Global warming, pollution and climate change are issues that are widely discussed nowadays. This brings consumers to get more involved in researching the material content of the clothes they are wearing and their impact on the environment. As a matter of fact, manufacturers are frequently blamed by the consumers for releasing harmful chemicals in our ecosystem. This drives companies to grow their concern over sustainability and ethical issues, especially in the fashion industry (Moisander & Personen, 2002). Global companies such as Adidas, H&M or Reebok have been launching recycled and sustainable products, and words such as “fair trade” or “organic” are increasingly being used in marketing. However, most clothing apparel still raise ethical …show more content…
On the other hand, many brands which are really going green get accused of greenwashing by consumers. That discourages companies to publicly share their green initiatives (Hopkins, 2009). Many researchers (Shen et al, 2012) believe that sustainability serves as an efficient way to engage and captivate shoppers. However, in the UK for instance, while 30% of the consumers claim to be very implicated in ethical and sustainable issues, they still find difficulties buying sustainable products because they can not afford it for instance or because they are just not used to buy clothing from “green brands”. 1.1 Research questions and objectives Only few researches have been conducted regarding consumers’ perspectives on ethical and sustainability problems in the fashion industry and on the effect it has on their buying comportment. (Dickson, 1999). Therefore, in my research, I would like to develop a better understanding of the behaviour of the consumers towards sustainable ( environmental friendly) & ethical (social) fashion products and answer the following research questions: 1) Do consumers really care about sustainability or do they feel pressured by the society to do? 2) What premiums are consumers willing to pay in order to get a sustainable piece of