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Abstract
Fashion upcycling, the process of using waste clothing and textiles to create new products, is an alternative to business-as-usual practices which can effectively address concerns on excessive consumption of energy and material resources and use of chemicals in the fashion industry. Scaling up fashion upcycling businesses could enable the transition of the fashion industry towards sustainability. Past studies in fashion upcycling have paid attention to limited aspects of the businesses, and comprehensive synthesis of viewpoints from diverse stakeholders involved in the business is lacking. This paper provides such a synthesis, focusing on the challenges and success factors for expanding (or scaling up) UK fashion upcycling businesses. Twenty three stakeholders in the UK were interviewed. Four different perspectives (by material suppliers, upcyclers, retailers and consumers) on challenges and success factors for scaling up fashion upcycling businesses in the UK as well as suitable actors to take actions for positive change were identified. Common challenges and success factors across stakeholders were highlighted. The paper further discusses theoretical and practical implications of the study.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge Research and Innovation Allowance at DMU for manuscript writing, and thank Stuart Lawson, Kelley Wilder, Siobhan Keenan, Deborah Cartmell and Rusi Jaspal at DMU for supporting this research. Many thanks to Lynn Oxborrow, Mollie Painter-Morland and Usha Ramanathan at NTU for their advice and initial inputs.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Sung (2017) summarized criteria for (un)sustainable upcycling as follows. Sustainable upcycling means that it: a) avoids another purchase of a new product; b) prolongs the life of the products, giving it a second life; c) avoids unnecessary transport and maintains a small local economy; d) does not require any large amounts of energy; and e) produces products with low environmental impact during usage. Unsustainable upcycling is the process which involves energy intensive process or toxic glues, and does not extend the product lifetime for a significant amount. Questioning whether or not upcycling is a ‘good thing’ and investigating the limits and/or efficaciousness of upcycling from a sustainability perspective could be the focus of further research on upcycling.
2 These studies on fashion and textile upcycling often cite the research on sustainable product design in the 1990s addressing various sustainable practices including upcycling without using the term, upcycling (e.g., Hart 1997; Van Weenen 1995; Margolin 1998).
3 SMEs are defined by staff headcount and turnover. Micro businesses have staff headcount of less than ten and turnover of equal to or less than €2m. Small businesses have staff headcount of less than fifty and turnover of equal to or less than €10m. Medium-sized businesses have staff headcount of less than 250 and turnover of equal to or less than €50m (European Commission Citation2017).
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Funding
Notes on contributors
Kyungeun Sung
Kyungeun Sung (PhD, Sustainable Design) is a VC2020 Lecturer in Product Design at De Montfort University, UK. Her research interests are in sustainable art, design and craft, sustainable consumption and production by upcycling, and design education. [email protected]
Tim Cooper
Tim Cooper (PhD, Sustainable Consumption) is a Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption at Nottingham Trent University, UK. His research interests are multidisciplinary, embracing design, consumer behavior, business models and public policy, all in the context of environmental sustainability and, especially, product longevity.
Johanna Oehlmann
Johanna Oehlmann (MSc, Business Management) is a PhD researcher at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Her research broadly focuses on the mesh of designing and entrepreneuring towards new forms of sustainable value.
Jagdeep Singh
Jagdeep Singh (PhD, Industrial Ecology) is a postdoctoral fellow at Lund University, Sweden. His research focuses on environmental evaluation of business model innovation for sustainability in accommodation, mobility and physical goods sectors. His key research areas involve circular economy, upcycling and the sharing economy.
Oksana Mont
Oksana Mont (PhD, Engineering) is a Professor in Sustainable Consumption and Production at Lund University, Sweden. Her current areas of interest are sustainable consumption and production and sustainable lifestyles. She is also interested in the role of retailers in promoting sustainability of their own operations and along supply chains.