Slow Fashion—Mindset and Acceptability Among Indian College Students of Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The most popular and dominant paradigm in the fashion and apparel industry is the fast fashion system, which ultimately motivates the customers to consume more than they need. The fast fashion and cheap quality products encourage the customers to dispose of their apparel products more often than usually, and so it increases the amount of solid waste in the environment. With regard to sustainable apparel production and utilization, many initiatives and strategies were developed and adopted in society by various governments and private organizations around the world. One of the sustainable concepts, which is very customer-oriented, yet least explored is the “slow fashion” concept. The concept of slow fashion has different versions of definitions for designers of apparel products, for manufacturers, for retailers, and for consumers. The main objective of the research is to analyse the consumers’ knowledge about the slow fashion concept, their perspective on the fast and slow fashion designs and apparels. Various barriers and challenges concerning the implementation of slow fashion in a large-scale level are discussed. In this study, a survey among the centennials, also known as “Gen Z” consumers about their environmental awareness, clothing purchase and disposal behaviours along with the slow fashion concepts was conducted. The results of the study revealed that consumers do not have enough knowledge about the environmental impact of the apparel products. The preference of fast fashion products mainly is based on their behaviour like the latest trend, personal lifestyle and fashion knowledge. The results further indicated that the centennials are more concerned about the environmental issues, and they are ready to follow the slow fashion apparels if it is properly offered. All the results were analysed with regard to the implementation possibilities of slow fashion practices among the consumers.