Fast fashion is a predominant business model in the fashion industry. It seeks to quickly bring to retail stores mass-produced, inexpensive garments observing the latest trends. Unfortunately, it generates a significant environmental footprint, which is increasingly concerning to consumers. Research shows, however, that fashion consumers’ concerns often do not result in changes to their purchase behaviours.
In a recent award-winning contribution, Amélia Brandão (ORGAMN) and Ana Gonçalves da Costa (FEP) study the main barriers to sustainable consumption in the fashion industry. Their contribution is not in identifying those barriers. These are well known in the literature and include a lack of awareness of the industry’s environmental impact, the perceived greater expense, lack of style and unavailability of more sustainable alternatives, or scepticism of sustainability claims. Instead, the authors’ contribution is to measure the relative importance of each. According to Amélia, this ‘is essential for policymakers and retailers to develop successful strategies for promoting sustainable fashion consumption.’
To do so, they developed a questionnaire administered to over six hundred consumers on three continents. The answers were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. They find that product attributes, such as lack of style, quality or variety, are the most significant barrier to sustainable fashion consumption. The second most significant barrier is the lack of knowledge or awareness of the environmental impact of fashion production and consumption. Finally, consumers’ perception of sustainable fashion as less economical is the third most significant barrier limiting sustainable behaviour. Still, according to Amélia, ‘consumers find the higher price of sustainable alternatives to be fair and reasonable’.
Currently, Amélia is researching ‘the dark side of sustainable practices in brand management, and whether the sacrifices that consumers are called to make to be more sustainable generate brand avoidance, dislike or even disgust, and anticonsumption behaviour’
