Textile Science and Clothing Technology Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Editor Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands and Sustainable Consumption Textile Science and Clothing Technology Series editor Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu, Kowloon, Hong Kong More information about this series at http://www.com/series/13111 Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Editor Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands and Sustainable Consumption 123 Editor Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Head of Sustainability SgT group and API Kowloon, Hong Kong ISSN 2197-9863 ISSN 2197-9871 (electronic) Textile Science and Clothing Technology ISBN 978-981-13-1267-0 ISBN 978-981-13-1268-7 (eBook) https://doi.1007/978-981-13-1268-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018945910 © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
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Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. part of Springer Nature The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore This book is dedicated to: The lotus feet of my beloved Lord Pazhaniandavar My beloved late Father My beloved Mother My beloved Wife Karpagam and Daughters—Anu and Karthika My beloved Brother Last but not least To everyone working in the fashion sector to make it SUSTAINABLE Contents Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands & Sustainable Consumption. 1 Aline Buzzo and Maria José Abreu Fast Fashion and Sustainable Consumption. 19 Faustine Binet, Ivan Coste-Manière, Clément Decombes, Yan Grasselli, Dortmolk Ouedermi and Mukta Ramchandani Fashion Brands and Consumers Approach Towards Sustainable Fashion.
37 Asimananda Khandual and Swikruti Pradhan vii Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands & Sustainable Consumption Aline Buzzo and Maria José Abreu Abstract The phenomenon of fast fashion chains is due to the way this business model manages its production chain and supplies. Combining the quick response to the agile, lean retailing and leagile processes, it is possible to deliver products to retail outlets in a few weeks, in response to growing consumer demand for new goods. The excessive consumption of fast fashion is also due to social media involves issues such as sustainability in fashion consumption and work practices within companies and their suppliers. On the other hand, the awareness of the concern with the consequences of this consumption gives rise to new ways of consuming and producing fashion causing less impact both environmental and social.
Keywords Fast fashion · Sustainability · Slow fashion · Social media Value chain · Consumption 1 Introduction The first chapter aims to reveal how the fast fashion business model works and how the processes involved in the production chain deliver new products to stores in a few weeks. The fast fashion concept first emerges in the late 1990s as a way of characterizing the rapid change in fashion and its form of consumption that some companies have begun to adhere to. According to Shimamura and Sanches (2012), “the phenomenon of fast-fashion, even though it is not a novelty in the sector, draws attention to the high profitability achieved and the continuous expansion” since when the model was adopted by major brands in the years 1990. Zara, a Spanish brand belonging to the Inditex group, is today the main representative of this marketing model.
Still according to Shimamura and Sanches (2012) speed is an important part A. Abreu (B) 2C2T-Textile Engineering Department, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal e-mail: josi@det. Buzzo e-mail: aline.com © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.), Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands and Sustainable Consumption, Textile Science and Clothing Technology, https://doi. Abreu of the process, but it is not the only characteristic.
In addition to production speed, time, risk and cost must be taken into account in an efficient way. Ciettá (2010) argues that the ability of this system to manage risk-related problems effectively is one of the reasons for its success. The second chapter shows how the arrival of social networks accelerated the consumption of clothing and made them obsolete after being shown on the Internet, as well as the consequences on the consumption behavior of people, since, as Barnes and Lea-Greenwood (2006) explicitly explains, the chains of fast fashion had a negative impact on the environment, since many clothes in these business models are made of plastic fibers. It is important to note the change of habit use of the garments since the arrival of “fast fashion” chains as well as social networks.
In a survey of 1500 women aged over 16 years, 33% of respondents said they considered the cloth old after wearing them just over three times, and one in ten women wear a garment only three times before it leave it at the bottom of the wardrobe (Barnardos 2015). It is necessary to take into account other materials used in the fashion industry, such as the metals of the trims, dyes and the entire process that involves the production cycle of a garment until it reaches the consumer, including ethical and labor practices, as it is reported in chapter three. Sustainability in the textile chain does not end when a garment arrives in stores. It still goes through labor practices and fair trade.
India, for example, has the largest workforce in the fashion industry. About 35% of workers earn a salary equivalent to 80% minimum wage (Kerr and Landry 2017). A revolution in the way fashion is consumed is required, since each citizen is not only the audience but also produces, finances, collaborates and disseminates fashion (Carvalhal 2016). The alternatives to the excessive consumption in fashion through the creation of platforms of resales, loans and repairs of clothes are treated in the chapter four and, in chapter 5, the objective is to report how the slow fashion can be an important tool for the consicente consumption in the fashion.
The “slow food” movement, which emerged in Italy in the 1980s as a reaction to the growth of the fast food lifestyle, inspired the concept of “slow fashion” (Clark 2008). According to Fletcher (2007), the factor “time” is not so important in produc- tion, since the planning is done in the long term and does not requires subcontracting and temporary workers. In 2007, Hermés handkerchiefs, regarded as timeless and made at reduced speed due to special production techniques, were associated with “slow fashion”. Therefore, many people still assimilate low speed to high-cost prod- ucts (Deeny 2007).
To preserve the natural resources that are consumed globally by the fashion industry, the “slow fashion” movement seeks to promote sustainable inno- vations, multifunctional and timeless design, reuse of textile materials and services based on alternative strategies such as leasing (or leasing) of fashionable garments and accessories (Angel and Gardetti 2017). Considering both forms of garment con- sumption, it is easy to deduce that the sustainability in fashion needs to be reflected throughout the textile production chain. Cotton and polyester are high on the list of textile materials most used in the fabric industry, and the polyester demand has doubled in the last 15 years (Fletcher 2013). Fast Fashion, Fashion Brands & Sustainable Consumption 3 2 The Mechanics of Fast Fashion The fast fashion companies seem able to do everything in less time compared to traditional companies, the point where we can ask ourselves how the latter can withstand the cyclone are going against them.
Enrico Ciettá - La rivoluzione del fast fashion The history of fast fashion back in the mid-1980s when the American mass production system across the ocean as highlights Doeringer and Crean (2006). According to Linden (2016), the dependence of large retailers on supply chains in developing countries has been directed by customer choice and increased exposure to ever-lower vineyard products. Linden (2016) points out that the process of industrialization and the beginning of wage labor stimulated the garment industry, as people no longer had time after work. To meet the demand of the sales season, it was necessary for retailers to make a large order, which generated large inventories that required equally large storage space.
Thus, often the consumer demand was not understood and the retailer was forced to end of season sales (Doeringer and Crean 2006). To Ciettá (2010), retail ready-to-wear is as similar to the fast fashion, the speed of production and its availability as soon as the goods are ready. Previously, consumers had to pay a relatively high price to get access to the latest fashion trends. Today, fast fashion companies have made this access via their efficient production chain (Linden 2016).
Therefore, speed is an important feature, but it is not essential to the operation of the fast fashion system. Cachon and Swinney (2011) point out that rapidly executed production increases the efficiency of product development, making the product range ready for sale at the start of the sales season, such as the North American brand GAP. The authors also point out that if retailers do not cut down on production time, even if they struggle within the design department, they run the risk of having to deliver the products too soon and thus miss last-minute trends (Cachon and Swinney 2011). Flexibility is, therefore, one of the fundamental elements to ensure a rapid replacement of merchandise (Bruce and Daly 2006).
The biggest fast- fashion companies take their products to the stores in a few weeks. Zara, from the Spanish group Inditex, delivers its collections in two weeks; Forever 21 six weeks, and the Swedish H & M in eight weeks (Cline 2012). Linden (2016) points out that what makes fast-fashion products cheap comes from the immediacy of consumer demand, forcing the supply chain to deliver orders in record time. In addition, collections are not planned as in traditional fashion retail models.
Instead, the search is only for the effectiveness of sales and the connection of company communication (Ciettá 2010). On the other hand, short deadlines allow companies to always keep up with trends (Cachon and Swinney 2011). The big fast-fashion retailers tend to diversify the product mix through sub-brands, each with its specific target and, therefore, caution is required in the differentiation of supply and communication within the company (Ciettá 2010). Rapid fashion companies do not hide that their products last about ten washes due to the poor quality of the raw material (Joy et al.
What makes fast-fashion so successful? For Caro and Martinez-de-Albéniz (2015), the fast fashion business model can be explained by the combination of three elements: rapid response, frequent change of variety and fashion design at affordable prices, with 4 A. Abreu the first two elements being of an operational nature and allows the operation of fast-fashion and, lastly, represents how the back-end operational create the business value proposition. What also differentiates the fast fashion model from the traditional fashion retail model is the absence of personality association from a single designer to the consumer, which makes him part of a global culture. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the largest fast fashion companies (H & M and Zara) are from countries that have no tradition of ready-to-wear clothing (Gabrielli et al.
Cohen (2011) defines the fast-fashion model as a simple system that involves design, production, distribution, and fast marketing.