Consuming fast fashion and sustainability: The role of self-concept, awareness and financial soundness

Purpose: To address the fashion industry's environmental sustainability, the study of the ideal social self-concept is a new notion. Social self-identification contributes to unsustainable consumption, and when it combines with consumers’ awareness and consumers’ purchasing power, provides a more comprehensive picture of the grounds for unsustainable fast-fashion purchase.

Design/methodology/approach: This research employs a lived experience method to understand the primary causes of fast-fashion consumption and the impediments to sustainable fashion. The research obtains its findings via semi-structured interviews with 21 fast-fashion customers and a qualitative content analysis.

Research limitations: This is an exploratory study with a small sample size and a small geographical area. However, the study provides several important findings and valuable recommendations for further research with a larger sample.

Practical implications: This study concludes that if the price differential between fast and sustainable fashion is reduced to a minimum, SF will be a huge success and more acceptable to mass customers. To compel fast-fashion merchants to raise their prices by focusing on quality and environmental security may significantly improve fashion's sustainability.

Theoretical implications/Originality/Value: This research is unique in its field since it examines customers' social, economic, and knowledge perspectives on fashion sustainability. Additionally, it develops the ideal social self-concept from a fashion sustainability viewpoint and contributes to the theory by extending the self-concept to an unsustainable consumption level.