Sustainability researcher Talia Hussain believes that retail can play an important role in making the textile industry more sustainable. She is currently writing a PhD on the subject at Loughborough University.
For her PhD at Loughborough University, Hussain surveyed consumers interested in sustainability. Without wanting to use the word “guilt” or “consumption guilt”, almost all respondents were overwhelmed with their choice, she tells FashionUnited via Zoom. “They try to buy used as much as possible and do more with clothes. But when they have to go shopping, they have a hard time with their purchases because they can’t do everything perfectly. And that’s with a group of consumers who are above-average commitment to sustainability,” she emphasizes.
The scientist emphasizes that it doesn’t help that we can go shopping anytime and anywhere. “Shopping has taken over our entire life. It occurs in every aspect of our lives: for example, when we visit a museum, an airport, or a place of worship. In the United States there are churches, let’s call them “megachurches,” that derive part of their income from retail. It’s also a way to attract churchgoers who are interested not only in praying but also in shopping. This kind of “mega-church” seems to answer exactly the question: What would Jesus buy?”
Hussain has to laugh at her own comment before getting serious again and continuing her argument. “Our smartphones obviously didn’t help. Thanks to technology and e-commerce, we can shop 24/7, even in the toilet. For decades, our economy was dominated by shopping. After 9/11, US President George W. Bush called out to his countrymen not to sit around idly, but … to go shopping. Even during the Corona crisis, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the time urged the population to reactivate the economy through mass shopping. Is that really a sustainable message?”
Retail as the holy grail?
It is precisely the businesses that constantly surround us that can contribute to solving the sustainability problem. “It’s not like we can do without clothes. We need clothes, but what we need most right now are ways to make them in better ways, with less harmful materials and processes. Retailers can act as gatekeepers and pass their experiences on to consumers.”
Hussain notices that previous academic research has not yet gone down this path. “The academic literature on retail is generally about how to motivate people to buy more, not less,” she noted. This is in contrast to brands that encourage consumers to consume less, such as Patagonia. Yvon Chouinard’s outdoor brand, who recently gave away his company, previously did so with the campaign Don’t buy this jacket. In addition to an awareness-raising message, this turned out to be clever marketing: It was precisely this slogan that led to a sharp increase in sales.
Somehow, it’s not that surprising that scientists have so far talked little about reducing consumption, notes Hussain. “Retailers are part of the same economic system as manufacturers who disregard environmental and human rights. They still have to pay the rent. They can only do that if they can sell a certain amount of clothes.”
“In this respect,” Hussain remains critical, “ethical retail is a contradiction in terms. Retailers say they can certainly buy less, but they still need to sell to survive and pay the rent.”
Hussain continues on the subject of rents. “It’s logical, but ironic at the same time, that the highest rents are in the areas with streets that have the most traffic. Landlords know that this is where retailers can capitalize most on their premises.”
“Furthermore, research shows,” she continues, “that it takes a lot more effort to find new customers than it does to impose even more on existing customers. Here, too, the contradiction between the sale and the call to consume is evident. After all, surviving is still about more, not less!”
Sustainability scenarios for a better world
How do you resolve this inherent contradiction? Talia Hussain lets us know that the answer will be found in her PhD thesis. “So far I haven’t found the solution. That’s why I’m pursuing my doctoral research separately from the current economic reality.” Let’s fast-forward, Hussain suggests, to a “beautiful future in which the above-mentioned problems like rents don’t matter anymore”. In which the role of dealers as curators can prevail.
“Or imagine color becoming a service rather than a decision that brands make before going into production,” Hussain cites as a final example. “When you order clothes online and ship them back, it’s often, because the color is different than what you think. Wouldn’t it be better if the color of a piece of clothing was decided at the time of purchase, like the color of a wall or the color of a car? Then less clothing is lost.”
Hussain is developing some scenarios for her doctoral thesis entitled “Sustainability Scenarios”. She keeps to herself what those are – she won’t hand in her thesis until the end of March. But what the scenarios clearly have in common is that the clothes don’t have to be ready when you buy them. In other words: In the future, retail can move away from the “finished product” that it has relied on for years.
“The consumers I spoke to mostly want clothes that look good on them without necessarily having to follow fashion,” says Hussain of her target audience. “And they often get frustrated when they don’t find exactly what they’re looking for. Some even want less choice, but more orientation when making a choice.”
The retail expert believes that doing without ready-made goods can help. “If we can be satisfied with a product in the branches that is not necessarily finished, but can be made specifically according to our ideas and sizes … then as a retailer you could be sure that customers have really found something that suits them perfectly. That seems to me to be the basis of sustainable clothing.”
This translated article originally appeared on FashionUnited.nl.