“You are Doing What?” Motivations for Fashion Acquisition Abstinence

Abstract

<p>At the core of many environmental problems confronting society is excess consumption in Western culture—including consumers’ embrace of fast fashion. Without a significant reduction in consumption habits, especially in developed countries, a sustainable future is unattainable. However, research demonstrates that encouraging consumers to engage in more sustainable apparel consumption habits is difficult (Hiller Connell & Kozar, 2012). Clothing consumption provides many social-psychological benefits; therefore, satisfying these needs without superfluous consumption is an ambitious endeavor. Inspired by the Free Fashion Challenge (www.freefashionchallenge.com), and with the objective of exploring socialpsychological implications of restrained fashion consumption, researchers at three US universities challenged their students to abstain from acquiring any fashion items for 13 weeks.</p>