Study of a Social Content Model for Sustainable Development in the Fast Fashion Industry

Abstract

Due to an increase in clothes consumption and a decreasein the trend cycle, middle-class consumers generally preferclothes that are cheap and trendy. The share of global SPA(Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) brands in theworld fashion market is steadily expanding. However, SPAclothes emphasize trends, resulting in disposal after a seasonregardless of the quality. Today, the growth of fashion wasteraises serious environmental concerns. This study develops sustainable social content for fastfashion. The fast fashion industry has not yet made suitableefforts to achieve sustainability, even though serious environmentalpollution is produced by fast fashion. This study investigatesthe possibility that fashion social content can focus onenvironmentally friendly products, customer service, fair employmentopportunities, fair allocation of profits, diversity ofquality and design, and ecosystem promotion. The study providesdata to execute a new marketing strategy for sustainabledevelopment of global a SPA brand. The qualitative research of the present study was conductedvia one-on-one in-depth interviews. The subjects of the qualitativeresearch were individuals who had extensive knowledgeabout the subject of this research and were employed in thefast fashion and ethical fashion industries. After the qualitativeinterviews, 200 students were surveyed, and 166 were chosenas research subjects. The results are as follows. First, five sub-themes, includingfair-trade storytelling, independent designers, an eco-friendlyidentity, understanding differences in reform and redesign, andchanges in consumer perception, are investigated throughin-depth interviews. Second, based on a consumer survey aboutthe intent to participate in different programs, such as 1:1sponsorship, eco-friendly design sourcing, a reform style contest,redesign consulting, and an eco-fashion gallery, eco-friendly design sourcing programs have the highest intent to participateof all the studied sustainable social programs. The present study is a timely investigation because there hasbeen an increase in the social awareness of benefit sharing. Moreover, consumer perception of the environment is on therise in South Korea. This study is a pioneer in applying socialsustainability, which has until now been used in the fields ofenvironmental, economic, and social research, to fashion socialcontent. The implications for fast fashion firms that care aboutthe ecological consumers are discussed, as are opportunities forfurther research.