Slow fashion – Balancing the conscious retail model within the fashion marketplace

Consumers are ever more aware of the impacts of fashion textiles on the natural world, as well as the production ethics concerns directed toward traditional fast fashion products in terms of human resources. This has led to an emerging form of fashion retail centered on production principles that encourage increased lifecycles of products, reduced volume of purchasing by individuals, and ethical care in production and sales. The ethical movement termed slow fashion thus has a unique philosophy that is at odds with a number of traditional aims of retailing. Striving for higher profits through increased sales volume and rapid turnover of goods contradicts the conscious consumption philosophy of slow fashion proponents. This paper therefore explores the market strategies used by four New Zealand fashion retailers who identify as slow, and have a business approach that encourages consumers to prioritize longevity and consumption ethics over price and fashion newness. The research takes a case-based approach, and finds that the central issue for slow fashion retailers, irrespective of their individual philosophies within the slow fashion sphere, is that of finding a balance between the particular conscious retailing models they have self-prescribed, and that of traditional retailing. A necessity for profit making and market share underscores the difficulty of their position in the modern fashion marketplace, and this paper details their unique strategies in negotiating this ethical retail space.