Title page:
Nicole Keitch
Year of graduation 2018
Lead question – Can Luxurious Fashion Truly Be Sustainable? a Mixed Method Investigation of Attitudes Towards Sustainable Luxury Consumption in Fashion.
BA (Hons) Fashion Buying and Brand Management
QUESTIONS:
using images/ illustrations- confused as how to use them? “The Dissertation may be heavily illustrated and may be designed in a creative way, but the order and structure must be clear”
Research—-
Blogs on the internet / articles
Previous established findings
Television program
Fashion museums- speak to jane — ask questions
BOOK RESEARCH APPOINTMENT ——
—–journals?
CONTENTS
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………
1.1 Research Background and Motivation……………………………………………
1.2 Purpose of the study………………………………………………………………
1.3 Research questions and objective………………………………………………
1.4 Outline of the Dissertation………………………………………………………………..
PART TWO: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT FROM THE APPARELL INDUSTRY ……………………………………………………………
2.1 Overview of Environmental Factors…………………………………………………
LUXURY ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY
2.2 Environment and Economy- luxury Logic …………………………………………………………………..
2.2.1 Environmental laws and regulations………………………………………….
2.2.2 Eco-consciousness as marketing opportunities……………………………….
2.2.3 Economic crisis and its effects………………………………………………
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS STRATEGIES
2.3 Sustainable Business Strategies……………………………………………………
2.3.1 Environmentally friendly operation strategies………………………………
2.3.2 Sustainable Marketing mix for “green products”……………………………
TEXTILE AND ENVIRONMENT
2.4 Water Stress and Pollution…………………………………………………………
2.4.1 Sustainable fashion………………………………………………………..
2.4.2 Product life cycle in fashion industry…………………………………….
2.4.3 Fabric Wastage…………………
TEXTILE EVOLUTION
2.5 Textile Recycling……………………………………………………………….
2.5.1 Available recycle option-convenience………………………………………………….
2.5.2………………………………………
2.5.3 The Shift from Natural to Synthetic………………………………………………
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND ATTITUDE
2.6 Consumer Behaviours and attitudes……………………………………………
2.6.1 Increased production and Consumption…………………………………………
2.6.2 “Green clothes” and information credibility……………………………..
2.7 Conclusion Remarks……………………………………………………………
PART THREE: THE PROGRESSIONS TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE LUXURY MARKET……………………………………………………………
3.1 Purchase power of “Green Clothes”……………………………………………………………
3.1.2 The Power of Re-Selling “Pre Owned Clothes” ………………………………………………..
3.1.3 Re-using/ Re-designing used Clothes………………………………………………..
3.1.4 Impacts of Economic Crisis
PART FOUR: CONCLUSIONS
4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….
4.1.2 Contributions……………………………………………………………………
4.1.3 Marketing strategies for the re-design solution package………………….
4.1.4 Using eco labels to increase information credibility in the fashion industry…………………………………………………………………………………………..
4.15 Research Limitations…………………………………………………………..
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background and Motivation
My Lead question is “Can Luxurious Fashion truly Be Sustainable? a Mixed Method Investigation of Attitudes Towards Sustainable Luxury Consumption in Fashion.” (this is still a working title due to not fully understanding how far I can take my question which I am still currently researching)
My aim throughout my dissertation paper is to discover and finalise how sustainability is perceived by consumers and whether luxury fashion can truly be labelled as “sustainable” when focusing on the industry.
The continuous growth of the global economy has caused significant environmental problems for the planet and eco-system: the natural forest has been lost or damaged, many animals are extinct or in danger, and the natural resources are over used. The relationship between environment protection and economic development are very complicated because they are interacting with each other rather than being opposite. Previous researches mainly concerned topics that relevant to the economy and the environment, including: sustainable economic development, human rights, social activities, politics and technology improvements (Tisdell, 1991; Hueting, et al., 1992). OWN WORDS In order to achieve a sustainable and harmonious relationship between the economy and the environment, it is the responsibility of both consumers and business to consume natural resources efficiently, reduce pollution, and protect the global environment and eco-system for future generations (McCann-Erickson, 2007). Government and regulations, business and organizations, and individuals should all participate in the sustainable development of the economy and the environment.
Introduction
I chose to research this project for my dissertation because sustainability is a true passion of mine and I believe in the ethos myself but I also want to promote better understanding in the topic and how attitudes towards this subject from consumers can affect the fashion industry both negatively and positively. “While some studies have approached consumption ethics through historical analyses (e.g. Newholm et al. 2014; Hilton 2003), most researchers have tried to establish a relationship between consumers’ concerns with ethical issues and their purchasing decisions, the factors which may affect such a relationship, and ultimately whether or not it is possible to enable consumers to purchase more ethically”1 in the luxury market. This is therefore what I want to research ensuring I conclude with an independent outlook on the industries future.
I have been conducting research of my own comparing and contrasting the different fashion houses sustainability ethos’s and their commitment to the future of sustainable fashion. After some initial research in this area it is hard to truly know that they are keeping to their sustainability plan due to limited published data. As well as this through online research I have discovered that over the past two years there has been few relevant qualitative and quantitative investigations examining consumer attitudes towards sustainable luxury, these have presented a range of inconsistent or contradictory conclusions. Steinhard, et al. (2013)2
/ I need to compose my own research such as questionnaires and focus groups asking consumers the constructive questions resulting in the answer to whether the luxury industry are/can naturally and logically evolve further towards sustainability due to luxury customers extending and exceeding their high quality expectations to include environmental factors. /
Chapter 1: Attitudes towards Luxury Sustainable Consumption
Some of the most well-known rationalist approaches to the impact of ethical concerns on consumer decision-making are based on the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein 1980), which posits that consumer behaviour is a function of purchasing intention, which in turn is impacted by attitudes and subjective perceptions of norms. 3From an ethics perspective, the consumption of luxury goods has been studied as an issue of conspicuous consumption, which historically has been perceived as a moral transgression (Beckham and Voyer 2014),
There is an ambiguous association between luxury and sustainable consumption Achabou and Dekhili (2013) 4suggest that prestige, price and perceptions of quality are the most important criteria when looking into luxury product categories. Now the use of recycled materials in luxury fashion products can limit the value of products, as sustainability still remains a lesser concern for consumers, and product quality and brand reputation remain the most important factors for choosing luxury products in such categories. This can then limit the consumers choice in relation to ethical choices, as the consumers are more likely to focus on the physical characteristics of the product when making their purchase’s other than looking into the story behind the materials such as using leather which can only be used by taking a life and killing an animal.
However, consumers are still aware of the ethical issues associated with luxury products. In a ethnographic study of the creation and development of an online community dedicated to analysing sustainability issues in the luxury fashion sector, Cervellon and Wernerfelt (2012) 5 concluded that knowledge about the supply chain of luxury products is important for consumers involved in eco-purchases These consumers gain personal benefits from the green and ethical credentials of the supply chains of the brands they buy. Although the environmental claims of luxury products can result in consumers feeling positive about their purchase in turn justifying the money they have spent. Unfortunately, research around whether consumers truly consider the ethical issues in each luxury purchase made remains limited and unaccounted for.
True Sustainability
Sustainability is based around the ethical processes we follow to limit the impact we have on the planet, therefore there will always be different opinions/ debates against and for sustainability. Environmental sustainability is the ability to maintain rates of renewable resource harvest, pollution creation, and non-renewable resource depletion that can be continued indefinitely. 6 Eva Kruse, chief executive of the Danish Fashion Institute raised a point concluding there are other factors involved with sustainability “How could fashion consider calling itself sustainable, since it’s always about consumption. But it can be sustainable if we concentrate more on the environment.” 7 A main issue in sustainable luxury consumption is due to the fact that the products that are being sold may use 100% organic cotton or faux vegan leather but the labour that is actually involved such as the amount of electricity that is needed to create these products and the chemical processes that are used to create the same kind of texture of materials like leather which therefore is pumped into our atmosphere and polluting our air.
The business case for sustainability draws on several core arguments The mentality that seeks to further efficiency in materials and waste carries over into other realms. Similarly, the innovation required to overcome environmental challenges promotes innovation generally. And employees have higher morale when they believe in what their company is doing.
These considerations support the idea that the three items of the famous "triple bottom line" – people, profit, and planet – bear no inherent contradiction.
Unfortunately, nine times out of ten, the interests of profit blatantly conflict with the interests of people and planet, at least according to any reasonable calculation. What would happen to your company's bottom line if it switched over to a green electricity supplier at twice the cost? What would happen if it insisted on using only fair trade products – throughout the supply chain? We're not talking about cosmetic changes like recycled paper in the copiers or bike racks in the parking lot. 8
Chapter 2: Luxury Fashion: Stella McCartney
One luxury fashion brand I am extremely interested in its role in sustainability is Stella McCartney. I have been pursuing members of staff working in sustainable fashion brands of the future such as fashion buyers at Stella McCartney through Linked In. Due to Stella being a lifelong vegetarian she doesn’t use any leather or fur in her products making her a leader in sustainable luxury fashion. Stella has previously said: “we address…ethical or ecological…questions in every other part of our lives except fashion”.. Mind-sets are changing, though, which is encouraging.”9 have been unable to find a member of staff willing to talk to me about the links towards whether the brand is truly sustainable in the luxury market, I have previously messaged employee’s on Linked In who have advised me they are unable to give me an interview, therefore I can only question the reasons why they wouldn’t want to give me an interview and boast about their sustainable brand. The only conclusion that I can make is that there must be something to hide if they are unable to comment on their own key selling point of their brand.
Although in contrast All Stella McCartney stores, offices and studios in the UK are powered by wind energy and abroad, they use renewable energy to power their stores and offices. According to the Stella McCartney press office 201510 45% of their operations are run on 100% renewable, green energy. The Stella McCartney programme takes part in the Natural Resource Defence Council NRDC Clean by Design Programme, becoming the first company of luxury goods to contribute to the innovative level of ethics. Clean by Design, “focuses on improving process efficiency to reduce waste and emissions and protect the environment”. Textile manufacturing has a big environmental footprint, it pollutes around 200 tons of water per ton of fabric using many harmful chemicals, and consuming enormous amounts of energy for steam and hot water. This programme aims to reduce the use of water (about 25%) and energy (about 30%).
Unfortunately, Stella McCartney has not published the amount of energy they use collectively so that I could draw a conclusion to whether they need to use more or less to create ethical, sustainable products- In the process possibly limiting the true sustainable nature of the brand. Stella McCartney does not communicate the social impact of its supply chain as highlighted by Project Just 201711, they also do not supply any information on how the brand monitors the labour practices in its supply chain against the ETI Base Code which in turn doesn’t provide confidence in the ethics of their work force. The brand also does not have a product recycling program which is currently being used in many brands to highlight their drive to ensure their own products are not the ones entering landfill- in turn decreasing their carbon footprint. For example, Marks and Spencer provide an OXFAM box in their stores and take back clothes to be recycled or sold for charity even if they are originally not from the brand itself. This scheme
Stella McCartney has provided an Environmental Profit and Loss account12 yearly since 2015. “We continue to end the EP&L a valuable tool in locating the biggest impacts in our supply chain. We use the EP&L to track impacts over time as we implement targeted initiatives. As with previous years, the most significant impacts are concentrated in the raw material production stage, which accounts for 62% of our total EP&L in 2016. Figure 3 shows the distribution of our 2016 EP&L impacts across the different tiers of our supply chain and by environmental impact group. When compared to our 2015 EP&L pro forma, the impact of Tiers 0-3 increased, however the total impact associated with production of raw materials (Tier 4) decreased by 8%.
“So here we are, and this is the start of our journey, and as you can see, we are not perfect but something is better than nothing. I’m hoping to share and encourage the industry to join in, and evaluate its environmental footprint for our future.” 13
The environmental profit and loss report looks at six major categories of environment impact, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, water pollution, water consumption, waste disposal, and changes in ecosystem services associated with land use change, across all of its business and supply chain, from the production of raw materials through to its own operations and sale of products to the customer. Everything that comes from producing and selling its fashion collections.
The most highly concentrated area of environmental impact at Stella McCartney was at the supply chain level, accounting for 90 percent, with the highest concentration at the raw material stage, 57 percent. While the brand’s own direct operations represent 10 percent of its environmental impact. Although there is more that can be done these results do represent that Stella McCartney is trying to be sustainable but is not truly sustainable as it is not levelling out its environmental impacts.
http://source.ethicalfashionforum.com/article/sustainable-luxury-fashion-is-it-possible
The planet is suffering as the population grows and an expanding middle class seeks products to illustrate new-found wealth.
luxury brands who are responding to this demand in a variety of ways, whether through improved ethical practices such as using fairly-mined minerals, reducing the use of endangered and exotic species, reducing water pollution by using dyes listed by the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), improving traceability by using Historic Futures’ String platform or measuring environmental impact using a variety of tools such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Index.
As the luxury fashion industry relies so heavily on natural raw materials for most of its products it would make sense to think beyond one-dimensional issues (as important as they are) and try to become more proactive by building a sound reputation and environmental ethos which is core to the brand. In an interview with Stella McCartney she suggests that you can’t do everything at once and that ‘we do things on an achievable level in order to make it happen’.
reduced environmental impact and cost. This can be achieved by identifying where your environmental hotspots (areas of biggest impact) are in your supply chain. This exercise can be done in a cost effective way, and does not require expensive life-cycle assessments. A baseline environmental impact – whether carbon, waste or water – can be developed at various levels of detail to provide an indicator of impact, and therefore area(s) to focus.
Harvard Referencing
1. SpringerLink. 2017. Understanding Ethical Luxury Consumption Through Practice Theories: A Study of Fine Jewellery Purchases | SpringerLink . [ONLINE] Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s1055170157289379. [Accessed 31 October 2017].
2. Google Books. 2017. Luxury Fashion Retail Management E Google Books. [ONLINE] Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TCucDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=Steinhardt, +et+al.+(2013)+consumption&source=bl&ots=_bwpAv7R2N&sig=vQymqHC7 1P7OXHVpymL3kfdIyCI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje9JPl6tHSAhWJD8AKHX_OClYQ6AEIIzA C#v=onepage&q=Steinhardt%2C%20et%20al.%20(2013)%20consumption&f=false. [Accessed 31 October 2017].
3. SpringerLink. 2017. Understanding Ethical Luxury Consumption Through Practice Theories: A Study of Fine Jewellery Purchases | SpringerLink . [ONLINE] Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s1055170157289379. [Accessed 31 October 2017].
4. Achabou, M. and Dekhili, S. (2017). Luxury and sustainable development: Is there a match?. [online] Econpapers.repec.org. Available at: https://econpapers.repec.org/article/eeejbrese/v_3a66_3ay_3a2013_3ai_3a10_3ap_3a1896-1903.htm [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
5. Cervellon, M.-C., & Wernerfelt, A.-S. (2012). Knowledge sharing among green fashion communities online: Lessons for the sustainable supply chain. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 16(2), 176–192.
6Thwink.org. (2017). Definition of Sustainability. [online] Available at: http://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/Sustainability.htm [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
7. New York Times. 2017. Log In E New York Times. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/02/fashion/luxury7brands7focusing7on7a7sustainable7 future.html?_r=1. [Accessed 12 March 2017]. 5 ResearchGate. 2017. CONSUMER'S PERCEPTION OF ARMANI BRAND LOVE (PDF Download Available). [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306602821_CONSUMER%27S_PERCEPTION_OF_ ARMANI_BRAND_LOVE. [Accessed 01 Novemeber 2017].
8. Eisenstein, C. (2017). Let's be honest: real sustainability may not make business sense. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/sustainability-business-sense-profit-purpose [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
9. Marie Claire. 2017. The Best Ethical Fashion Brands. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/fashion7news/the7best7ethical7fashion7brands7 to7know7sustainable7fashion784169#Ei05kwmj8gZDWJv6.99. [Accessed 01 November 2017].
10. Lolli, A. (2017). Stella McCartney: Fashion And Sustainability. [online] FG MAGAZINE. Available at: http://www.thefashionglobe.com/stella-mccartney-sustainable [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
11. Project JUST. (2017). Stella McCartney: ethics, sustainability, labor rights data researched by Project JUST. [online] Available at: https://projectjust.com/brand_stellamccartney/ [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
12. Cdn3.yoox.biz. (2017). [online] Available at: https://cdn3.yoox.biz/cloud/stellawp/uploads/2017/09/Stella-McCartney-EPL-Report-2016-FINAL.pdf [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
13. Wightman-Stone, D. (2017). Stella McCartney releases environmental profit and loss accounts. [online] Fashionunited.uk. Available at: https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/stella-mccartney-releases-environmental-profit-and-loss-accounts/2016100322003 [Accessed 2 Nov. 2017].
CONTENTS PAGE:
Left hand side:
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Definitions .e.g. cultural appropriation (Before or after intro)
Introduction
1st chapter
Heading of 1st chapters
2nd chapter
Heading of 2nd chapter
3rd chapter
Heading of 3rd chapter
Conclusion
Appendices (Contents page for Primary research):
Appendix A (Heading)
Appendix B
Appendix C
Bibliography
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Refer to images as Fig 1,2 3 … (E..g Fig 1. Title, long ref) Underneath image
Illust. 1, 2 or 3
Thumbnail
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank anyone for your dissertation .e.g. primary sources
Proof readers
Can be a few sentences (must be separate page)
LIST OF DEFINITIONS (IF ONLY A FEW)
INTRODUCTION
*OPPTIONAL LEAD QUESTION AT TOP
Can remind reader about your dissertation – what it is about
Paragraph each
Explain your lead question, what do you mean by it?
Explain your motivation, why does it interest you, is it important to you?
Explain why you are cherry picking and why
Your research methods, plans
Paragraph summary for each chapter:
What happens per chapter
“In chapter 1 I’m going to be looking at heading”
OPPTIONAL LEAD QUESTION
CHAPTER 1 – HEADING
What’s going to happen in this chapter, the main areas of cover
End of chapter – summary of all your analysis of the main areas then (in one sentence) introduce the next chapter and the heading
DO THIS FOR EACH CHAPTER
CONCLUSION
Mirroring what’s in the introduction – what’s the lead question, why you are interested why is it important
What’s the analysis of each of the chapters and what do you think about it
Has it changed your opinion and how has it affected you?
Was it possible to answer the question?
APPENDICES
List primary research
Appendix A, B and C – (each have a title) what’s in them