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Article
Publication date: 9 October 2007

W.M. To, T.W. Yu, T.M. Lai and S.P. Li

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of commercial clothes dryers based on energy‐efficiency and environmental impact analyses.

2802

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of commercial clothes dryers based on energy‐efficiency and environmental impact analyses.

Design/methodology/approach

The study consisted of reviewing and examining the energy consumption of clothes dryers. It adopted the US Department of Energy's uniform test method for measuring the energy consumption of electric and gas‐fired commercial clothes dryers. Time efficiency, the cost of drying clothes and the environmental impact caused by the operation of commercial clothes dryers were studied.

Findings

Electric commercial clothes dryers were found to be the most efficiency one in terms of energy per kilogram loadings. However, gas‐fired commercial clothes dryers were found to produce less environmental impact in global terms. Liquefied petroleum gas‐fired commercial clothes dryer was the most cost effective and time efficient.

Research limitations/implications

All tests were conducted using three types of testing loads, namely towels, jeans and thermal clothing. They exhibited homogeneity in the tests but did not reflect the real‐life situations.

Practical implications

The implications of this study include assessing the efficiency of commercial clothes dryers based on standard testing loads for product comparison and increasing the awareness of environmental performance in the laundry industry as well as the clothing industry.

Originality/value

Energy‐efficiency and environmental performance become critical factors in determining competitiveness in all industries. This paper presents a detailed investigation on these aspects and provides insights for the laundry industry and appliance manufacturers.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 August 2024

Rimena Canuto Oliveira, Irenilza de Alencar Nääs and Solimar Garcia

This paper aims to contribute to understanding Brazilian fashion consumer behavior. The subsequent research question is formulated as follows: How are the consumers purchasing new…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to contribute to understanding Brazilian fashion consumer behavior. The subsequent research question is formulated as follows: How are the consumers purchasing new clothes and disposing of used ones, and how is their awareness of sustainable fashion consumption and disposal of used clothes?

Design/methodology/approach

An online questionnaire was sent to nearly one thousand e-mails. A database was formed with 182 complete answers to 13 questions concerning consumer behavior toward sustainability, especially clothing acquisition, use and disposal. A multimethod approach was used to analyze the initial attributes, applying descriptive statistics, cluster analysis and data mining.

Findings

This survey obtained valuable answers from Brazilian fashion consumers grouped into four clusters. Age and yearly income were more critical in determining the clusters. Only four attributes were chosen by the algorithm to build the trees (age, annual income, yearly spending on clothes and how long the clothes are worn). The consumer's profile may help the fashion industry redirect investments in sustainability. The most critical factor leading to the sustainability of clothing fashion was the duration of the clothes. The study dealt with a limited sample size that was not representative of Brazil's broader population. Despite numerous attempts to seek responses through e-mail, the participant pool was predominantly composed of highly educated individuals.

Originality/value

This assessment of Brazilian consumer behavior toward sustainability and fashion presents essential knowledge to understand the relationships among variables affecting the purchase and discharge of clothes.

Details

Journal of Responsible Production and Consumption, vol. 1 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2977-0114

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2024

Evelyn Kuupole, Daniel Akuoko Adjei, Edem Kwami Buami and Martin Harold Awinzeligo

This paper aims to investigate consumer sustainability awareness. In addition, it examined consumer purchasing behaviour as well as the use and disposal of used clothes.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate consumer sustainability awareness. In addition, it examined consumer purchasing behaviour as well as the use and disposal of used clothes.

Design/methodology/approach

To investigate consumers’ understanding of sustainability, clothing consumption, use and disposal of cloth. Primary data was gathered through the use of open-ended questionnaires. The study used a total of 56 consumers.

Findings

It was shown that consumers are aware of sustainability as a worldwide concern. It was also established that customers occasionally buy garments based on their hobbies and end up not using all of the clothes before the season ends. They also revealed that destroying or discarding used clothing can be bad for the economy, the environment and society.

Research limitations/implications

Consumers in Bolgatanga were the primary subject of this investigation. Different outcomes might be produced if the study was conducted in different regions of Ghana.

Practical implications

Outlining the behaviour of consumers is important to advance awareness on sustainability to avoid congesting the environment/society with used clothes.

Social implications

To reduce the potential impact that clothing may have on the many agents of sustainability, fashion designers ought to provide instructions to consumers on how to use and dispose of clothing.

Originality/value

This study contributes to policy development strategies of disposing off used clothes and consumers purchasing behaviour of clothes.

Details

Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1560-6074

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 April 2023

Kanchana Dissanayake and Rudrajeet Pal

Used clothes supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, fragmented and less transparent due to rising volumes of discarded clothes and its dispersed reverse logistics…

4351

Abstract

Purpose

Used clothes supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, fragmented and less transparent due to rising volumes of discarded clothes and its dispersed reverse logistics operations across the Global North (GN) and Global South (GS). While it has a promising impact on circular economy and international trade growth, increasing exports of used clothes and overflowing landfills raise some negative concerns on its overall sustainability. This paper addresses the dichotomy that exists in terms of interpreting the sustainability credentials of used clothes supply chains.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review was carried out and 55 articles were examined to identify the triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability impacts of used clothes supply chains. TBL sustainability issues were identified, reflected through the lens of natural resource-based view and interpreted in the form of propositions.

Findings

The paper pinpoints seven TBL sustainability concerns and prescribes three sets of strategic resources required in glocal used clothes supply chains for mitigating these. These are (1) slowing the supply chain by tackling poor quality, overproduction and oversupply issues, (2) improving logistics/supply chain infrastructure and ecosystem collaboration and (2) embedding transparent environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures taken by both value chain actors and regulatory bodies, for embracing system-level sustainable development.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to analyse TBL sustainability of glocal north–south used clothes supply chains. The study is unique in terms of its scope and contribution to the sustainable supply chain literature.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 34 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 August 2018

Krittiya Ongwuttiwat, Sudaporn Sudprasert and Thananchai Leephakpreeda

The purpose of this paper is to present the determination of human thermal comfort with wearing clothes, with different water vapor permeability. Currently, the predicted mean…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the determination of human thermal comfort with wearing clothes, with different water vapor permeability. Currently, the predicted mean vote (PMV) equation is widely used to determine thermal sensation scales of human comfort. However, moisture permeability of clothes has been not taken in account where the heat is lost from a human body due to water vapor diffusion through clothes.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the heat loss is derived based on the real structure of textiles, causing water vapor pressure difference between air on skin and ambient air. The PMV equation is modified to differentiate a thermal sensation scale of comfort although patterns of clothes are the same. Interview tests are investigated with wearing clothes from three types of textiles: knitted polyester, coated nylon–spandex, and polyurethane, under various air conditions.

Findings

The moisture permeabilities of knitted polyester, coated nylon–spandex and polyurethane are 16.57×10−9 kg/m2 s•kPa, 9.15×10−9 kg/m2•s•kPa and 2.99×10−9 kg/m2•s•kPa, respectively. The interviews reveal that most people wearing knitted-polyester clothes have the greatest cold sensations under various air conditions since moisture permeability is the highest, compared to coated nylon–spandex, and polyurethane leather. Correspondingly, the predicted results of the modified PMV equation are close to the actual mean votes of interviewees with a coefficient of determination R2=0.83. On the other hand, the coefficient of determination from the predicted results of the conventional PMV equation is significantly lower than unity, with R2=0.42.

Practical implications

In practice, this quantitative determination on human thermal comfort gives some concrete recommendations on textile selection of clothes for acceptable satisfaction of thermal comfort under various surrounding conditions of usage.

Originality/value

The modified PMV equation effectively determines human comfort on a thermal sensation scale due to the moisture permeability of clothes. To make generic conclusion, experimental results of additional three textiles, such as plain weave/lining polyester, knitted spandex, and open structure polyester, are reported. They confirm that the modified PMV equation effectively determines human comfort on a thermal sensation scale due to the moisture permeability of clothes.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 August 2019

Montek Singh, Utkarsh Bajpai, Vijayarajan V. and Surya Prasath

There are various style options available when one buys clothes on online shopping websites, however the availability the new fashion trends or choices require further user…

Abstract

Purpose

There are various style options available when one buys clothes on online shopping websites, however the availability the new fashion trends or choices require further user interaction in generating fashionable clothes. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) from the deep learning paradigm, here the authors suggest model system that will take the latest fashion trends and the clothes bought by users as input and generate new clothes. The new set of clothes will be based on trending fashion but at the same time will have attributes of clothes where were bought by the consumer earlier.

Findings

In the proposed machine learning based approach, the clothes generated by the system will personalized for different types of consumers. This will help the manufacturing companies to come up with the designs, which will directly target the customer.

Research limitations/implications

The biggest limitation of the collected data set is that the clothes in the two domains do not belong to a specific category. For instance the vintage clothes data set has coats, dresses, skirts, etc. These different types of clothes are not segregated. Also there is no restriction on the number of images of each type of cloth. There can many images of dresses and only a few for the coats. This can affect the end results. The aim of the paper was to find whether new and desirable clothes can be created from two different domains or not. Analyzing the impact of “the number of images for each class of cloth” is something which is aim to work in future.

Practical implications

The authors believe such personalized experience can increase the sales of fashion stores and here provide the feasibility of such a clothes generation system.

Originality/value

Applying GANs from the deep learning models for generating fashionable clothes.

Details

International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, vol. 32 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0955-6222

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 April 2020

Daniel Tumpal H. Aruan and Iin Wirdania

Muslim fashion clothing has become an attractive market both for marketers and fashion designers. When it comes to faith, religiosity factor becomes important; thus, it should be…

1858

Abstract

Purpose

Muslim fashion clothing has become an attractive market both for marketers and fashion designers. When it comes to faith, religiosity factor becomes important; thus, it should be incorporated as a predictor for consumers' attitude and purchase intention. The purpose of this research is to examine the extent to which religiosity influences consumers' decision making when buying Muslim clothes. This research also examines whether religiosity could be observed from the type of clothes consumers wear.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was conducted in Indonesia as it was the most populous Muslim country in the world. Research subjects were Muslim women who wear Muslim clothes, both sharia and non-sharia.

Findings

A total of 379 Muslim women respondents participated in the survey. Using the structural equation model, the analysis finds that religiosity has a significant effect on consumers' buying decision, but the mediating influence of affective attitude and self-presentation is only found partially for specific types of clothes. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed in this paper.

Practical implications

Findings of this research would benefit Muslim clothes marketers and designers to correctly approach their target markets. Marketers can infer the religiosity level of consumers from the clothes they wear so that marketers need to provide communication programs with religious messages that could arouse consumers' affective attitudes that ultimately lead to buying decision. Marketers can focus more on handling their target customers based on the type of clothing segment: sharia and non-sharia.

Originality/value

This study discovered that, with respect to Muslim clothes, the five dimensions of religiosity promoted by Faulkner and De Jong (1966) can be reduced to two factors, namely faith and deeds. In addition, this study revealed that religiosity is strongly correlated with the type of clothing consumers wear so that marketers can implement strategies that are suitable for their target market.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 July 2007

Helena M. de Klerk and Thea Tselepis

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the early‐adolescent female consumer's expectations and evaluation, as well as satisfaction relating to the fit, as a…

4095

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the early‐adolescent female consumer's expectations and evaluation, as well as satisfaction relating to the fit, as a dimension of the quality of her clothes.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research style was followed and a structured questionnaire was used as data‐collecting method. A total of 120 13‐year‐old young female consumers, also known as the early‐adolescent female, participated in the study.

Findings

The results suggest that the early‐adolescent female consumer is not only concerned about the functional aspects of the fit of her clothes, but also about the emotional effect. Results further suggest that this consumer group probably does not have the expertise, knowledge and cognitive skills that can enable them, during the evaluation phase of the decision‐making process, to realistically evaluate this very important dimension of the quality of clothes, with the main purpose of giving functional comfort and emotional pleasure during the post‐purchase experience. This then contributes to the fact that, when wearing the clothes, they are, especially as regards the emotional and cognitive dimensions, mostly dissatisfied with the fit of their clothes.

Originality/value

With the buying power of this young market in mind, the main implication of the above is that brands that are specifically aimed at these young consumers should specifically be sized according to the measurements and figure proportions of the young consumer.

Details

Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, vol. 11 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-2026

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 30 March 2015

Sanjeev Tripathi and Rahul Agarwal

In 2013, ‘Fashion Destination’, a well-established clothing retailer considered setting up a clothing and accessories rental service. They hired a market research agency ‘Wright…

Abstract

In 2013, ‘Fashion Destination’, a well-established clothing retailer considered setting up a clothing and accessories rental service. They hired a market research agency ‘Wright & Company’ to conduct a research on the sustainability and profitability of such a business model. The consultants collected primary data and did an extensive analysis for Fashion Destination. Based on the secondary research, expert interviews, extensive qualitative and quantitative research the consultants recommended the management to start a clothes and accessories rental service but suggested that the product offering be limited to formal clothes only and offer accessories. Vishal had doubts despite of the go-ahead signal from consultancy. He wondered what recommendations should he accept and which needed further verification.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 November 2022

Aude Le Guennec, Clare Rose, Laetitia Barbu, Anne-Charlotte Hartmann-Bragard, Maija Nygren and Yasmin Sekhon Dhilon

As a significant part of childhood material culture, children's clothes contribute to shaping their social identity and gender, as well as to developing and supporting their…

Abstract

As a significant part of childhood material culture, children's clothes contribute to shaping their social identity and gender, as well as to developing and supporting their interactions with their environment related to their age. The focus on children's education and well-being is essential. Their voices should be emphasised in the interest of promoting an inclusive future in both research on children's material culture and in practice. However, despite the daily nature of children's interaction with clothing, their relationship with clothes is ignored and methods to support an analysis of it are lacking. An investigation of children's clothing behaviour is needed to better understand children's agency, to influence industry experts and to encourage policymakers to engage more sustainably with children's fashion. IN2FROCC (Interdisciplinary and International Network for Research on Children and Clothing) is comprised of historians, anthropologists, sociologists, ethnologists, museum curators, childhood practitioners, designers, industry representatives and children united in an investigation into children's clothes around the globe, historically and in social ecosystems. This network seeks to engage in an innovative, inclusive and organic manner with current research on children's dress codes, fashion and clothes to establish a deeper understanding of children's clothing interactions. This chapter will present the initial reflections and actions of this network, creating impactful methods for participative children's clothing culture and design.

Details

Establishing Child Centred Practice in a Changing World, Part A
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80117-407-7

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 32000