Do ethical motivations foster ethical fashion consumption? An explorative research

Fair trade fashion, second hand, vintage, eco-fashion, and swapping represent different facets of ethical fashion. According to a previous studies carried out by the authors, ethical fashion consumers are driven by different motivations (hedonic, utilitarian and ethical) often coexisting in the same person. The relevance of these motivations is different according to the different kinds of ethical fashion, so that it is not easy to evaluate to what extent they influence consumer behavior and the purchase decision. This contribution presents the preliminary results of an explorative quantitative research aimed at understanding the reciprocal importance of utilitarian, hedonic and ethical motivations in the different forms of ethical fashion consumption. The survey is conducted on a convenience sample of ethical fashion consumers using an on-line questionnaire developed according to the findings of the previous qualitative research’s phase.