Discern (May 2023)
South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations
Abstract
The textile and clothing industry intensifies pollution through the production of fast fashion clothes. The increase fast-fashion clothes imports in South Africa has led to the closing of textile factories and consequently resulted in a loss of jobs. Sustainable development is the solution to reducing socio-environmental harm. Sustainable processes and products reportedly create new employment. Fashion design entrepreneurs are often involved and have influence in every supply chain of their business and are thus in one of the best positions to implement sustainable fashion supply chain operations. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations. Participants were selected purposively, and data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that majority of the primary participants were aware of sustainable fabrics through personal research. Half of them source and produce sustainable garments on a small scale due to the high price of sustainable fabrics. All of the participants had limited knowledge on sustainable design methods. All the participants save their fabric off-cuts and only half of them is motivated by environmental concern. Furthermore, the results indicated that there is a lack of systems to manage the recycling of fabric cut-off and lack of business management skills. Given that there are few sustainable fashion design entrepreneurs in South Africa, the study recommends the textile and clothing industry leaders especially sustainability practitioners to disseminate knowledge and training across the board on sustainable supply chain operations.
