Fashion Brands Research Articles

Role of Sustainability and Ethics in Fashion Design and Production in South America

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the role of sustainability and ethics in fashion design and production.
 Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries.
 Findings: Sustainability and ethics are pivotal in fashion design and production, shaping decisions across the supply chain. They drive innovation, reduce environmental impact, and ensure fair treatment of workers. Brands prioritizing sustainability and ethics meet consumer demands, fostering industry resilience and positive social impact. Integrating these principles is crucial for promoting a sustainable and responsible fashion industry.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Sustainability theory, ethical fashion theory & systems theory may be used to anchor future studies on the role of sustainability and ethics in fashion design and production. Fashion designers and brands should prioritize sustainable materials, production processes, and supply chain practices. Governments and regulatory bodies play a critical role in establishing frameworks and incentives that encourage sustainable and ethical practices in the fashion industry.

“Eco‐style” perceptions: The interplay of different sustainability cues and fashion styles in consumers' fashion brand attitudes

AbstractSustainable fashion is becoming increasingly integrated in today's society. However, the use of the term “eco” in fashion branding may evoke negative consumer perceptions, especially in terms of the perceived fashionability of clothing items. Hence, this study investigates consumer responses to environmental versus social sustainability cues used by an online fashion shop. In particular, the moderating influence of basic versus modern fashion style is examined, considering the idea that fashion style is central to consumers' brand evaluations. Using a 2 (environmental vs. social sustainability cue) × 2 (timeless basic vs. modern fashion style) between‐subjects factorial design, this study explored the effectiveness of sustainability cues on fashion brand value perceptions (emotional, social, and functional value) and brand attitudes. Among the 358 respondents, the results indicate more positive brand attitudes when fashion items are presented with an environmental (vs. social) sustainability cue. In particular, this effect is stronger for the timeless basic (vs. modern trend‐based) fashion style. Yet, a cue referring to environmental sustainability increases social brand values for the modern fashion style. This study offers valuable contributions to the sustainable fashion literature and recommendations for online fashion retailers.

Branding fashion through gameplay: the branded gaming and the cool dynamics in the fashion markets. A game-theory approach

PurposeThe aim of this study was to investigate the role of immersive gaming on brand coolness and brand equity, with particular emphasis on fashion gaming collaborations. We used game theory as a theoretical framework to analyse immersive branding strategies and gain a deeper understanding of fashion consumers’ decision-making process in gaming environments. Gender, as a significant factor affecting gamers, has been studied as a moderator that impacts the overall proposed framework.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative method was used to assess the significance of relationships within the proposed model empirically. The partial least squares structural equation modelling technique was implemented to assess the relationships of the framework with a sample size of 160 active Malaysian gamers.FindingsThe findings indicate that brand equity is positively associated with perceived brand coolness. Furthermore, of the three core values of online games, perceived enjoyment is most strongly associated with perceived brand coolness, ahead of the values of self-expression and perceived emotional challenge. The results of the multigroup analysis further suggest that in the fashion industry, building brand equity through online games is strongly related to perceived brand coolness among female respondents, the role of perceived brand coolness being weaker among male respondents.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the existing literature by providing a deeper understanding of the impact of immersive gaming branding practices on the overall equity of the fashion brand. The results provide insight for fashion brand managers into the significant effect on consumer behaviour outcomes of fashion-gaming collaborations.

Muslim women consumers: Critical interpretations of US modest fashion brands entangled with the fashion-advocacy-capitalist-façade

Following 9/11, some young Muslim American women have been wearing hijabs to assert their Islamic identities. They are also seeking fashionable modest clothing, yet, despite their growing buying power, the US modest fashion market targeting Muslim women appears underserved. The purpose of this study was to critically examine how niche modest fashion brands in the United States target Muslim women while drawing upon theoretical concepts centring on oppression and agency related to the long history of gendered Islamophobia Muslims have experienced. We analysed eleven brands’ websites and social media applying the constant comparative method and identified four themes: empowering Muslim women, reclaiming modesty as modern and beautiful, meeting fashionable modest wear demand, and rejecting and perpetuating colourism. In our analysis of the digital discourses of US modest fashion brands, we revealed that these brands emerged to meet the demand of young Muslim woman in the United States who are embracing the hijab and modest clothing as a potent symbol of resistance against western ideologies, the fashion system’s oppressive acts towards Muslim women and traditional Islamic dress codes. Yet, their advocacy-centred messages – empowerment, reclaiming modesty as beautiful – operate within a profit-driven system, which we theorize as a fashion-advocacy-capitalistic-façade. The fashion-advocacy-capitalist-façade concept helps explain the slippery slope that fashion brands are tiptoeing as they aim to empower Muslim women, offer trendy modest clothing, reject traditional Islamic dress codes for women and create space in the fashion market for this unmet demand. Although these brands aim to promote a positive sense of self for Muslim women, they cannot be withheld from critical examination and potential interpretations when operating within the capitalist-driven industry that is so often plagued with significant injustices.

Antecedents of Status Consumption of Fashion Brands – The Impact of Sustainability in the Post-COVID Era

Antecedents of Status Consumption of Fashion Brands – The Impact of Sustainability in the Post-COVID Era

Challenging the fashion academy: Intersectional perspectives on justice in the evolving fashion system

This Special Issue of the journal focuses on the intricate relationship between justice and the fashion system, presenting a collection of groundbreaking research articles and reviews. The aim is to highlight the importance of intersectional and advocacy-based research in fashion studies, with a focus on historically marginalized identities. The articles employ diverse research methods, including literature reviews, material culture analysis, interviews and historical investigations. The articles cover a range of topics that examine justice within the fashion industry. One article critically analyses scholarship on Black women and fashion, highlighting the dominance of research centred on resistance, oppression and Eurocentric beauty standards. Another article explores the representation and experiences of Muslim women in modest fashion brands, examining the intersection of oppression, agency and capitalist practices. Additionally, the issue includes articles centred on fatness and fashion, discussing transgressive dress on YouTube, resistance against weight stigma on Instagram, and the historical development of sizing systems for fat bodies. Two reviews featured in the Special Issue provide insights into the relationship between fashion and intersectional feminism in American society, as well as the historical significance of Bomba attire in Puerto Rico. Overall, this collection of articles and reviews offers a comprehensive exploration of fashion studies through the lens of historically marginalized identities, shedding light on the industry’s potential to challenge discrimination and promote inclusivity. The issue calls for continued engagement with intersectional and advocacy-based research to drive the growth and evolution of the discipline, ultimately working towards a more equitable and inclusive fashion industry.

Challenges and Opportunities for the Success of Saudi Fashion Brands According to the Business Model Canvas

Challenges and Opportunities for the Success of Saudi Fashion Brands According to the Business Model Canvas

The Impact of Social Media as a Part of Fashion Marketing and its Impact on Youngsters

Abstract: This research is aimed to understand the impact of social media as a part of fashion marketing and its impact on youngsters, social media on the face of global society has created a new network of social connection with youngsters. Their relationship with influencers on “#outfit of the day” on Instagram is attractive to youngsters, social media marketing can benefit fashion brand in many ways. Including target audience, brand awareness and so far social media platforms by designers to promote, their own brand. Social media platform have also become a key tool for fashion brand, to showcase their collection and engage with consumers through live streaming event and social media campaigns. It has impacted the fashion industry through the democratization of fashion. Personalized fashion recommendations are becoming more popular, making it easier for consumers to discover new styles and brands that align with their individual tastes. People want to offer real-time interactions with them through an active presence in social media; social media might consider digital advertising highly impactful and more valuable and authentic than traditional advertising. Social media platform such as Instagram has recently become the most popular social networking site among the young people. In addition, selling and marketing the product in the virtual store on Instagram represent a new shopping most of the consumers. In survey the constant stream of New Style encourages us to buy, even if we do not need them. People want to fit into society and have the coolest or most desired product out there which influences the spread of new items becoming popular on social media network. This research paper emphasizes more on understanding the mindset of youth and their views on social media as a part of fashion marketing. All together of50 respondents as youth of age group (18-30yrs) were taken, Primary research has been taken as Google form survey as questionnaire. The increased diversity and representation that social media has brought to the fashion industry is very positive development, and it will be interesting to see how this continues to evolve in the future

Experience in implementing the ecological concept of CSR (On the example of ukrainian fashion brands)

Experience in implementing the ecological concept of CSR (On the example of ukrainian fashion brands)

SMI Influence On Co-Branding Purchase

This study aims to determine what co-branding factors can influence consumer purchases of local fashion brand collaboration products with social media influencers. There are four co-brand factors that we want to see influence consumer purchases, namely brand coolness, product involvement, and the relationship between the brand itself and influencers. Data collection was carried out through an online survey of 206 female respondents who live in the 10 largest cities in Indonesia and know nine collaboration products of local fashion brands with influencers from various backgrounds. The collected data then will be analyzed using the structural equation partial least squares (SEM-PLS) method to measure the relationship between brand coolness, self-brand connection with influencers, product involvement, influencer expertise, perceived suitability, attitudes towards co-brands, purchase probability considering self -brand connection with fashion brands and a tendency towards novelty seeking, Based on the research concluded that brand coolness has positive influence but no significant effect on perceived fit. Self-brand connection with influencers is unable to moderate the relationship between brand coolness with perceived fit, product involvement has a negative effect but not a significant effect on perceived fit. This study shows that there is a relationship between SMI expertise with perceived fit. Meanwhile, SMI expertise has positive effect but not significant on attitude towards co-brand and expertise has a negative and insignificant effect on purchase probability, perceived fit has positive and significant effect on attitude towards co-brand, noted that attitude towards co-brand positively and significantly has an effect on purchase probability.

The Influence of Customer Participation on Customer Behavior Intention under the O2O Mode of Fast Fashion Brands

The Influence of Customer Participation on Customer Behavior Intention under the O2O Mode of Fast Fashion Brands

The Influence of Consumers' Emotions on Brand Disappointment Caused by the Nepo-Baby Issue in Fashion Brands

The Influence of Consumers' Emotions on Brand Disappointment Caused by the Nepo-Baby Issue in Fashion Brands

Message framing of sustainable marketing for luxury fashion brands impacting consumer attitudes toward the brands

Message framing of sustainable marketing for luxury fashion brands impacting consumer attitudes toward the brands

Circular Business Models in Sustainable Fashion Brands: Innovation, Practice, and Impact

Circular Business Models in Sustainable Fashion Brands: Innovation, Practice, and Impact

Patterns of co-evolution: analyzing fashion brand and sewing contractor company dynamics

The purpose of this study is to identify the entry conditions that could form a co-evolutionary relationship between a sewing contractor company and a fashion brand, and reveal the outcome of such a relationship. In the Republic of Korea, many fashion brands and sewing companies coexist, and the situation in the fashion industry changes with the rapid development of the country, so it is a suitable environment for investigating their co-evolution strategies. A qualitative research methodology was used to examine the co-evolution process of the fashion brand and the sewing industry. In addition, an objective evaluation was conducted by using interviews with sewing contractor companies and fashion brands that have business relationships with the sewing contractor companies. The results indicated that sewing contractor companies evolve into either mass production or small production systems. In the co-evolutionary process, relational resources and business-to-business transaction suitability are the main entry conditions for sewing contractor companies to coevolve with fashion brands. Knowledge exchange, experience optimization, off-season ordering, and investment in trading companies were observed among sewing contractor companies that formed a co-evolutionary relationship with their fashion brand partners. This study identified and conceptualized factors that played a major role in the process of co-evolution and proved suitable for each production system of sewing contractor companies.

A five-stage framework for sustainability certification for fashion brands: Can a standardised approach work in the fashion industry?

ABSTRACT Sustainability certification is one means to address environmental and social issues present in fashion supply chains, whilst bridging the knowledge gap between brands and consumers. However, despite increased urgency to improve social, ethical and environmental practices in this industry, little is understood about how ethical fashion brands currently utilise sustainability certification, in an increasingly saturated, and often unregulated, labelling environment. This study examines choice of sustainability certifications, certification process, and use of labelling, by a range of Australasian fashion brands who promote sustainability as a core part of their customer-facing image. The research identifies a five-stage framework for sustainability certification, as well as indicating failures of current systems relative to user needs. The study develops and offers a proposal for a standardised taxonomy of fashion sustainability labelling that could be adapted, irrespective of firm size, sales revenue of garment and textile types.

Romantic opportunism: Doing the work of structures in post-feminist creative industries

This article contributes to feminist cultural studies on the creative industries by offering an ethnographic account of the lifeworld of a female and creative entrepreneur. Drawing on interview data and ethnographic observations collected over the course of 10 years, I offer a thick description of the personal and professional trajectories of Alexandra, through the rise and fall of her fashion brand and first marriage and on to her second marriage and new job as an employee for a marketing firm. I focus on the ways in which she becomes her own microstructure, building connection between love and career in a de-regulated and de-territorialised environment. I argue that she engages in what I call ‘romantic opportunism’, a biographical device that enables her to spot instrumental connections between different dimensions of life, whilst unifying them into a romantic plot. The story of Alexandra can therefore be seen as an instantiation of ‘freelance feminism’, whereby life emerges as the combination of parallel and interdependent projects.

Crafting Tradition and Innovation: Gulf Sandals

The common name of the traditional Gulf sandal is “Zbeiri Na al”, where “Zbeiri” is the name of the design and “Na al” is the name of the traditional sandal from this region. These sandals embody the fusion of cultural identity and craftsmanship excellence in the United Arab Emirates. The “Zbeiri Na al” sandals are the first traditional sandals known in the Gulf region and are worn all year round by all age groups, from children to elderly men. This article provides an insight into the historical significance of Gulf sandals (also known as Arabian sandals or Emirati sandals), focusing on the craftsmanship and how the traditional sandals are gaining interest from globally renowned fashion brands whose designs are inspired by Gulf culture and tradition. It also examines the cultural essence, market dynamics and the intersection of tradition and innovation in leather craftsmanship in the Gulf, particularly in the United Arab Emirates (hereafter: UAE).

Influence of Social Media Marketing on Perceived Brand Equity of Fashion Brands in Sri Lanka

The emerging market is presently witnessing the proliferation of online shopping by giving a vital advantage of many more good choices than traditional shopping. In recent years, the rapid growth of online shopping platforms has raised the question of whether this growth has reduced the marketer's control of its brand and brand management techniques. Brand equity is crucial in the marketing environment, and identifying social media marketing's influence on fashion brands in Sri Lanka is essential. However, studies on brand equity calculation in Sri Lanka are limited, questioning its relevance. The study has examined how social media marketing has affected Sri Lankan fashion brands' total brand equity. A quantitative research approach was adopted in this research and a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data. The researcher used convenient sampling method to collect the data and questionnaire was used as the research tool. It employed SSPS-23 version analyze the collected data. Based on the results obtained from the analysis. It has executed the regression analysis to test the hypotheses whilst main assumptions were reported in advance. The result suggests that all independent variable has a significant impact on the dependent varibles. Aadditionally, researcher has given valuable recommendations based on the key findings whilst further research directions were also suggested at the end.

Groundwater conservation, and recycling and reuse of textile wastewater in a denim industry of Bangladesh

Bangladesh holds the 2nd position after China in the global apparel market in terms of denim export. In the textile industry clusters of Bangladesh, the groundwater level is depleting at an alarming rate due to overconsumption and mismanagement. The present study evaluates the groundwater conservation potential of a denim facility in Manikganj District through an effluent recycling and reuse approach. In this study, 100% treated wastewater and 10% treated wastewater mixed with softwater were utilized in the wet processing plant to dye and wash sample denim products and investigated for their fabric quality using seven parameters. The test results followed the requirements given by the North American and European fashion brands that source denim products from Bangladesh. The feasibility assessment of groundwater conservation through its high (100%) and low (10%) recycling rates indicated that the studied facility can potentially save around 619,230 m3 and 61,923 m3 of groundwater in a year, respectively.