Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives on Scaling up UK Fashion Upcycling Businesses

Abstract

Her research interests are in sustainable art, design and craft, sustainable consumption and production by upcycling, and design education.

Investigating consumers' brand desirability of “upcycled” luxury: the many faces of designer facemasks

“…Through upcycling, material efficiency is enhanced, while solid waste and industrial energy consumption are also reduced (Sung et al, 2017;Zhuo and Levendis, 2014). The upcycled market is reported to be worth 150 million dollars (Yu and Lee, 2019) and has the potential to be financially sustainable (Han et al 2017) ), rather than high-level skills, such as the utilization of modern technology for advanced production (Sung et al 2020).…”

“…n t 20 aesthetic significance of the upcycled facemask when compared to the generic facemask (Sung et al 2020). Also, because the upcycled and generic facemasks look very much alike with little differentiating them outwardly, consumers might not be able to attribute a superior aesthetic value over one against the other.…”

“…Consumers might perceive the upcycled luxury facemasks to be of inferior quality when compared with the generic luxury facemasks. They believe that a luxury facemask made from previous collection/vintage or remnant materials are of lower quality than the generic luxury facemask made from new textile material (Sung et al 2020). Also, these consumers are most likely unaware of the negative environmental impact of the current mass production of generic and (Levy, 2022;Selvaranjan et al, 2021).…”

“…Findings from research done by McKinsey and Company across 90 luxury consumers in 25 countries, showed that sustainable luxury products accounted for an average of 23% purchase rate, and it is further expected to rise to 40% within the next five years (Muret, 2019). Nevertheless, there are certain challenges encountered by all fashion brand stakeholders, in scaling up upcycled fashion (Sung et al, 2020). Therefore, education to change consumers' attitudes, financial incentives for fashion upcycling, skills development to improve the quality of upcycled fashion products, and policies to encourage consumers to purchase upcycled fashion products are required to scale up fashion upcycling (Sung et al 2020).…”

“…Nevertheless, there are certain challenges encountered by all fashion brand stakeholders, in scaling up upcycled fashion (Sung et al, 2020). Therefore, education to change consumers' attitudes, financial incentives for fashion upcycling, skills development to improve the quality of upcycled fashion products, and policies to encourage consumers to purchase upcycled fashion products are required to scale up fashion upcycling (Sung et al 2020).…”