Conclusion from the editors
Coase, in his seminal article titled “The Problem of Social Cost” (1960), notes that firms seek to externalize costs involving the consumption of public goods, while focusing on internalizing profits. Coase also identified four solutions for identifying externalities: (1) market transactions, (2) firm-based administrative decisions, (3) government regulation and (4) do nothing. Given the gap in global governance, the fast fashion industry has chosen the “do nothing” approach to dealing with externalities. Instead, the focus has been on internalizing profits through enticing marketing techniques to drive consumers into large retail stores in prominent business districts, while minimizing costs through “arm’s-length” contracting with factories in developing countries employing low-cost labor in factories with minimal safety and environmental regulations.
In this edited collection, the contributors have identified the causes and consequences of fast fashion and provided creative approaches to addressing the consumption-driven nature of fast fashion through alternatives to existing consumer behaviour norms. Ironically, Lohmeyer and Schüßler note that while Germany has adopted several efforts to address the Rana Plaza tragedy, most of these governance efforts are production oriented, rather than consumer oriented. They note: “this means that they are mostly geared towards changing working conditions at supplier factories and not towards challenging the fast fashion business model and the related consumer behavior.”
Thus, the premise of the edited collection was that while addressing the shortcomings in global governance and the related issues in terms of cost minimization remain important, it is the marketing efforts in developed countries that drive the overconsumption. Therefore, the focus needs to be on changing consumer behaviour, emotionally and intellectually, as part of the effort to address the “make, take, waste” business model of fast fashion as a whole. However, as we have learned, curbing the powerful marketing allure of fast fashion retailers is a daunting task. Sumner outlined the challenges posed by ethical behaviour in noting the inherent weaknesses of surveys about ethical behaviour. Sumner discussed the conflict between “self-transcendence values, which imply a focus on others and is aligned with the concept of altruistic motives,” and the consumer not wanting “their status or position to be eroded by a poor fashion choice…. They are likely to be less concerned with the pollution to drinking water caused by the process used to dye the fabric for their clothes in an unknown Chinese factory; an altruistic motivation.”
Niinimäki recognized the consumer behaviour challenge defined by Sumner in her chapter. Niinimäki noted that “the fast fashion model can satisfy an individual’s need to construct their own appearance that links to their own identity as consumers in the context of post-modern society.” Companies like Zara lure fashion lovers into their shops every other week with new garment offerings, which are available only for a limited time and in limited amounts. Niinimäki concluded that “despite the strength of the allure of fast fashion, there are several opportunities to change the current fashion model towards slower patterns by offering more sustainable fashion satisfaction and thereby dematerializing consumption.” The key to transforming the fashion system towards sustainability, according to Niinimäki, is in “understanding the emotional side of fashion consumption and offering sustainable ways to fulfil consumers’ emotional and ever-changing needs in the fashion field.”
Shifting from understanding the consumer behaviour challenges posed by over-consumptions and fast fashion, Parker and Henninger identified “m-commerce app design” as having the potential to be part of the shopping experience as consumers move from intention to purchase. They note, “however, while these platforms have the potential to grow and be part of the ecological solution, without high-level financial investment this is unlikely to happen.” Given the rapidly intensifying use of technology in shopping, particularly among Millennials, Parker and Henninger astutely acknowledged the necessary linkage between technology and sustainable fashion if responsible consumption patterns are to take hold.
Contributors to this edited collection also identified and discussed alternative models for supporting sustainable fashion as a way of addressing the overconsumption endemic with fast fashion. Derwanz described a Kleiderei, or a clothing collection place, based on the motto: “Borrowing instead of Buying, Sharing is Caring,” in which subscribers were able to borrow a maximum of four items at one time, for a monthly membership fee of 14 euros. Other sharing practices, such as garment sharing parties, have become popular, as has clothing repair as a way of giving a second life to garments instead of quick disposal. Derwanz also described the recent emergence of grassroots repair communities, so that mending now serves to provide alternatives to the current fast fashion model of using garments. Derwanz spoke of “communal spaces encourag[ing] joint mending practices aimed at extending the useful life of existing garments.” Examples include “Repair Cafes” which began in the Netherlands (2012) and are now found in several countries. Other alternative business models to fast fashion discussed involved MAS Holdings in Sri Lanka and a hybrid model in Haiti.
Similar to concepts offered by Derwanz, Braithwaite and Schlemann discussed product service systems as a method for extending the life of a garment. In this model, the value of a garment is based partly on how many uses it can support. The authors cited as examples MUD Jeans, a Dutch denim brand where you can lease your jeans, and Rentez-Vous, a UK-based peer-to-peer fashion rental company. “These companies are impassioned to make change,” explained Braithwaite and Schlemann. “Although they face the challenges of a competitive and linear fashion system, they evidence the viability of PSS as a successful and sustainable way to do business.”
More broadly, Iran and Geiger related about collaborative fashion consumption (CFC) initiatives established that “offer consumers opportunities to use idling capacities of already existing clothes to fulfill their desires with less environmental and social impacts.” The authors explained that CFC initiatives integrate the concept of the sharing economy in the fashion industry through which consumers can share, rent, lease, swap, borrow, gift or buy secondhand clothing.
The creativity and innovativeness in these chapters indicates that among our thought leaders, there is a commitment and a will to change a fashion paradigm that has perfected the practice of externalizing the costs of public goods and internalized profitability. We can retrace our steps and understand how fast fashion came about: globalization sped the race to the bottom, which led to a focus on low-price fashion, which was made possible by manipulative marketing and shirking responsibilities for labor, environmental and safety practices by working through contractors in low-cost environments. These practices can be undone and the chapters in this collection contain many ideas on how to achieve this. We thank the authors and others who took the time to work on this volume and we look forward to putting many of the ideas into practice.