The Responsible Fashion Consumer: How Small Changes in Everyday Behaviour can Create Big Sustainable Change

This book focuses on the role of the fashion consumer within environmental and social sustainability, exploring how small changes in their attitudes and behaviour can be the start of significant transformation for the future of the industry. There are many challenges on this journey towards change, but fashion has reached a tipping point, moving towards slower consumption, increased product value and greater garment longevity. Focusing on the use-phase of the product lifecycle, the consumer as an integral stakeholder needs to be informed in order for an adoption of new behaviours, with a lack of awareness and knowledge of sustainability being the largest barrier to change.

Fashion has long been associated with unsustainable principles, evidenced in the negative social and environmental impact seen during the product lifecycle. Examples range from the overuse of non-renewable resources such as oil in the production of synthetic textiles, to the unethical treatment of garment workers with excessive working hours under inhumane conditions. The fast-fashion business model applies further pressure to the product lifecycle, often resulting in compromise to facilitate a speed of delivery to market. The traditional take, make, dispose process needs to change, with methods of production and consumption to be redesigned to incorporate sustainable and circular principles. The fashion consumer has the power to facilitate such change, with their garment purchasing, maintenance and disposal decisions acting as a catalyst for systemic reform.