Changing Consumer Based Fashion Industry

Accordingly, we have researched that the sustainable fashion is a growing trend in recent years and growing number of millennials are interested in the sustainable fashion market. More importantly, we anticipated that there are already big fast fashion brands like Zara, H&M, or Topshop that it is hard for J.Crew to recapture the lost customers in the fast fashion market.

This papers purpose is to teach fashion heavy consumers on the real price of fast fashion and how buying it affects the environment. This type of audience can be anyone who partakes in the buying of well-known cheap retail stores that have a large audience of being fast and obtainable. These consumers should have the information on how fast fashion effects are environment so it could possibly alter their buying habits to be eco-friendlier but buying either less or more sustainable clothing instead of the cheap alternatives. This audience should care about this purpose because this will affect the world now and for future generations as their environment is being mistreated because of these fast

80 billion clothing items are produced every year. About two million tons of clothes is thrown away every year. The clothes often cannot be resold due to lack of quality. Only about 10% of clothes are resold. ¾ of the clothing’s manifested from fast fashion labels will end up in a land fill after a year after it is put out for consumers to buy.

In this article, Barenblat outlines some of the key reasons as to why fast fashion is detrimental for women and the environment. The author supports her claim by suggesting fast fashion is expensive for the planet, encourages young women in poverty to work in sweatshops, and leads to million tons of landfill each year. This information in the article is useful because it provides relevant statistics on the damages caused by the clothing industry.

Lululemon is the third leading speciality sports apparel store, behind Nike and Adidas (appendix 1), retailing for women and a small range of men. They have capitalised on the growing trend of fashionable gym and street clothes (Ibisworld, 2016). Their vision is “Elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness”, through their 350 stores and online store shipping to 80 countries (Lululemon, 2016). A SWOT analysis in appendix 2 reveals the sustainable niche of Lululemon’s market, while below demographics, social trends and environment macro-environmental factors are discussed due to their relevance to Lululemon as a modern brand, the others are outlined in appendix 3.

Nordstrom has continued to improve their dedication to the environment, steps such as: reducing carbon dioxide released into the air, using organic cottons and investing time and money into the discovery of more sustainable fabric clarification. Although many of these steps may seem like obvious choices so many large companies are still struggling to make the leap nordstrom has shown in these areas. The hunt for more sustainable fabrics is in hopes to lower the unlawfully logged forests and continue to encourage other brands, which they outsource from to be aware of how and where their fabric materials are made. The ethical decision to improve their own environmental practices and inspire other brands to do the same shows they care about the recent changes in society and are willing to form to these

With the tech savvier consumer now able to access information on hand and voice opinions across a wider and faster base thanks to social media, they have driven the industry to be more transparent in the everyday operations and practices in the wake of Rana Plaza. This saw the return of designer Kit Willow as sustainable/ethical brand Kit X, the establishment of an accreditation body ‘Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA)’.

There will always be that one or two patrons that are looking to save the environment and if the company can look to incorporate environmentally friendly designer clothing and accessories into the business, the business will be leading the future in clothing retail sales. For example, designer blue jeans become a designer purse; a designer silk shirt becomes a new designer pajama top. Reusing material is not a new idea however, creating new items from high-end designer clothing to create environmentally friendlier clothing or recycled designer clothing from the designer is, and if it is made exclusively for Christina’s Unique Clothing Store the company’s future is secured.

In this revealing and thoughtful look at clothing and consumerism, author Elizabeth Cline sets out to reform how we look at fashion and how we shop for clothing. She approached this topic with a series of anecdotes and statistics to back up her findings. I became curious about sustainability in fashion through reading this book.

Rachael Cassar’s clothes are very unique and eco-friendly. Her clothes are all made out of 90% recycled materials. She transforms them into something edgy, spectacular and creative. She is one of the most forward thinking designers of all time. Rachael says that in order for eco-fashion to ‘succeed’, designers need to replace cheaply made fashion with equally appealing sustainable items. This is good to the environment. Sustainable clothes are important because it reviews what we use to manufacture them in the first place (eg. soak them in chemicals). Eco-fashion is much better for the environment, people and animals. Rachael Cassar’s work on eco-fashion is truly exceptional.

One of the most heavily discussed topics, in this last decade, is the environmental decay of our planet. Diverse concepts have materialized in order to find solutions for the problem. Ecology and sustainable growth have been confirmed to be the main solutions currently. Innovations for sustainable growth include: creation of hybrid cars, recycling and minor discharge of carbon dioxide in factories among others (Christ 23). Environmental awareness was also introduced to the world of fashion, unfortunately, it wasn’t very successful; lately there has been a change of situation and that is what we are going to attempt to understand.

Henninger, et al., (2016), assessments found that large, fast fashion firms are primarily responsible for disseminating the company’s core message and information on it’s sustainability initiatives. In spite of, many argued small progress still creates greater change, an owner-manager states: "If I'm 100% ethical and I have 5,000 customers and a [large retailer] is like 0.05% ethical and has 5 million customers they're actually reaching more, doing and making better change, even though what they do in entirety isn't great” (Henninger et al., 2016 p. 411-414). Nonetheless, the efficiency towards fast fashion sustainability is increasing. Women’s Wear Daily (2017), reported that brands such as, Reformation are becoming the leading pioneers in

In conclusion, while doing and enjoying the fashion industry, people and fashion companies should be conscious of the environment because it is a concerning subject and it should be addressed. Because if the environment is being neglected continuously, there will be no future to maintain the fashion industry. In order to achieve ethical fashion, the fashion companies should also try to practice ethical fashion on the production of the products for the conservation of the environment and for the happy environment of work for the

Data for the study was collecting through three focus groups which provided key information on consumer behaviour relating to the garment industry, and in particular “Fast Fashion. The major finding of this expletory study is that ethically minded consumerism exists, but there is a conflict between personal benefits and the desire to act ethically. This research is focused on pre-levels of awareness and the key drivers of purchasing behaviour. It raises awareness of ethical issues within fast fashion to a small group of consumers’ in which most of the consumers indicate a willingness to purchase ethically following the awareness raising exercise. However, further research is necessary to understand whether this translates into a change in consumer behavior and whether these consumers actually follow through their stated intention to shop more ethically in future.

Currently, we are witnessing the birth of a new business paradigm. A paradigm fuelled by technology that is forcing the balance of power in innovation to shift from the few and big towards the many true drivers of change. Due to high usage of old technologies in creating textiles or crafting silhouettes, natural resources are being wasted or can be said are being misused. The key thing missing in textile creation is the usage of modern technologies and organic raw materials. This proposal would aim at creating new technologies in India which produces good quality textile from the waste materials which are harming the environment and by using the food wastes to create wearable commodities by creating awareness amongst the Indian people for using such eco-friendly commodities and making those commodities as the latest fashion trend and style statement. By conducting survey amongst the designers and manufacturers, this will try to recognize and address the issues and concerns behind not promoting and producing those organic and eco-friendly textiles at affordable prices to save the natural resources. In conclusion, this proposal would aim at providing the theoretical solutions on the usage of eco-friendly textiles by