The Sustainable Practices of Indonesian Fashion Brands

Abstract

In the recent years, sustainability has been more prominent and performing as an influential attribute in the fashion industry. As fashion consumers become more conscious and informed on the complications caused by the prevailing fashion system and industry to the environment, the slow fashion movement has emerged as the more recent sustainable notion in the fashion industry. More fashion retailers and emerging entrepreneurs have attempted to create values through sustainable initiatives and practices, including Indonesian fashion brands. However, as a result of ‘green consumerism’ and ‘greewashing’, many of the sustainable approaches by fashion retailers such as H&M and Zara are widely questioned. The knowledge and understanding on sustainable fashion practices are varied across diverse demographics and cultures. Using descriptive qualitative approach through literature studies, observation and non-probability sampling, this paper discusses sustainable fashion and slow fashion theories, investigates the progression of the sustainable practices of Indonesian fashion brands and identifies the opportunities of slow fashion in contribution to the development of creative economy in Indonesia.