Vivienne Westwood and the Ethics of Consuming Fashion

Jean S. Clarke () and Robin Holt
Additional contact information
Jean S. Clarke: University of Leeds
Robin Holt: University of Liverpool, CBS - Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen]

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Little attention has been given to the ethics of fashion consumption despite the often trenchant critique of the fashion industry for intensifying cycles of production, consumption, and disposal and encouraging in consumers a superficial sense of identity and the good life through apparel. In this article, we suggest that although relationships with clothes are not often explicitly stated as "being ethical," the capacity to be ethical can pervade the buying and wearing of clothes. We focus on the fashion designer, environmental campaigner, and critic of consumption Vivienne Westwood and those who consume her clothing. Using a single case study approach (combining interview data, participant observation, internal and external documents, and literature), we examine the ethical potential of consuming fashion. We show how ethics in consumption is a critical engagement with how products such as clothes are bought and used, and understanding the value of the products we choose to buy. Consumers find themselves personally implicated with and caring for a designer's work and become responsible for reflecting on their own consumption decisions rather than cheaply satisfying immediate desires.

Keywords: fashion; Ethics; consumers; Vivienne Westwood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-04-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Journal of Management Inquiry, 2016, 25 (2), 199-213 p. ⟨10.1177/1056492615592969⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02312353

DOI: 10.1177/1056492615592969

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().