Fast Fashion Tips | Tog Wears

Concluding Remarks and Implications

In this article, we have explored the perceptions that consumers in both

HongKong and Canada have of sustainability, fast fashion, and luxury

fashion, and have shown that sustainable fashion is not a priority for

them. The bulk of the data suggest that young people separate fashion

from sustainability. They definitely support the idea of sustainability,

but do not apply such ethics when it comes to sustainable fashion. Their

moral imagination (Werhane 1998) seems quite impoverished in this

category. This state of moral stasis may gradually change. As Carrigan

and Attala (2001: 577) note, “Perhaps in time new generations of consumers

will not only think more ethically, but also act more ethically.”

Bonini and Oppenheim (2008: 56) argue that, around the world,

there is a great deal of concern about environmental issues, but, “when

it comes to actually buying green goods, words and deeds often part

ways.” The apathy toward eco-fashion can be partly explained by the

fact that, while clothing is central to the body and the definition of

identity, it has not been related to health concerns (Petit 2007). Moreover,

the term “eco-fashion” conjures up the hippie and environmental

movements of the 1960s and 1970s, during which ecologically sensitive

fashion often meant shapeless recycled clothing (Welters 2008). Winge

(2008: 520) goes one step further, distinguishing between eco-dress and

eco-fashion.Eco-dress is what she associates with the hippie movement,

whereas eco-fashion currently represents luxury and cultivated taste.

In Europe, eco-fashion has become prominent; some of the producers

are smaller companies making clothing and accessories from organic

cotton sourced through fair trade practices. Our participants felt that

these clothes were drab and boring. While organic cotton T-shirts

may be cool to wear to class or when hanging out on weekends, only

stylish

clothes with panache would do for other social occasions. Eco-fashion

did not meet these needs. Perhaps it may do so in the future, as

Fast Fashion, Sustainability, and the Ethical Appeal of Luxury Brands 289

consumer

attitudes

evolve, much as, to a degree, they have done with

food. Witness the ever-broadening acceptance accorded the artisanal

slow food movement.

Tellingly, Fletcher (2008) prefers to use the term “slow fashion”

rather than eco-fashion, arguing that “slow” in this context refers not

to time (as opposed to the “fast” in fast fashion, which most assuredly

does refer to time), but rather to a philosophy of attentiveness. As in the

slow food movement, that philosophy is mindful of its various stakeholders’

respective needs (with “stakeholders” referring to designers,

buyers, retailers, and consumers), and of the impact producing fashion

has on workers, consumers, and eco-systems.

According to Bonini and Oppenheim (2008: 56) there are five barriers

to being green: “Lack of awareness, negative perceptions, distrust,

high prices, and low availability.” Trust was not an issue for our participants,

butstyle was. Prices and availability did not emerge as major

barriers in our discussions.

Although a shift in power from corporations to stakeholders has occurred,

accelerated by e-commerce and online activism (Scaturro 2008),

our participants in both Hong Kong and Canada seemed oblivious to

this shift. While they do take their brands seriously (as in fast fashion

and luxury), sustainable fashion brands are simply not on their radar—

or, at least, not yet. Even though Nike made the news for running sweatshop

operations, our participants in Hong Kong and Canada did not

boycott the company’s products. In any event, Nike has since made

dramatic changes to its operations, pushing its way to the forefront of

sustainable fashion (Ramaswamy 2008).

The Power of Dissuasion: Promoting Sustainability via

Artisanship Appreciation

Luxury brands are often tarred with the same brush as fast fashion

and other types of disposable fashion (Kapferer and Bastien 2009).

However, because of their long-standing concern for quality and

craft, luxury brands could effectively counteract some of the problems

endemic

to fast fashion and provide leadership on issues relating to

sustainability. Some consumer researchers may refer to this as “ethical

mainstreaming”—a process whereby consumers are willing to pay

a premium for such products (Thompson and Coskuner-Balli 2007:

137). According to these authors, this is another guise for bourgeois

consumerism—

rather than question the system, such practices may well

be supporting the very system

it purports to critique. We, on the other

hand, suggest that a luxury brand company can be both “green” and

“gold.” Blendell and Kleanthous (2007) provide provocative insight

into the meaning of “deeper luxury” to the consumer and producer.

Increasingly, they argue, the pursuit of luxury is linked to the brand’s