Conscious Consuming! Paradoxical Speech of Sustainable Consumption of Fashion

Abstract

Since environmental issues stand on agendas of discussions of marketing repertoires, the scope of issues related to the need for sustainable production processes and "conscious", "responsible" or "sustainable" consumption in the fashion segment must be part of the conversation. The individual responsibility of the fashion consumer towards environmental problems is the object of reflection in this article. Using a qualitative exploratory research design in the Clothing Sector in Pernambuco (Agreste region), we analyze how environmental and sociocultural issues are (re)described according to a (so called) "conscious" practice in fashion consumption. To build the corpus, we considered the prospect of significant individuals in relation to the practice under investigation (fashion consumption), and we conducted ten interviews with local young fashion consumers. Additional data were collected and various sources were included, grouped, and categorized after the fieldwork: articles and conferences that deal with the consumption of fashion (focus on clothing), and materials and news from newspapers, magazines, and internet sources that focused on the consumption of fashion in Pernambuco, totaling 70 articles/sources. In this segment, it was possible to problematize the relationship between jealousy and happiness as an important marker, and fashion that works as part of the resources used by the subject for construction of identity and cultural reproduction. We observed paradoxes of "green" fashion consumption, demystifying the idea that "conscious" fashion consumption is simply a matter of "choice."