluctant to follow such recommendations due to their busy schedules, lack of knowledge and easy access to new products to substitute the worn-out pieces. However, we believe that if companies invest more time in the creative and educational guides on taking care of their products, a large share of clothing waste can be reduced. Moreover, such attention to the clothing pieces gives greater value to it as a product, inevitably making it more attractive to the consumers. Companies may adopt such tempting slogans as: “This party top will continue to get you compliments throughout multiple parties!”, “Even if you get tired of our piece, you will not be ashamed to pass it on to your siblings”, or anything of this sort.
Products, which are handled with care can live longer, this brings us to the second tool, which is collaborative clothing consumption. In a recent tiktok by a fashion and lifestyle creator Lindsey Rem (Tiktok: @lindseyrem), she tells us how each year her and her sister exchange certain pieces from their wardrobes, which adds diversity to their style by simply making them not get tired of the clothing they already own. This easy practice makes a great difference in terms of reducing fashion waste. Producers can also appeal to such practice since it does not cut out consumption completely but makes the usage of the product more prolonged. A company can state: “Better worn together! Buy this piece in two colors for yourself and your loved one, wear and share”. It can help to build a stronger brand identity by appealing to friendship, relationships, and family.
We can observe how various studies have outlined types of consumers, and the best ways for producers and organizations to communicate with them to promote and maintain sustainable goals. Various solutions lay on the surface and do not require complex strategies: being transparent and striving to change for the better is a great start and will be appreciated by many. We believe promoting post-purchase care and collaborative clothing consumption can benefit both the planet and the producers, their clothing is still bought and is worn longer. Such a compromise can contribute tremendously to the mitigation of the climate crisis.
The climate crisis can cause anxiety and lead to inaction. Many climate activists and even regular citizens experience doom connected to the negative impacts of human-made activity on the planet. However, staying educated and updated on the sustainable alternatives makes a meaningful difference. Each step towards sustainability, even if it seems small, is valuable. Once again, clothing is a great form of self-expression, and what can be a better testament of one’s character than being caring and creative with the clothing you buy and wear.
by Vladislava Kuz
References
Brand, S., Jacobs, B. and Taljaard-Swart, H. (2023) ‘I rent, swap or buy second-hand – comparing antecedents for online collaborative clothing consumption models’, International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, pp. 1–13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17543266.2023.2180541.
Kaner, G. and Baruh, L. (2022) ‘How to speak “sustainable fashion”: four consumer personas and five criteria for sustainable fashion communication’, International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, 15(3), pp. 385–393. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17543266.2022.2078891.
Pérez-Bou, S. and Cantista, I. (2023) ‘Politics, sustainability and innovation in fast fashion and luxury fashion groups’, International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education, 16(1), pp. 46–56. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17543266.2022.2113153.