Clothing has played an integral role in defining social status and providing functionality. Fashion trends change faster than ever, and prices for clothing have never been so cheap. As a result clothing production has become environmentally detrimental. This phenomenon, called fast fashion, has inadvertently created a counter movement called slow fashion. Slow fashion aims to cut down on clothing waste by creating consumer awareness, increasing the lifespan of clothing, and choosing ethical stores. While slow fashion, in theory, is an ideal method to curb clothing disposal, it is not without its flaws. Clothes can be labeled in two categories. The first is functionality. This is the physical quality and intrinsic value of wearing a particular garment. An example of this may be pockets, or durable material type and quality. The second category is expressiveness, which is defined by psychological responses and the beauty of clothing. Expressiveness is important to communicate the identity of the wearer. Consumers have identified that expressiveness is the more important of the two categories. Maintaining an in-style appearance is more important than having functionality (Niinimäki, 2). As a result of fast fashion, the functionality of clothes has decreased while expressiveness has increased. Luxury styles can move from high-end fashion show to low-end bargain clothing rack in a matter of weeks. In order to do so, clothes are mass produced overseas for as cheap as
For people who wants to buy clothing in Myer, they usually go shopping with friends or family, so they could get some suggestions from others. When people making decisions of buy new clothes, usually they have little knowledge of how the cloth will looks like on them, so they need to try them on, this process often take a long time. The influcences at the points of sales of these products will be whether customers like the style or not, the suggestions from friends, families and salesperson, and whether customers think the product worth the price (Rahman, Rahaman, Jensen, & Gällstedt 2008, p. 42-43).
How fast fashion is affecting the environment is a very serious topic since this type of consumerism in the United States is heavy on supply and demand, and because of that shoppers want it all and want it now which is basically fast fashions motto. The way to make these pieces of clothing heavily rely on cheap materials that can be made quickly, so that is polyester and cotton being made in big factories that emit out toxins into our earth. Cotton being one of the most used fabrics takes a lot to be made into a single garment. Uzbekistan which is the 6th biggest producer of cotton had faced many conflicts during production since cotton uses so much water to be made it has dried up the 4th largest lake the Aral Sea because of how much we need to produce cotton fashion. (Prospectjournalucsd) Buying these cheap garments that become unwearable after 5 times (Forbes) of wearing it usually gets thrown out after and producing more waste that gets put into our waterways since theses garments shed easy and through washing them can “find their way into oceans and on the shores everywhere.” (Sweeny) So with the help of shoppers, being able to cut down on the purchase of fast fashion can help aid in keeping the ecosystem in order.
80 billion clothing items are produced every year. About two million tons of clothes is thrown away every year. The clothes often cannot be resold due to lack of quality. Only about 10% of clothes are resold. ¾ of the clothing’s manifested from fast fashion labels will end up in a land fill after a year after it is put out for consumers to buy.
(Choose a garment, which can be used to discuss fashion from the point of view of the consumer. This garment must be able to demonstrate how the consumer individually constructs their identity and conveys that identity through the style and styling of clothing. You should treat this garment as an object as a form of evidence, which can help you to explain theories of fashion discussed in the sessions. The intention of your analysis is to examine the ways in which we can ‘read’ objects and images, understand their meanings and explain them in the context of broader theoretical and social concerns. You should aim to be as analytical as possible. You may want to use further
TenTree has created a product with the positioning to give customers clothing options that are environmentally and socially responsible. They promise to plant ten trees for every item purchased and only use factories that are approved by WRAP. (TenTree, n.d.) They also have a large selection of t-shirts, hoodies, sweaters, tanks, hats, and toques, in a variety of different colours and sizes. (TenTree, n.d.) Satisfying the customer wants for a wide variety of socially and environmentally responsible clothing has created functional-instrumental value for their customers.
Fashion is everything to society and the media. The fashion industry has transformed into a necessity in the life of people. Everyone wants to look good, feel fabulous and feel as if we belong with everyone else. The envy and desire to wear certain things and look a certain way all come, from wearing the latest fashion handbags, accessories, dresses, shoes, and the list goes on. But, when is considering fashion into an individual’s life going too far to the extreme? Many do not consider the whereabouts of fashion materials and how the environment is affected by the mere existence of certain garments. Some may believe these objects grow on trees. But that is clearly not the case. Even though it would be nice. The fashion industry as a
It is essential to select a representative and accurate sample. The population of interest this study will be the adults in Australia who are over 18 years old. In other words, a consumer should own understandings of fashion and unfashion independently. Due to time limitation, 4 samples come from QUT blackboard sources.
Materials such as wool, silk, and cotton had been used to manufacture uniforms for the servicemen and measures were taken to ration clothing for civilians. Women were more creative by showing their sense of style without expense or waste. Contrastingly, the highly competitive fashion industry today constantly drives to encourage and entice consumers to visit stores more frequently by aggressively merchandising fashion, indicating a shorter life cycle and higher profit margins from the sale of fast selling merchandise. Consumers today are more focused and demanding, forcing fashion retailers to instantly deliver the right product at the right time. Money worries, job-related challenges, and pressures about body image are concerns that directly impact fashion choices
In this article, Barenblat outlines some of the key reasons as to why fast fashion is detrimental for women and the environment. The author supports her claim by suggesting fast fashion is expensive for the planet, encourages young women in poverty to work in sweatshops, and leads to million tons of landfill each year. This information in the article is useful because it provides relevant statistics on the damages caused by the clothing industry.
Today, fashion choices plays a major role in influencing the self-perception of different people. In order to understand how this happens, it is a good idea first to ascertain what self-perception is. This is the view of an individual about themselves as well as the physical and mental attributes that make up the individual. The theory of self-perception holds that individuals tend to develop certain attitudes through making observations of their own behavior as well as making conclusions of the attitudes that have led to them. One of the elements that influences self-perception is fashion choices. This is what this research paper will be based on. The paper will examine in details how fashion choices influences the self-perception of different people.
‘style, branding, colour and fashionability’ of the clothing as a tool for the audience to
Social and cultural changes are major determinants of emerging fashions. However, they are themselves affected by the other drivers of change that include globalization of world markets and accessibility of more sophisticated communications technologies. The latter has provided people with faster and wider access to more ideas and influences from other cultures and societies, driving demand for wider choice in fashion products.
(2012) This leads me to question if fashion apparel is competing with industry’s sportswear markets by compromising the performance enhancing qualities for garments that are simply just aesthetically pleasing. (Morganosky, 1984) elaborates on this stating that consumers are willing to pay higher prices for apparel with a high aesthetic value regardless of the low functional value. Ko et al. (2012) agrees consumers’ value fashion and quality however argues they are not willing to pay a high price for something new and innovative. (Dickson & Pollack, 2000) add to this statement in relation to sports garments with female consumers regarding aesthetic aspects such as style and brand characteristics to be more essential than the functional aspects such as comfort and other physical performance-enhancing features. Similarly (Eckma et al., 1990) reports on the evaluation of purchase behaviour in women’s apparel. Style was chosen as more important in determining rejection or adoption of the garments. A visual criterion seems to have the greatest impact on selection of apparel such as fashion-ability or popularity, aesthetic appeal, and self-expression (Eckma et al., 1990). Although it seems there is a divide in opinion when it comes to retail pricing the majority of research studies seems to suggest there is a major emphasis on the aesthetic appearance.
The clothing industry, as one of the most globalized industries in the world (Bonacich et al 1994), is currently undergoing a restructuring, especially the fast fashion sector. Fashion markets are synonymous with rapid changes and short product life cycles. Therefore, changes in consumer demand for newness and fashion trend force the emergence of ‘fast fashion’ strategy in retailers like Zara and H&M and shifts in the focus of competitive advantage from price towards quick response. That is to say, clothing firms, which are adopting global or offshore sourcing strategy, are not considered to have more competitive advantages as before.
Generations ahead of us only had a tiny wardrobe, where clothes were not washed every day. In our generation, fast fashion is in. It’s ok to have multiple shirts or shoes of the same color. It’s actually ok to throw away unwanted apparel. Apparel companies are beginning to focus on sustainable fashion, also known as eco fashion. Apparel, fashion, and textiles is the most polluting industry in the world. Every stage, that a garment goes through, uses up and threatens our resources.