A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Global Change Studies. Johannesburg, 2016 / This study examined the retail clothing industry of South Africa and the associated sustainability practices, with particular focus on supply chain management. This study was conducted in order to test the relationship between sustainable supply chains and profitability in the hope that it might provide incentives for managers to adopt sustainability into their supply chain operations. The study made use of a case study analysis through a collection of quantitative and qualitative data of the sample organisations’ integrated reports and financial results to determine if there was a correlation between sustainable business practices and long-term economic profitability. Interviews were also conducted with industry participants in order to gain further insight. The study found that organisations that showed the highest investment along all three pillars of sustainability also experienced the largest and most stable economic growth within the sample. Although this could not be validated due to the limited sample size, the results did infer a positive association between sustainable supply chain management and economic success. It was also found that investing into the social capital of an organisation did have the potential to improve the economic success of an organisation within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. This study identified sustainable supply chain management frameworks that could benefit organisations within this industry financially. Further research is required into this field but it can be inferred that the incorporation of sustainable supply chain management can lend itself towards economic success within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. / LG2017

by So Oi-kwan, Christina. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaves 71-72.

Very little empirical research has been conducted on Asian Americans as a whole in relation to their consumer behavior, specifically their clothing behavior. A review of literature demonstrated that Asian Americans have been studied from different psychographic and sociological aspects. However, the apparel shopping behavior of this market has received only slight research attention. The purpose of this study was to compare Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans with regards to apparel shopping orientations. This study also examined the relationship between apparel shopping orientations and intensity of ethnic identification among Asian Americans. The multimediation model of consumer behavior (EKB model) proposed by Engel, Kollat and Blackwell (1973) was used as a theoretical framework for the present study. Based on the EKB model, it was expected that people of different cultural backgrounds were different in terms of their consumer behavior. Another conceptual framework used in the present study was the concept of shopping orientations, introduced by Stone (1954). Apparel shopping orientations refer to motivations, interests and attitudes toward apparel shopping. Seven shopping orientations were selected for the present study. They were: economic shopping, personalizing shopping, recreational shopping, social shopping (including friend social shopping and family social shopping), brand loyal shopping, impulse shopping and fashion orientations. The fashion orientation included four factors: fashion leadership, fashion interest, fashion importance and antifashion attitude. The nature of the study was observational, in which no variables were manipulated. The data collection method involved a mailed questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions measuring seven shopping orientations, Asian Americans' intensity of ethnic identification and questions on demographic characteristics. A purposive sample of 300 Asian American and 300 Caucasian American students were drawn from the students enrolled at Oregon State University for 1990 Fall term. A pretest was conducted before the data were collected. Dillman's "Total Design Method" (1978) was used as a guideline when implementing the data collection procedures. The response rates were 75.9% for the total sample, with 72.6% for the Asian group and 79.0% for the Caucasian group. The collected data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), t-test and Pearson correlation. Significant differences were found between Asian and Caucasian American respondents on social shopping, including both friend social and family social shopping, brand loyal shopping, and fashion leadership orientations. The Asian respondents were found to be significantly more brand loyal and liked to shop with friends or family members than were the Caucasian respondents. The Asian American students were also found to be more likely to regard themselves as fashion leaders than were the Caucasian students in this study. Also a negative correlation was found between intensity of ethnic identification and fashion importance among Asian American respondents. This finding indicated that the more an Asian respondent identified with Asian ethnicity, the less (s)he considered being well-dressed to be important. / Graduation date: 1991

M. Tech. Fashion Design / Globalization has made it possible to produce cheap clothing at increasingly lower prices, prices so low that they tempt the consumers into buying them and not thinking twice about disposing of them. The idea of "fast fashion" leaves a pollution footprint, with each step of the clothing life cycle generating potentially environmental and occupational hazards. The primary purpose of this study was to examine consumers' understanding of sustainable clothing and to determine if their knowledge could have some positive influence on the frequency of purchase and disposal of clothing.

M. Tech. Fashion Design / The need to educate consumers about eco-friendly clothing cannot be over emphasized any longer, research has shown that consumers with environmental knowledge are likely to purchase eco-friendly products and would be willing to pay a premium price for such products. Cheap clothing rejects the central ethics of sustainability, and they catalyse unnecessary overconsumption behaviour worldwide. With an increase in purchasing power of many consumers, excessive consumption behaviour suggests that cheap fashion merchandise are purchased and disposed of rapidly by several consumer groups. The current fashion retail industry obtains new fashion styles and supplies new clothing ranges within short span of time enticing fervent consumers' with an impetuous buying behaviour, particularly the younger consumers. The majority of consumers do not understand that their buying behaviour and disposal behaviour impacts negatively on the environment. This is a particularly common in South Africa with very few retail shops offering eco-certified clothing merchandise. This study explores consumer awareness on what constitutes eco-fashion and if their knowledge could, in future, influence them towards sustainable buying behaviour. This study also considers educational measures taken by the South African government and non-governmental organisations to empower citizens with respect to environmental issues.

Presented in the creative project is a full advertising campaign for Collegienne Shops, a department store located in Muncie, Indiana adjacent to the campus of Ball State University. The campaign utilized a newly developed logo together with new color schemes and concepts to create a new image for the store. The goal of this new image was to attract younger, college aged customers, while continuing to appeal to the traditionally affluent, older clientele, with no large adjustments in the store's product lines.The new logo, color schemes and concepts of the advertising campaign, coupled with new store interior displays and exterior modifications were calculated to present a new image for Collegienne Shops, apart from that of its parent company, Ball Stores [of Muncie]. Currently the store markets the same line of women's clothing and accessories as Ball Stores, and projects a decidedly similar image through its advertisements and in-store atmosphere.The new logo and design concepts were incorporated into the company letterhead, a business card, an envelope, a tractor-trailer truck, a shopping bag, T-shirts, packaging designs, posters and numerous print ads.Also developed was a complete concept for a television commercial, along with novelty and point of purchase items, premiums, as well as interior displays and exterior modifications, including a design for a large sculpture for the store's sidewalk.The project is presented in manual form to share the experience and assist other students with their own graphic design projects.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul. 12, 2010). Directed by Nancy Hodges; submitted to the Dept. of Consumer, Apparel, and Retail Studies. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-129).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 18, 2007). Directed by Barbara Dyer; submitted to the School of Human Environmental Sciences. Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-100).

Luxury fashion brands seem to contradict sustainability. The values of sustainability are commonly associated with terms such as sharing, collaboration, austerity, and collective thinking. Luxury, however, is associated with excess, self-indulgence, delight and decadence (Kapferer & Bastien, 2012:360). Further paradoxes exist where the apparel of the luxury consumer is often manufactured by labourers in low wage-paying producing countries. High wastage is evident in the seasonality of the fashion industry. However, work opportunities are created by the fickleness of the fashion industry and the constant need to own the most current designs (Black, 2012:8). Owing to the high visibility of luxury fashion and the contractions between one -- on the one hand -- supplying income to families by way of employment and -- on the other hand -- not complying to sustainable international human resource practices, fashion brands are the focus of many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that use the mass media to expose any social wrongdoing in the industry. Luxury fashion brands are constantly in the spotlight, as highlighted in articles posted by the Clean Clothes campaign, a custodian for employees in the global garment industries; Greenpeace; and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). An example of such practices was when Greenpeace reported in 2009 that shoe brands such as Timberland and Clarks were manufactured from leather sourced from the hides of cattle in illegally deforested areas in Brazil. This provided negative publicity for these luxury shoe brands as well as for the Brazilian government that was financing this project (Vurro, Russo & Perrini, 2009:609). The luxury fashion brand industry, as well as the consumers of luxury fashion labels, are accused -- often only for the sake of sensationalism -- of living in the lap of luxury whilst maintaining a supply chain that is riddled with unsustainable practices. The social structure and hierarchy of patrons within a community have, since the Middle Ages, been signalled by the clothes they wore. Social class was a birthright. Today, sporting luxury brands continues to serve as status symbols, but unlike mediaeval times, it is not limited to people with a high social standing at birth as one can work for status, and purchase the items because one deserves them. (Han, Nunes, & Drèze, 2010:15). In 2009, during the International Herald Tribune (IHT) Suzy Menkes, the fashion editor at The Herald, called for “luxury”’ and “fashion” to be separated. Luxury prides itself in its handcrafted garments manufactured by respected tradesmen in the industry. The outcome is that the manufactured goods are made to last a lifetime (Gibson, 2012:23).

Submitted in Partial Compliance with the Requirements for the Masters of Technology: Fashion at the Durban University of Technology, 2006. / The purpose of this study was to investigate the eveningwear preferences of single women (unmarried, divorced, widowed), between the ages of 25 and 40, who live/work in the Durban Metropolitan area. This study aimed to uncover the factors that influence the eveningwear purchase decisions of single women in the hope of proposing practical changes in retail eveningwear design. These influences were investigated in the light of social-psychological factors and centred on the concept of dress as a phenomenon of visual communication. / M