Samantha Gonzalez

ENC1102

Kayla Cheung

15 March 2024

Literature Review

This literature review further refined my original topic for my research paper as more of a

specification on the nuances of clothing industry technology and the ethics within the industry.

The ethos of clothing brands lies in their picking of materials, employees, fabrication and

marketing technology all with a backing of logos ideology meant to sell the most product and

establish brand loyalty within consumers. Companies’ ethos then reflects in consumer habits,

environmental consequences, and their overall image as a greater commercial entity. I primarily

used sources completed by researchers within the United States as the U.S. houses major

clothing conglomerates like Fashion Nova and URBN (owns Urban Outfitters and Anthropology,

among other brands) with one source discussing the effect of fast fashion on the Italian clothing

industry as Europe follows the U.S. in trend forecasting and clothing buying consumer habits.

There were a few issues with my sources in regard to their discussion of the literal

technology used to fabricate the clothes as I was unsatisfied with the amount of diagrams that

were available to me. This caused me to pivot to focusing on data discussing the efficiency and

requirements for the brand to complete their quotas. I became more aware of the prominent role

that the 1990’s had in shifting the fashion economy to be more fast-paced based off the

utilization of mail-order clothing catalogs which made it easy and impersonal to buy clothing,
adding a backing of pathos in its user friendliness. This, along with the introduction of the

internet, encouraged the onset of a newfound obsession with constantly buying new things,

especially the American people.

To make this analysis properly I utilized a source which gave me historical background

on the efficiency of machines over the last century compared to now as a means of establishing a

starting point for the unofficial clothing industrial revolution which has shifted the trend

forecasting of yearly seasons and created a more muddled system, omitting actual fashion

seasons and shifting trends at an unnatural rate. Cost efficiency within the fabrication phase of

fashion was replaced with companies wanting to produce as many pieces as possible as quickly

as possible to not only create but feed demand. Funds were pushed more towards quickening

production and marketing. Supply chain management (SCM) is also an essential part of the shift

in fashion from historically slow fashion to fast fashion as labor divisions became more

complicated with production being outsourced to different countries and continents even for

clothing sold primarily in the United States. Labor became separate from material procurement

and retail space more as companies sought cheap labor to drive down retail costs and drive up

demand.

Utilizing an international source from Italy also gave me some background on the

interpretation of sustainability and the issues with greenwashing outside of the United States,

with Italy and other countries in the European Union utilizing greenwashing to market their

clothing companies to younger consumers concerned with the environment. After completing the

review of this particular source I have started to seek more sources that are international in nature

especially from East Asia concerning companies such as Uniqlo which emphasize sustainability

more so than European companies do through their release of a yearly sustainability report
geared towards increasing consumer trust and loyalty. To complete research more specific in

nature than just looking into one country’s understanding of greenwashing I decided to look into

Nike as a company through Eddy’s thesis. This gave me a different point of view on

greenwashing in regard to materials allocation in their products in athletic wear.

I felt a gap in my knowledge of industry-focused industrial engineering terminology

within any area of fashion which was aided by the fashion business vernacular used by

Abdulgadir in their research. To be specific, the explanation of an average of 52 existing fashion

“seasons” was important to my eventual understanding of the truly large scale at which fast

fashion companies are pushing microtrends. 52 seasons could be a season a week every year,

informing the volume of clothing being produced in a week rather than just the variety, as the

quantity is more closely related to my topic. This level of efficiency in machinery and factory

conditions inspires more research into exactly how dangerous working conditions are in fast

fashion versus slow fashion factories.

 Sources

Severin, Giorgia. “Non-Financial Performance Measurement in the Fashion Industry: Opening

up the Reports.” DSpace Home, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, 9 Nov. 2020,

dspace.unive.it/handle/10579/18066.

Şen, Alper. “The US Fashion Industry: A supply chain review.” International Journal of

Production Economics, vol. 114, no. 2, Aug. 2008, pp. 571–593,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2007.05.022.

Bhardwaj, Vertica, and Ann Fairhurst. “Fast fashion: Response to changes in the fashion

industry.” The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, vol. 20, no.

1, Feb. 2010, pp. 165–173, https://doi.org/10.1080/09593960903498300.

Abdulgadir, Adil, and Imad Abdulgadir. "Strategic Proposals for Sustainable Supply Chains in

the Fast Fashion Industry: Exploring ways to incorporate concepts and methods to confront the

damaging effects of the industry." (2020).

Eddy, Elizabeth. "Fast fashion: Adjusting Nike's future in the apparel industry." (2022).

Rathore, Bharati. "Beyond Trends: Shaping the Future of Fashion Marketing with AI,

Sustainability and Machine Learning." Eduzone: International Peer Reviewed/Refereed

Multidisciplinary Journal 6.2 (2017): 16-24.