Lecture: Changing Fashion Landscapes
Changing Fashion Landscapes
> What is ethics in fashion?
- Exploitative labour / child labour
- Environmental damage - deforestation / cotton growing - very damaging as it requires a lot of water.
- Chemicals - India has a large leather industry - caused chemical flood in the Ganges and so now some parts of the Ganges are now 'biologically dead'.
- Waste
- Animal cruelty - Some companies claim to use synthetic fur when its actually real.
- Price to make clothes has actually reduced over the years
- Can be difficult to find where production is coming from e.g. factory visits may show that things are up to standard but not always.
Circular Economy:
> 'A circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life'. (Wrap 2018)
Sustainability:
> Closed loop system;
> Examples of closed loop company strategies:
- Levi's - reusing / breaking down old textiles to make new garments.
- H&M - used to be an advocate for fast fashion.
> Fashion brands slower to adopt the closed loop system:
- Primark
- Slow adopters could have been more sustainable but chose to ignore it and it is now too expensive to start investing.
- They focus on commercialisation / what makes the most profit.
- Companies can become stuck in a specific culture that is too difficult to change.
> Luxury brands;
- Farming animals for fur
- Difficult to trace some supply chains / accountability for production.
> Impacts of working unsustainably:
- Depletion of natural resources (animals, habitat, water)
Eco-fashion:
- Fashion sustainability
- People tree - niche brand
- Patagonia - closed loop system - take their products back and mend them.
- Unmade - niche knitwear - consumer can produce their own product by giving Unmade a pattern and they make a unique product. - because the product is unique to a person they will have more of an emotional attachment to the product and so it won't be disposable.
- Traid
- Oxfam hub Batley ; online vintage
Counterfeit Goods:
- Luxury market
- Countries and counterfeiting - e.g. China
- Creates problems with sales, profit and the kudos of brands in question.
- Further promotes unethical practice? ('hidden' manufacture of goods)
Social Responsibility:
> Reflect on:
- What we consume
- Why we consume
- What forms out consumer patterns
- Who is responsible for increased consumption
- Our understanding of product use and where product goes (landfills)
- How our actions impacts others.
Generational shifts:
- Different consumers, consume in different ways.
- Generation X; largely bricks and mortar based (high street) with some online consumption - rudimentary fears of online shopping e.g. account details being stolen.
- Generation Y; largely online, with some bricks and mortar consumption
- Generation Z; born into the digital age
- Methods of marketing to consumers are continually shifting, due to the complex nature of the cross generational experience of interacting with and identifying product.
Marketing Methodologies:
- Brick and mortar type institutions; for example: John Lewis
- Television
- Loyalty cards / data collection
- Long routes to indemnifying and engaging their customer
> Online:
- uses cross sectional marketing / advertising
- Social media
- Some terrestrial TV advertising (e.g. BooHoo.com)
- Posters / digital billboards / taxis (again with BooHoo.com)
- Fast fashion social media cascade.
> High street retailers engaging the consumer
- Both digitally and physically
- Topshop: online offers as well as high street 'lock in' for students for example.
Generation X:
- Brought up through the era of 'physical' shopping experience.
- Department stores.
- High street brands.
- Have a tendency to brand loyalty, and still attach, 'value' to the cost of an item.
- Tend to reflect on personal status through conspicuous consumption.
- Focused on 'aspirational' product.
- Some understanding and connection to online (shopping) and media, (typically Facebook)
Generation Y:
- Cross over generation;
- Technology occurred through their lifetime.
- Much more connected to digital forums; Instagram, Twitter etc.
- Primarily focussed on online resource, but some consumer habits attach to bricks and mortar.
- Not as brand loyal.
Generation Z:
- Born through the age of digital technology;
- immersed in digital as a way of life, (naturally navigate and attach technology through everyday life experience.
Consumer Shifts:
> Shift to online shopping;
- Comparing and contrasting product online
- Sourcing the best price from online comparison
- Social media; provides a platform to 'display' product choice
- Online shopping has seen the shift of consuming fast fashion through faster cycles; see the product, buy the product, move on to the next look.
Impact of online vs high street:
> High street;
- Same products different stores
- Increasingly less differentiation in product
- Product prices higher; retailers have to pay for space and so this is embedded in the retail price
- Physical act of going shopping; paying for transportation and so on
- Busier lives means less time to spend seeking out the product on the high street.
> Online;
- More convenience
- Diverse choice (something for everyone via online forums)
- Drill down on product and find the cheapest price, more choice regarding sizing (diversity)
- The opportunity to source garments which are less likely to be worn by others (If you dig deep enough)
- Over head on product lower, and so currently (arguably) product can be sourced cheaper
Can the high street fight back?:
> High street strategies to receive footfall:
- Burberry - physical meets digital
- Adidas - working on interactive in-store experiences
- Diverse choice (something for everyone via online forums)
- Drill down on product and find the cheapest price, more choice regarding sizing (diversity)
- The opportunity to source garments which are less likely to be worn by others (If you dig deep enough)
- Over head on product lower, and so currently (arguably) product can be sourced cheaper
Can the high street fight back?:
> High street strategies to receive footfall:
- Burberry - physical meets digital
- Adidas - working on interactive in-store experiences
Where does all this leave us?:
Now:
Globalisation:
- Materials
- Labour
- Sourced at low cost
- Industrialised methods of growing crops
- Habitat and environmental destruction
Futures:
- Further digitisation (autonomous design)
- Niche product (emotional connectivity)
- Embedding of technologies
- Digitisation in fashion print / textiles
- 3D printed product (one off)
- Biometrics
- Textile grown from organism
- A more sustainable, design led future?
Now:
Globalisation:
- Materials
- Labour
- Sourced at low cost
- Industrialised methods of growing crops
- Habitat and environmental destruction
Futures:
- Further digitisation (autonomous design)
- Niche product (emotional connectivity)
- Embedding of technologies
- Digitisation in fashion print / textiles
- 3D printed product (one off)
- Biometrics
- Textile grown from organism
- A more sustainable, design led future?
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