Sustainable fashion consumption and the fast fashion conundrum: fashionable consumers and attitudes to sustainability in clothing choice

TLDR

The fashion industry has begun to adopt sustainability and ethical production, yet consumer uptake remains low and conflicts with fast‑fashion preferences. This study investigates fashion consumers’ attitudes toward sustainable and ethical clothing and how these attitudes influence their purchasing behavior. Applying a developmental theory model, consumers were grouped into Self, Social, and Sacrifice categories, each with distinct views on fast fashion that suggest tailored marketing strategies are needed.

Abstract

Abstract The fashion industry has recently heeded the call for sustainability and ethically sound production. There has been, however, a reluctant uptake of these products with many consumers and a seeming conflict with existing ‘fast fashion’ desires in this area. This study explores the attitudes of fashion consumers toward sustainable products, ethical fashion purchasing and their subsequent behaviour. The research applies the developmental theory model to a fashion context, finding fashion consumers can be categorized into one of three groups: ‘Self’ consumers, concerned with hedonistic needs, ‘Social’ consumers, concerned with social image and ‘Sacrifice’ consumers who strive to reduce their impact on the world. These different groups view fast fashion in conflicting ways and subsequent implications for marketing sustainably produced fashion products to each group are, thus, significantly different.