Adopting voluntary simplistic lifestyles with practices that are socially and environmentally responsible remain key issues in the quest toward saving the planet. This research explores the prevalence of voluntary simplistic clothing consumption practices among female consumers in South Africa, where dramatic increases in consumption must be curbed.

With the expansion of various distribution channels in online and offline stores, TV, and mobile, consumers now have more information search and retail selection channels to choose from than ever before. Major retailers now use multi- and omni-channel strategies. This study focused on cross-channel consumption, which involves the use of different information search and purchase channels. Using crosschannel consumption, consumers can search for information online and then make purchases offline and vice versa. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between channel strategies and other consumer variables, and the study also assessed the effect of product type. To conduct this empirical study, the researchers developed a consumer questionnaire concerning three consumer channel strategies-on-on, cross, and off-off-and four product categories-clothing, cosmetics, books, and electronics. The results indicated that gender and marital status did not influence consumer channel strategies, but that age did have a significant influence. The analysis showed that consumers in their 40s preferred the cross channel strategy, perceiving it to be effective, satisfactory, and rewarding. Compared to other products, clothing products showed higher levels of cross channel strategies. Consumers indicated that they prefer searching for information online and then purchasing clothing offline. Overall, clothing products generated higher levels of channel satisfaction and channel switch intentions. Cross-channel clothing shoppers reported effective information retrieval times but longer delivery times.

Consumers’ interests in the environment have been growing; hence, their consciousness about the environment has changed and affected their clothing shopping behavior. Prior study indicated attitude-behavior inconsistency in eco-friendly consumer behavior. It was because consumers’ consciousness or attitude was often measured at an abstract level, not at a product specific level. This study investigated eco-friendly clothing knowledge, eco-friendly clothing consciousness, and ecological clothing consumption behavior. The effects of consumers’ level of clothing involvement and subjective norms in this process were also investigated. For the empirical research, a questionnaire was developed, and responses from 480 women in their 20s to 50s were statistically analyzed. Results indicated that interest and fashion consciousness dimensions of clothing involvement had a significant influence on ecofriendly clothing knowledge, which thereby significantly influenced the three factors of eco-friendly clothing consciousness: social responsibility, health orientation, and clothing resource-saving consciousness. Such factors had different roles in the clothing consumption process. Social responsibility had a significant influence on the entire process of clothing consumption: shopping, purchasing, using, and disposing behaviors. Health orientation consciousness had a significant influence on shopping and purchasing behaviors, whereas resource-saving consciousness had a significant impact only on shopping behavior. Subjective norms were significantly correlated with all aspects of the clothing consumption process. Influence on disposing behavior was relatively weaker than other aspects of clothing consumption behavior.

Much of the sustainability research has orientated around the production side of the business model, changing a consumer’s consumption pattern, such as extending the usage of a product and reducing the frequency of purchase and even promoting shared use, is now being recognised as a critical facet of working towards sustainability. The focus on the consumer perspective, their usage and response to alternative modes of garment use is under represented in the research to-date, which has predominantly focused on the point of design or disposal. Employing a multi-method qualitative study, this research engages with consumers to build the critical insights currently pertinent but neglected in shifting consumers towards more sustainable fashion consumption practices. Fashion management is important as evidenced by a global garment industry valued at around US $1.7 trillion and employing approximately 75 million people (Fashion United; International Labour Organisation). However, there are significant environmental costs from resource inputs, manufacture, use and disposal of clothing. This impact occurs while around only 30% of clothing, valued at around £4000, in our wardrobes was worn in the last year (Williams, 2016). Coupled with an increase in clothing purchases, this has led to the phenomena of disposing of garments that may only have been worn a few times. Disposal of clothing is a key tenet of sustainability, with high volumes of purchases propelled by discourses of “fast fashion” (Bianchi and Birtwistle, 2010) resulting in approximately one million tonnes of clothes being disposed annually in the UK (Defra, 2009). Whilst a need for consumer behaviour change is clearly identified for systemic change within fashion management, little insight is provided as to how this can be facilitated. From a production and retail perspective, sustainable clothing discussions have been appropriated into mainstream retail practice (in brands such as People Tree, Patagonia, Everlane, H&M) however one of the presented barriers of a mainstream adoption of this approach, is the lack of trust and weak incentives for consumers. With the premise of extending understandings beyond interested niche fashion groups to mainstream society, we explore tensions and opportunities in extending clothing acquisition practices towards a circular approach. Focusing on fashion consumers (considered as purchasing one fashion item per week) we carried out a multi-method ethnographic study over six months to intervene and challenge consumer fashion consumption habits. We augment the conventional model of fashion consumer behaviour of ‘buy-own-dispose’ and contribute an emergent understanding of the challenges, barriers and opportunities of sustainable clothing consumption and the implications for fashion management.

This study seeks to explore the relationship between clothing adaptation and acculturation for married Chinese immigrant women. In addition, it aims to analyze the differences in their clothing consumption behaviors according to acculturation level. To achieve these purposes, a quantitative research study was conducted on 291 wives of Korean-Chinese multicultural families in Seoul and Gyeonggi. The data was analyzed using factor analysis, cluster analysis, ANOVA, and the Duncun test. The findings were as follows. First, the women were divided into three groups based on their level of acculturation, which was defined as ‘assimilated’, ‘marginalized’ and ‘segregated’. Second, the relationship between their acculturation level and their clothing adaptation was identified. The marginalized group had the lowest level of clothing adaptation. Third, the groups’ differences in clothing selection criteria were analyzed. The segregated group considered the practical aspects (price, color, quality) of clothing to be more important than the other groups. The marginalized group scored the lowest in valuing the aesthetic factors (design, style, trendiness) of clothing. Finally, conformity of clothing consumption varied significantly based on acculturation level. The assimilated and marginalized groups showed higher levels conformity than did the segregated group. Clothing purchase location also varied significantly between the three groups. The assimilated and marginalized groups preferred online shopping, but members of the segregated group preferred to carry out their shopping off-line. This study showed that clothing adaptation and clothing consumption behaviors play key roles in understanding the acculturation of multicultural families.

The purpose of this paper is to understand Taiwanese mature consumers’ attitudes and behaviour toward aging, clothing choice and consumption experience. Eighteen females aged from 47 to 59 years old were recruited, and in-depth interview was used to explore the purchasing motives, the salient impact of product attributes, and fashion information sources. Simple descriptive analysis and content analysis were employed for this study. According to the interview transcripts, Taiwanese mature consumers were generally satisfied with the offers of apparel products in the market. Respondents also expressed that they were concerned about individual interests, self-cultivation and social network when they enter their semi-retirement stage of life. Our results also indicated that clothing selection and consumption were closely associated with individual’s profession, social status and daily activities. In terms of fashion information source, respondents cited window display and store catalogues as the two most important sources, followed by fashion magazines.

This study examines how environmental consciousness and socially responsible clothing consumption attitude influence people's perceptions of the consequences of fast fashion. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey administered to females in their 20s to 40s, and a total of 430 surveys were used in the final analysis. The research results are as follows. First, environmental consciousness-which was conceptualized as interest in consumer effectiveness and the environment-had a positive influence on attitudes toward socially responsible clothing consumption attitude, i.e., clothing recycling and resource conservation. As the perception of consumer effectiveness was high, respondents had a tendency not to follow trends. Second, consumers with a high level of interest in the environment perceived the effect of fast fashion on the environment as serious, and they felt negatively toward personal use of fast fashion. Third, consumers with strong resource conservation behavior perceived the effect of fast fashion on the environment as serious, but those with positive attitudes toward secondhand clothing did not appear to have that perception. Finally, consumers who followed trends and those with weakly held attitudes about resource conservation felt positively toward personal use of fast fashion. The results of this research indicate that environmental consciousness is an important factor for socially responsible clothing consumption behavior. In addition, consumers with strong attitudes regarding resource conservation were more perceptive of the negative effect of fast fashion on the environment.