The Impact of Ethical Concerns on Fashion Consumerism: Case-based Evidence

The fashion industry represents the meeting point of millions of people across the world, and is one of the leading industries that epitomizes the new globalized world of the 21st century (Hilary 2015). Fashion is, in fact, a phenomenon that affects various aspects of our lives, and studying the fashion system helps us understand contemporary culture, society, and consumers (Atik and Firat 2013; Ozdamar-Ertekin 2016). In conjunction with the globalization of societies, culture, and capital, both consumer markets and production systems in the fashion industry are highly globalized (Dholakia and Atik 2016). As a result, today more than ever, ethics is seen as one of the biggest concerns. Fashion companies are regularly involved with various ethical issues, and such companies are often entangled in ethical dilemmas and debacles with serious implications on an array of tangible and intangible performance indicators (Paulins and Hillery 2009). The dizzying speed of fashion consumption and production affects the environment and the natural resources negatively, and may involve exploitation of labor, encouraging materialism, and promoting unnecessary consumption, among other concerns (Ozdamar-Ertekin 2016). Philanthropists, environmentalists, human and animal rights activists, and conscious consumers all around the world have been engaged in increasingly active protests against the apparent unethical practices in the fashion industry. Therefore, we believe it is critical to investigate the challenges and opportunities of ethical concerns in the fashion industry, and identify best practices so as to encourage progress and support the development of a peaceful and fairer world via responsible fashion approaches. We have undertaken a large and long-term project to identify problematic as well as best practices, and this paper is a first report from our work.