Potential of Extending Lifespan of Prom Dresses

Among various sustainable clothing design strategies, transformable design can encourage people to adopt sustainable fashion behaviors; a versatile garment can be worn in many ways. However, there is a lack of research on prom dresses, which have one of the shortest lifecycles among clothing items since they are usually only worn once. This research investigated consumers\u27 expectations and preferences regarding the changeable design functions of transformable prom dresses related to their shopping orientations. Data were collected from U.S. female college students using an online survey tool. There were significant differences in the reasons given by consumers for the limited use of prom dresses, their design and functional elements, their preferences in the design elements of transformable dresses, and their intention to purchase transformable dresses. The findings can benefit apparel designers and fashion businesses when developing design strategies that can help encourage sustainable fashion behaviors in consumers and enhance their sustainable apparel consumption practices

Exploration of Transformable Garment Design Strategies on Dresses for Sustainability

Transformable garments involve technologies that can convert them into different styles or silhouettes, thus reducing the need to purchase new garments and extend the garment’s lifecycle (Fletcher, 2008). For example, a dress that can change its style, such as in length or silhouette, can be worn in different ways and in various contexts. Transformable garments have great potential to prevent and minimize waste in a product’s lifecycle by encouraging consumers’ natural engagement in sustainable fashion acts. However, there is an overall lack of research about transformable garments. The extant research only addresses a limited item compared to the various kinds of products worn by individuals. Thus, the purpose of this research is to understand consumers’ preferences and expectations for transformable dresses, focusing on the aesthetic aspects and exploring possible changeable design options for transformable dresses

Online Review Mining: Health and Environmental Concerns on Beauty Products

Scholars in advertising, communication, marketing, and public relations have used various text-mining techniques to assess sentiments about brands, social issues, products, and policies. Introducing large-scale text analysis as its method, this study investigated the trend of consumers\u27 interests or concerns over beauty products, focusing on health and environmental issues. A dataset of 249,152 reviews by 177,345 Amazon users on around 75,000 beauty products during the 2004-2013 period was analyzed for this study. The most frequently used words were natural , healthy , and chemical . However, contrary to our expectation, beauty product consumers did not demonstrate much interest in health or environmental concerns. The main topics of the reviews did not center on health or environmental interests; they were mostly dedicated to the descriptions of product, price, delivery, and satisfaction. These findings can help scholars obtain a better understanding of consumer perception and behavior on beauty products related to health and environment issues

Acceptance of a Socially Responsible Label Model for Apparel Products: Application of the Technology Acceptance Model

With a growing group of environmentally and socially conscious consumers, the range of socially responsible (SR) products available in the market has likewise expanded (Marquardt, 2010); currently over 300 different SR labels are being used (Case, 2009). Because such diverse labels exist, consumers have been struggling with identifying information on the label to make an informed, SR purchase decision (D’Souza, 2004; Horne, 2009). In particular, due to the complicated nature of SR practices in apparel products, consumers feel difficulties in identifying SR apparel products and practices in the marketplace (Chen & Burns, 2006; Goswami, 2008)

Who Read Socially Responsible Apparel Labels

Socially responsible (SR) labeling has been developed to encourage consumers to make SR purchases based on ecological attributes of products and additional SR information listed on labels (D’Souza, 2004). Previous research studied the efficacy of SR labels and revealed that SR labels influenced consumers’ purchasing decisions (Dickson, 2001; D’Souza et al., 2007). Despite the fact that SR issues in the apparel industry are significant considerations, practicing conscientious apparel consumption can be challenging for fashion consumers when surrounded by fast fashion and the desire for the latest fashion styles

Sustainable Fashion: Transformable Outerwear and Shopping Orientation

The purpose of this research was to investigate preferences and expectations for transformable outerwear and the differences between them based on consumers\u27 characteristics, including shopping orientations. The data were collected online with 273 U.S. consumers, who were asked about their shopping orientation, consumption behavior toward socially responsible apparel, preferences about transformable design options for outerwear, expected benefits, and expectations for transformable garments for sustainability. Using SPSS 23.0, the data were analyzed through descriptive analysis, Cronbach\u27s alpha, k-means cluster analysis, and a series of independent samples t-tests. These results are expected to be beneficial for designers and manufactures that are in the process of developing transformable clothing for sustainability

Job Expectations, Job Preference, and Learning Expectations of Apparel Merchandising and Design College Students

The majority of current college students represent Gen Y (born between 1977 and 1992). The current workplace population includes 42% of Gen Yers, 31% of baby boomers, and 27% of Gen Xers; Gen Yers will make up 75% of the American workforce by 2025 (Treuren & Anderson, 2010). As they are just starting to impact the workplace, it is critical to understand the characteristics of Gen Y that might influence workplace environment

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Apparel Industry: Linkage between consumer responses and the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act

customers’ desire to shop thrift struggle with knowing where to find the best selection of products and thrift stores generally have minimal budgets for advertising (Christiansen & Snepenger, 2005). To aid in these challenges, Christiansen and Snepenger (2005) identified the existence of a “thrift maven” as someone who encourages thrift shopping by passing on information of the thrift markets to other individuals. In this study, we explored any “thrift mavens” among fashion design students and their post purchase word-of-mouth behaviors regarding their thrift items and retailers

Global Competence and Sustainability in the Apparel and Textile curriculum

n response to the changing global climate and the growing ethnic and cultural diversity in the U.S., there is a widely recognized need to add a global and cultural competency dimension to our educational programs. In addition to global learning, sustainability focused education has increased in importance since the UN’s declaration of education for sustainable development (Connell & Kozar, 2012). However, despite the need for such educational opportunities, few studies have examined the current curriculum to determine if these two critical issues have been addressed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the current apparel and textile curriculum in the U.S. higher education system and to explore the extent to which each course in the apparel and textile field has implemented global competence and sustainability in its course objectives