Ethics: in fashion?

[Marcus Marulus]

Ethics: in fashion?

February 11, 2008

Recent research shows that consumers are more interested than ever in ethical clothing. The fashion industry must take this on board

As London fashion week continues, the fashion industry seems to have been caught with its pants down on the issue of ethical and environmental clothing.

According to research carried out by Kellie Dalton at Dublin University, there are vital lessons to be learned by all fashion professionals and shareholders in clothing plc's (see it here).

The recent Deeper Luxury report by WWF UK says: "Consumers' increasing concerns with environmental and social problems are the greatest cultural shift of the 21st century" and points the way to how these industries must behave if they are to keep the cachet which they need to survive.
For an increasing number of business leaders, social responsibility is a necessity for commercially viable competition. A recent report released by Goldman Sachs (pdf), showed that companies that are considered leaders in implementing environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies to create sustained competitive advantage have outperformed the general stock market by 25% since August 2005. Some 72% of those companies have outperformed competitors over the same period.

Growing rapidly as a strong segment of this ethical consumerism market, ethical and environmental production in the fashion sector has evolved from a once seasonal trend to a fundamental shift in thinking across all stakeholders of the fashion industry.

Changing consumer attitudes are driving this shift and as a result the market for ethically produced fashion is experiencing rapid growth (pdf); spending on ethical clothing grew by 26% between 2004 and 2005, from £23m to £29m, and demand for the same has increased 300% in the last 12 months.

Over half (23.1 million) of Britain's consumers think ethical production of the clothes they buy is important, according to the 2007 research from global market information company, TNS Worldpanel Fashion. An overwhelming 76% of people feel an end to child labour and sweat shops is a very important driver of ethical production, closely followed by offering producers a fair price (60%) and damage caused to the environment (50%).

Elaine Giles, research executive at TNS Worldpanel Fashion states:

"7.1 million consumers say that ethical issues are important to them but feel availability of such items is poor ... retailers must not underestimate the importance of ethical credentials, as ethical fashion is high on the consumer agenda."

This shows a substantial gap in the clothing market for demand that needs to be filled.

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