People
‘People’ is one of the four pillars of sustainability explored in LCF fashion business school. They created the industry, sustain it, and influence it, in its successes and failures.
However, the fashion industry isn’t sustainable in the present, and “people” are the reason for that. This is because consumers are buying more clothes than ever before, 56 million tonnes of clothing are bought each year (Beall, 2020) and that figure is expected to nearly double by 2030 thus influencing fast fashion to grow and expand even more. However, the increase in fashion consumption has led to an increase in textile waste as the average American throws away 37kg of clothing every year. (Beall, 2020)
Although it’s not just the consumers causing an unsustainable fashion industry, businesses within the industry are notorious for paying their garment workers low wages. Around 35 – 40% of garment workers are not paid the legal minimum (ILO), negatively affecting SDG number 8, decent work and economic growth.
However, Gen Z is currently the biggest influence on the fashion industry as they make up 32% of the world’s population (Spitznagel, 2020).
With this influence comes the ability to change and challenge issues within the industry as Gen z is more concerned with social and environmental causes than previous generations, therefore brands are having to become more transparent and conscious of the choices they make. “9 – 10 gen z consumers believe companies have a responsibility to address environmental and social issues” (Amed et al, 2019)
However social media is having a massive effect on a business’s image as 97% of Gen Z use social media (Kastenholz, 2021). The companies that addressed issues and movements such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter and body positivity have benefited from the positive press that’s resulted in consumers wanting to spend money with them as their views align, however, the companies that didn’t address the issues were in danger of being blacklisted and cancelled by today’s society as social media has it made it easier for normal individuals in society to challenge big brands.
Victoria’s Secret Is an example of a brand that has faced significant loss in sales, – 4.5% from 2021 – 2022 (Retail Insight Network, 2022) and brand image as they failed to embrace society’s move to increase diversity inclusion of underrepresented groups. Most famously them hiring Ashley Graham as their plus-sized model who wears a UK 10 – 12 however the average size for a woman is a UK 14 (Nunes, 2022).
However, Rihanna’s Fenty brands have shown how successful a business can be if it embraces and represents everyone. From Plus size to gender-neutral clothing as well as models of all gender, race and ethnicity being seen from the catwalk to the boardroom.
The line passed $ 1 billion in sales after only a year (McKinnon, 2022).
Although, it could be argued that although Fenty is considered diverse and represent a wide range of society, are they very affordable and accessible for the average consumer as a monthly subscription with them retails at £50.
References
Amed et al – https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-influence-of-woke-consumers-on-fashion
Beall – https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200710-why-clothes-are-so-hard-to-recycle
ILO – https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/wages/minimum-wages/lang–en/index.htm
Nunes – https://www.byrdie.
Spitznagel – https://nypost.com/2020/01/25/generation-z-is-bigger-than-millennials-and-theyre-out-to-change-the-world/
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