The True Cost: The Bitter Truth behind Fast Fashion

The True Cost is a documentary about the clothes we wear, the people who make them and the impact the industry has on the environment, the society, and the workers. It shows us the dark and grim side of global fast fashion supply chain. The review provides the main highlights of the film and summarizes the human, social and environmental costs of the industry. A number of counter-examples are included to show how people can make a difference and there can be a better way of making clothes. The current fast fashion model is all about profit. It does not take into consideration what the true cost is. It is imperative that we start to question, challenge and consider the long term sustainability of this model. In this regard, The True Cost can be a turning point for most of the viewers, inviting consumers, producers, and governments to become more sensitive on these issues

Conflicting Perspectives on Speed: Dynamics and Consequences of the Fast Fashion System

The fashion industry today is trapped in a competitive cycle of shorter and faster sales and production periods, requiring continual changing of styles, frequent renewal of products, and speed of availability. This high speed of the current fashion system has both positive and negative outcomes on the environment, the workers and the society. The purpose of this study is to provide a more comprehensive and macro perspective on speed, by acknowledging the conflicting perspectives of different stakeholders, focusing mainly on institutional actors. Ethnography, with emphasis on participant observation and interviews, was used as a research method, supported by secondary data on fast fashion and sustainable fashion practices. Findings contribute to existing literature by shedding light on these dynamics and consequences of speed of the current fashion system, hoping to raise awareness among marketers, managers, and public policymakers

Can Luxury Fashion Provide a Roadmap for Sustainability?

Fashion industry is one of the prominent industries in the world with critical negative impacts on the social and ecological environments. It constitutes a very complex and fragmented industry. The currently dominant model of fast fashion, fulfills the desires of consumers who aspire to wear luxury fashion brands but cannot afford them, by offering them similar styles at affordable prices. However, the main principles of fast fashion, which are speed, affordability, change, disposable trends and aesthetic fads, contradict with sustainability goals and principles. Luxury fashion, on the other hand, emphasizes longevity, durability, authenticity, craftsmanship and quality, and can therefore be better associated with sustainability. Hence, it is important to discuss if luxury fashion brands and retailers are more likely to foster the values of sustainability and thereby initiate change towards a more sustainable fashion system. In this regard, this conceptual paper examines the relationship between fashion and sustainability and assesses how the values of luxury fashion align and or contradict with sustainability. Luxury fashion brands can overcome some of the problems that fast fashion creates. On the other hand, there are some challenges and skepticism about luxury fashion and sustainability relationship. The paper reflects on these conflicts and evaluates the role of luxury fashion in development for a better and a more sustainable fashion system

Grieving & Swiping: Online Dating as Consumers\u27 Post-Breakup Resolution

This study explores the underlying motivations of consumers’ usage of online dating applications after the breakup of romantic relationships. The experiences of young-adult consumers who went through post-breakup grief are investigated through in-depth interviews. Findings resulted in twelve categories of motivations that participating consumers had regarding their usage of dating apps, in relation to managing the grief after breakup. Motivations are grouped under the categories of coping, updating, and desiring. Moreover, findings also demonstrated diverging pathways in using dating apps for emotional resolution. The study contributes to our understanding of dating app usage by highlighting important insights from consumers who benefitted from these apps to manage their post-breakup grief. Furthermore, we suggest managerial implications for the online dating application industry drawing from the link between romantic breakups and dating app usage to design marketing strategies that can better relate to shifting consumer expectations

Ideological capacities in consumer communities : an exploration of the "presenteers" tribe

Purpose: This study aims to explore how a postmodern tribe enacts and re-interprets ideologies as a part of consumers’ collective experience, to enhance our understanding of consumer communities in conjunction with ideological capacities. Design/methodology/approach: The community of “presenteers” is conceptualized as a self-organized tribe with heterogeneous components that generate capacities to act. Netnographic observation was conducted on 18 presenteer accounts and lasted around six months. Real-time data were collected by taking screenshots of the posts and stories that these users created and publicly shared. Data were analysed by adopting assemblage theory, combining inductive and deductive approaches. Firstly, a qualitative visual-textual content analysis of the tribe’s defining components was conducted. Then, the process continued with the thematic analysis of the ideological underpinnings of the tribe’s enactments. Findings: Findings shed light on the ways in which consumer communities interpret the entanglement of religious, political, and cultural ideologies in shaping their experiences. In the case of the presenteers tribe, findings reflect a novel ideological interplay between neo-Ottomanism, post-feminism and consumerism. Research limitations/implications: The study offers a deep dive into a unique tribe that is being organized around the consumer-created practice of “presenteering” and investigates consumer communalization in alignment with the ideological turn in culture-oriented interpretative research on consumers, consumption, and markets. This exploration helps to bridge the research on the communalization of consumers with the recent discussions of ideology in the postmodern market. Originality/value: The study offers a deep dive into a unique tribe that is being organized around the consumer-created practice of “presenteering” and investigates consumer communalization in alignment with the ideological turn in culture-oriented interpretative research on consumers, consumption, and markets. This exploration helps to bridge the research on the communalization of consumers with the recent discussions of ideology in the postmodern market

Grieving & swiping : online dating as consumers' post-breakup resolution

This study explores the underlying motivations of consumers’ usage of online dating applications after the breakup of romantic relationships. The experiences of young-adult consumers who went through post-breakup grief are investigated through in-depth interviews. Findings resulted in twelve categories of motivations that participating consumers had regarding their usage of dating apps, in relation to managing the grief after breakup. Motivations are grouped under the categories of coping, updating, and desiring. Moreover, findings also demonstrated diverging pathways in using dating apps for emotional resolution. The study contributes to our understanding of dating app usage by highlighting important insights from consumers who benefitted from these apps to manage their post-breakup grief. Furthermore, we suggest managerial implications for the online dating application industry drawing from the link between romantic breakups and dating app usage to design marketing strategies that can better relate to shifting consumer expectations