Sustainable Communication: Fashion Consumers' Reception and Interaction : The Case of Nudie Jeans

Abstract: The fast fashion industry has a large negative impact on the environment and its workers. Consumers purchasing fast fashion are reinforcing the dominant social paradigm, the assumption that humans are superior and the Earth’s resources unlimited. Even though customers are reconsidering their fashion consumer behavior, they often fall back to making unsustainable choices. Research has shown that communication strengthens ethical consumption and supports reducing the attitude-behavior gap. This study proposes that sustainable communication encourages fashion customers to reason with themselves in a way their behavior evolves to be more sustainable. The aim is to investigate customers’ reception and interaction with sustainable communication using the example of the ethical fashion brand Nudie Jeans. Based on the theories of the attitude-behavior gap and sustainable communication, semi-structured in-depth interviews with Nudie Jeans customers were conducted. The analysis of the interview responses demonstrates the initial presence of an attitude-behavior gap and low awareness of sustainable communication among customers. The research indicates that after customers have developed an awareness of sustainable concerns in the fashion industry, a fashion brand can succeed in encouraging customers to adjust predominant consumption patterns towards more ethical ones. On this basis, it is recommended that ethical fashion brands continuously use transparent sustainable communication to educate consumers about the environmental and social maladministration in the fashion industry.