Choosing righteously: examining ethical consumption in the fast fashion context

This article investigates the extent to which consumers consider ethics in fashion consumption. Responding to consumers' quest for ethicality and readjusting to marketing's more ethical role, fast-fashion brands such as Zara and H&M have recently introduced sustainable product lines, next to their well-established regular lines. Despite the ongoing discussion on sustainable and responsible consumption both from an academic and from a managerial perspective, there is still very limited literature on the effects on brand relationships for both actual and potential consumers. Thus, the purpose of this research is twofold: (a) to examine whether consumers consider ethics in the fast fashion industry, with the availability of both regular and sustainable product lines and which the antecedents of an ethical choice are (b) to explore the key idea on which the communication of the line should be based on (referring to pride or guilt dimensions) and the effect that it has onconsumer engagement. These relationships will be examined through a survey both on consumers choosing the ethical line and for consumers who were aware of it and did not purchase it, to examine the possible positive effects both for actual and for potential consumers.