This research identifies the types of relationship asymmetry within sustainable fashion supply chains and the role of relationship asymmetry in sustainable product development in fashion supply chains in the UK. This research that is based on supply chain experiences of experts highlighted that how relational asymmetries hinder sustainable product development in fashion supply chains, but also how sustainable behaviours, values and policies help to overcome the influence of relational asymmetry in sustainable product development process.

Creativity and innovation are crucial components of new product development (NPD) and incorporating environmental sustainability adds an extra dimension to the creative process, particularly for the fashion industry, which is a key sector in the UK creative industries that form a significant part of the national economy. Fashion designers’ creativity during NPD can be facilitated by effective collaboration with roles such as product technologists and buyers. This paper discusses ways in which creative knowledge and processes can be applied to innovative sustainable product development, exploring barriers and enablers involved in widening the availability and adoption of environmentally sustainable fashion. NPD is one of the more tangible aspects of creativity that can be managed, whereas creative design thinking is less tangible and logical, thus making it potentially incompatible with managers who are often more business-orientated and risk-averse in their approach than designers (Puryear, 2014). This can create tension for teams when selecting the most appropriate products for production and sustainable product features have traditionally not been a priority for fashion companies. Making products more sustainable is one of the challenging constraints that designers increasingly need to address within NPD, due to the high sustainability impacts of clothing in both environmental and social terms (Hjelmgrem et al., 2015). This research will adopt a qualitative approach, involving semi-structured interviews with a sample of 20 product development professionals from retailers, brands and manufacturers in the UK fashion business, during August to October 2018. In conclusion, the study will build on the primary research results to develop an original conceptual framework in the form of a model to facilitate product developers’ awareness and understanding of sustainability issues within creative processes and to adopt a new vocabulary to elicit more effectual communication regarding sustainability between NPD actors.

The ever-evolving fashion industry has brought forth direct and indirect effects on the environmentto the extent that environmental contamination, labor exploitation, and pirated or counterfeit products have emerged as serious social issues. The sustainability-related issues are associated with all stages of the product lifecycle, ranging from the extraction of raw materials to product disposal (Berkhout & Smith, 1999).In lifecycle management (LCM), the triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability is seen from the perspective of the product lifecycle (Kocmanova & Nemecek, 2009). TBL refers to corporate efforts to keep a balance among financial viability, environmental soundness and social accountability (Elkington, 1997). As sustainable products are defined in the light of lifecycles, research on product lifecycle management (PLM) has drawn much attention (Gmelin & Seuring, 2014).In addition, PLM is known to exert substantial effects on new product development, which warrants the need to view new sustainable products from the perspective of PLM (Cantamessa, Montagna, & Neirotti, 2012). Therefore, the present study intends to apply a conceptual model of PLM-based new sustainable product development to the fashion industry and to take multifaceted approaches to sustainable fashion product development. To that end, case studies of 21 local and global sustainable fashion brands, 1:1 in-depth interviews with 24 experts from sustainable and non-sustainable fashion brands, and participant observation of 5 sustainable fashion brands were conducted as part of this study. The findings illuminate the management issues attributable to the lack of technology and expertise, as well as the quantification issues involving monitoring or normalized data collection, despite the presence of some process-specific sustainable items in sustainable products developed by the fashion brands. Also, the findings will serve as reference data for further discussions and provide some implications for the sustainable fashion product development of fashion brands.