Sustainable textile management and business practices among small scale fashion brands in Indonesia

Abstract: The current fashion and textile industry is one of the largest contributors to climate change and environmental degradation. The industry uses toxic dyes and chemicals to cultivate, manufacturing and processing stages. It also creates emissions that end up as pollution, and waste that ends up as landfill, which damage the ecosystem and has detrimental impact on human health. The textile and fashion industry is also driven by a fast fashion consumption pattern that encourages companies to produce low quality products to a low price. Fashion trends make consumers buy more and throw away more clothes. Therefore, there is a need for the industry to change towards being more sustainable. To understand how it can be done, this research will focus on small fashion businesses or brands in Indonesia. Data collected from semi-misstructured interviews was analyzed with the help of Hallaerts’ framework for a business model approaching de-growth and answered the research questions “What processes have small fashion businesses and brands in Indonesia adapted to have a more sustainable production and business model?”. The research showed that natural dye and innovative design were the main sustainable textile management practices adapted by the brands, together with sustainable and ethical business practices.