Contents
The Role of the Retailer in Socially Responsible Fashion
Purchasing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Alana M. James and Bruce Montgomery
1 Background and Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 The Purchasing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1 Influencing Purchasing Behaviour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 The Intention-Behaviour Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3 Changes in Purchasing Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1 Market Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4 The Challenges Facing Social Responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1 Key Issues Preventing Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5 Recommendations for the Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.1 Addressing the Key Issues Preventing Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
To Fur or not to Fur: Sustainable Production and Consumption
Within Animal-Based Luxury and Fashion Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Mukta Ramchandani and Ivan Coste-Maniere
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2 Fur as a Luxury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.1 Types of Natural Fur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.2 Fashion and Fur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.3 Celebrities and Fur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3 Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4 Theoretical Approach to Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1 Derivatives of Sustainable Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5 Interviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6 Production Cycle in the Fur and Leather Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.1 How Fur Is Produced? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7 Environmental Impact of Natural Versus Faux Fur
Coat Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.1 Life Cycle Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.2 Description of Environmental Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8 Economic and Financial Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
9 Licenses and Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
10 Animal Welfare in Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
10.1 Sustainable Animal-Based Products Versus Non-sustainable
Animal-Based Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
10.2 WelFur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
11 Is There an Ethical Way of Consuming Animal-Based
Luxury and Fashion Products? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
12 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
12.1 The Debacle of Faux Fur as Sustainable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
12.2 Where the Future Lies?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Connectivity, Understanding and Empathy: How a Lack of Consumer
Knowledge of the Fashion Supply Chain Is Influencing Socially
Responsible Fashion Purchasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Alana M. James and Bruce Montgomery
1 Background and Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
1.1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
2 The Fashion Supply Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
2.1 The Basic Supply Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3 The Consumer–Retailer Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.1 The Power of the Consumer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4 The Creation of Connectivity, Understanding and Empathy . . . . . . . . . 87
4.1 The Current Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
The Role of the Retailer in Socially Responsible Fashion Purchasing
Alana M. James and Bruce Montgomery
Abstract: In recent years there have been a number of dramatic changes in the fashion retail arena, not only have consumer needs changed but also the way they purchase fashion products. The emergence of the fast fashion business model allowed consumers access to new collections every few weeks, with some retailers now moving to up to 12 collections per year. Whilst this approach reflects the very antithesis of fashion; constantly renewing itself and offering new trends every season, the pace of the supply chain has also had to increase to meet demand. This constant access to new fashion products has adapted the wants and needs of the consumer, with quantity rather that quality being preferred. However, it is this acceleration of the supply chain that has lead to a number of social and environmental issues occurring. Opposing this speed of consumption is socially responsible purchasing, where ethical considerations are taken into account during the design and production of fashion. Both consumers and retailers alike are beginning to adopt this approach evidenced in both corporate social responsibility strategies and ethical purchasing behaviour.
However, there are key issues currently preventing a fundamental change in the industry such as a lack of incentives for responsible purchasing behaviour and poor aesthetics. It is these issues that need addressing in order to push the industry towards a more socially responsible future. The positioning of the responsibility for the future of the industry is a highly debated topic, with both consumers and retailers often being assumed as leaders. This chapter explores the role of the retailer in this debate and the powerful position they are in as the middleman between the purchasing consumers and the manufacturing suppliers. In order to influence consumer behaviour towards a more socially responsible approach, retailers need to engage their consumers in an innovative way. Their unique role is to inspire their consumers, using fashion as the communication vehicle for a drive towards future change.
Keywords: Ethical fashion _ Consumer purchasing behaviour _ Fashion purchasing Process