The aim of this pilot study was to study the level of inclination of Indian millennials towards eco-fashion and fast fashion in an era of sustainable living. Though a certain degree of awareness is there, yet millennials are ready to spend more money to look unique while keeping up with trends.There seems to be a void in the sustainability market in India.
As a majority of the respondents chose to opt for fast fashion despite being fully aware of its consequences, it brings forth the fact that there exists a gap between consumers purchase attitude and purchase behaviour.
While Oeko-Tex reports state that 60 per cent of millennials are interested in making sustainable purchasing decisions, they also found that only 37 per cent of them actually make their purchases in accordance with this philosophy. A lack of availability of affordable product and effective marketing strategies by brands seem to be key issues (Luna Petersen, 2018).
Sustainable fashion brands at present are so few, yet the vast majority of these brands do not offer the scale or variety of sustainable fashion items to meet millennial demands, expectations or tastes. Very few consumers will ever actually take the time to visit a brand's corporate sustainability page or read a sustainability report, as a few even do not know of the existence of such checks and balances.For most, fashion is a decision that falls more on the emotional spectrum than a rational one.
Aspects of sustainability and look are weighted consciously against one another; ethical aspects usually end up coming to mind last when making purchasing decisions (Susanna Koelbin, 2018). Millennials rank everything else, such as ease of purchase, price, uniqueness and the brand name, over sustainability.
New York City-based LIM College professors Robert Conrad and Kenneth M Kambara found that millennials care much more about a product's brand name and uniqueness than its actual sustainability.There are two main obstacles in Turkish university students making ethical choices; first, despite being one of the most important clothing suppliers to European countries by 1970s, Turkey has recently started to develop a sustainable design and consumption culture.
He second obstacle is the need for knowledge and maturity among consumers to adopt an ethical and responsible consumption attitude, which renders young consumers vulnerable to a lack of knowledge and interest in ecological fashion (Kipoz and Enes).
Indian millennials are well aware of the importance of sustainability and actively advocate eco-friendly alternatives for products and services. Fifty five per cent of the respondents believe in leading a sustainable lifestyle, out of which only 27 per cent of them claim to make it a priority while shopping. Forty per cent of the respondents, although aware of the implications of fast fashion, admitted that they do not consider sustainability when it comes to clothing in spite of advocating for a green environment.
Even among the respondents who consider sustainability as a purchase criterion, 55per cent give in to the price and 45 per cent to the trend. This becomes very evident as almost 90 per cent of the respondent wardrobes consist of brands that are major fast fashion brands, including H&M, Zara, Forever 21 and Shein as observed during shadowing.
News courtesy - fibre2fashion
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