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sustaInaBlE FashIon : a handBooK For Educators
This paper covers three key areas: the evidence of a
change in consumer attitude towards ethical products;
the characteristics of an ethical consumer; and the
opportunities for fashion business to achieve competitive
advantage by means of an ethical offer. Following the
teaching material, a number of suggestions are given to
guide educators in the use of the items, with specific
learning activities and suggested essay or assignment
questions at the end of the section.
ItEM 1: EVIdEncE oF consuMEr attItudE changE –
usIng thE co-opEratIVE BanK’s EthIcal
consuMErIsM rEport
Although it is apparent that consumer attitudes toward
ethical fashion are changing, both from media sources
and the responses that fashion companies have already
made, it can be difficult to find any hard evidence to work
with. A useful source of information about UK ethical
consumerism therefore is The Ethical Consumerism Report
published by the Co-operative Bank (Co-operative Bank,
- Also available online at http://www.goodwithmoney.
co.uk/images/pdf/ethical_consumer_report_2007.pdf),
which provides some relatively reliable marketing data as a
basis for learning activities in the context of ethical fashion
consumption and marketing.
The Co-operative Bank report provides data that shows
the rise in ethical consumerism in the UK overall (graph
on page 4), and the changes from 2005-2006 in different
product sectors (table on page 5). The data on page 5
shows sales of ethical clothing increased by 79% in 2006.
A chart on page 6 shows how ethical behaviours have
increased over time. For example, more people now both
choose and avoid products based on company reputation.
Another interesting point is that the number of people
who have felt guilty about an unethical purchase has almost
doubled to over a third of all consumers, which indicates a
growing awareness of the issues and the choices they can
make.
What is interesting to consider is that, while sales of fair
trade and organic clothing grew by 79% in 2006, the base
value (£52m) is still small compared with, for example, the
market for ethical cosmetics (£386m), which in turn is only
3% of the overall cosmetics market. This is shown on page
16 of the report.
An important aspect of ethical consumerism highlighted by
the report is clothing boycotts. Ethical boycotting, according
to the Co-operative Bank, is where consumers avoid
using companies or brands that they perceive to be acting
irresponsibly (page 16 of the report). It is suggested that,
once a consumer has boycotted a brand, they are unlikely
to return to it. There seems to be an emerging pattern of
behaviour where consumers avoid budget clothing outlets
because they feel that the prices can only be achieved by
using suppliers that have poor labour conditions. Overall
clothing boycotts grew by 20% in 2006 to reach £338m.
This figure, being significantly greater than actual sales of
ethical clothing, highlights the reason why it is so important
for companies to avoid negative publicity about their
ethical credentials.The table on page 17 gives a breakdown of ethical clothing
consumption and how this has changed from 2005–2006. It
demonstrates how the majority of ethical clothing sales in
this timeframe were organic products rather than fair trade
(the Fairtrade Mark for cotton first appeared on clothing
in November 2005). However, the report forecast strong
growth in both Fairtrade and organic ethical clothing,
predicting that the total market would be over £150m in- The fact that mainstream clothing retail distributors
like Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury are now selling
Fairtrade and organic cotton garments will add to the
increased consumption due to more convenient availability
of products to consumers.
ItEM 2: Is thErE a ‘typIcal EthIcal consuMEr’?There are strong indications that consumers generally are
becoming more ‘ethical’ when it comes to product choices.
Research conducted by Mori in 2006 suggested that
around one-third of the British public purchase ethically
to some degree (see FEI discussion paper on ethical
consumerism); and in 2007, The Henley Centre Headlight
Vision reported that 62% of UK adults said that they had
become more environmentally aware over the previous 12
months (Curry et al, 2008).The Retail Think Tank (White Paper, 2007) suggests that,
although ‘ethical’ and socially conscious issues may be
‘fashionable’ or ‘politically correct’ at the present time, a
growing number of consumers will, in the future, be more
and more concerned about them. The Retail Think Tank
considers ethical and environmental concerns to be not