Sustainability and Social Responsibility

Disclosing Sustainable Business Practices for the Fashion Industry: An Analysis of Fashion Designer Entrepreneurship

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze fashion designer entrepreneurship properties involved in executing sustainable business practices. CONCOR and keyword analysis were used to reveal the dominant sustainability trends of small-scale designers and fashion brand startups. 82 brands worldwide, from ‘fashion transparency index,’ were used for the analysis. TF-IDF analysis suggests that designers most active in the aspects of textiles, waste, design, sustainability, handmade, upcycling, story, traditional, craft, and local. It can be concluded that designer brands pursue eco-friendly values and social responsibility by reducing waste, deconstructing, following social or local values, focusing on textile reduction or upcycling, and adhering to human-centered design and hand-made processes. CONCOR analysis reveals notable clusters: design philosophy and production method. This means that design entrepreneurs and start-up brands are making the effort to be sustainable, by utilizing followed methods, but minimal efforts have been made related to delivery, packaging, and store displays.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable business practices, fashion designer entrepreneurship, text mining, semantic network analysis

How to Cite:

Min, Y., Ju, N. & Lee, K., (2022) “Disclosing Sustainable Business Practices for the Fashion Industry: An Analysis of Fashion Designer Entrepreneurship”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 79(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.15941