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The purpose of this paper is to validate that young American experiencers perceive cashmere as the most luxurious animal fiber, to investigate if because expensive it is perceived as more luxurious (Veblen theory), to learn how they know about its intrinsic values, lastly to explore if articulating the story behind luxury goods can enhance shopping experience, thus building a sustainable competitive advantage for retailers.

This research was conducted using a survey to gather quantitative data followed by focus group. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to a group of almost 200 young American experiencers.

The results show that the subjects had a significant lack of knowledge about the provenance of cashmere (the fibre) and its intrinsic attributes. Once the subjects were told about the characteristics, the provenance and the whole process of the supply chain starting with the farmers combing the goats to the delivery of the end goods, it seems obvious that articulating the story behind luxury goods would enhance the shopping experience and provide a sustainable competitive advantage for retailers.

This survey was conducted on a sample of 196 respondents, from one specific geographic area. It would benefit from being extended to a wider scope of demographic and geographic including Europe and Asia.

This study supports that time has come for retailers to shift from marketing visual images to the story telling.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and compare Generation Y’s knowledge and perceptions of cashmere as a luxurious fibre.

Dual qualitative-quantitative approach, comprising interviews with cashmere farmers and suppliers plus a structured questionnaire completed by 334 young Italians and Americans. Data were analysed statistically for comparison and interpretation.

Interviews confirmed the literature and provided insights why cashmere is “branded” as luxurious; e.g. comes from combing the undercoat of cashmere goats thus it is rare, expensive, very warm, light, and soft. Quantitative analysis showed: the majority (+85 per cent) of the young Italians and Americans perceive cashmere fibre as luxurious and expensive, although statistically Americans participants perceive it as more luxurious and more expensive. For example, 75 per cent Italian, 85 per cent Americans think it is expensive, (µ=2.914/4 and µ=3.156/4, respectively). Americans do not perceive it as being as rare as the Italian group. Italians were more able to answer the question about richness of the fibre. Lastly and surprisingly both groups knew very little about the origin: 40 per cent of both groups thought it comes from sheep whereas 20 per cent from Alpaca.

While neither sample knew the source, they both mentioned they would like to know more about the origin, attributes, etc., opening the door to marketing experts.

This study complements and enhances the relatively limited body of knowledge in the academic and professional literature and provides useful information for producers, suppliers, retailers, and especially marketers of cashmere.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the interface between product design and the supply chain and to develop a roadmap to the design centric business through better management of this interface.

A case study approach is adopted. This enabled the development of a roadmap to inform businesses on how to develop a design centric business integrated with the extended supply chain.

The research shows that successful companies will be those which seek to extend and develop the contribution of design into all aspects of their business. The roadmap to a design centric business enables firms to better position product design within their business processes and helps facilitate better integration between product design and the supply chain.

The findings from this research have been derived from a scoping study of a relatively small sample. However, the findings are grounded by a structured literature review and are generalisable to other industry sectors.

Design for the supply chain is an under‐explored area. The conceptual framework highlights the importance of the product design‐supply chain management interface and offers a roadmap for companies to develop a more design centric business.

This chapter attempts to critically examine the wildlife conservation discourse that argues for curtailing the livestock grazing inside the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary, situated on the India’s international borders with China in southeast Ladakh. The conventional conservation discourse points at the (supposed) greed of the Changpa pastoralists in accumulating an increasing number of pashmina goats as a primary environmental cause of wildlife loss in Changthang; however, there is a critical lack of insight into the political and historical mechanisms that lie within the dynamic interaction between resource access and socio-economic inequalities, critical for understanding Changpa pastoralism today.

Ethnographic inquiry into the Changpa economy before the closure of Ladakh–Tibet border trade in 1962, and afterwards, has highlighted the political and economic transformations in the area, as well as the cultural politics of market integration and increasing inabilities of the mobile Changpa pastoralists to access vital productive resources. Inequalities reflected in the contemporary livestock data, acquired from the pastoralists, underscore the processes of institutional bricolage, non-cooperative labour, exchange/wage herding and capital-dominated market networks, making pastoralism impossible for several of the households.

The chapter argues against making livestock withdrawal a major aim of conservation sciences. It calls instead for the recognition of state-provisioned commodified pashmina rearing, seen through the prism of changing abilities and shifting institutions, where unequal access to productive resources is a reflection of both historical dispossessions and also economic impoverishments of Changpa today.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a central part of the sourcing and supply activity in the textile industry. The role of supply chain management is fundamental to CSR implementation as it has become a key customer requirement and business driver. This research seeks to investigate how the luxury sector is addressing these demands through a single in-depth exploratory study of a Scottish based luxury own-brand and branded cashmere garment manufacturer.

The paper uses an exploratory approach through a single qualitative case study.

Corporate social responsibility has become an increasingly important part of the luxury garment producer ' s operation. The luxury brands are now placing additional demands on the cashmere producer to demonstrate compliance with CSR standards which in turn requires the company to adjust its operating procedure and management processes. The current levels of transparency and auditability of the CSR management process throughout the layers of the business were less sophisticated than currently found in many mid-market garment manufacturers and retailers.

The findings of the paper are based on a single qualitative exploratory study and therefore analytic generalisations are possible from interpreting the results.

The contribution of the paper is a greater understanding of CSR management in the work and information flows for a specialised international luxury manufacturing business throughout its geographically extended supply chain.

The contribution of the paper is a greater understanding of CSR management in the work and information flows for a specialised international luxury manufacturing business throughout its geographically extended supply chain.

The term luxury and sustainability, within the fashion and textile industries are seldom seen as natural bedfellows. Recently however, the perception of luxury has begun to include a definition left behind in the twentieth century; beautifully hand crafted artefacts valued for the time, skill and design invested in them. It is possible though, for the concept of luxury textiles to embrace this definition and that of the sustainable credentials of a “Cradle to Cradle” (McDonough and Braungart, 2002) mindset (that of a life beyond original creation) and be fashionable. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Utilising a variety of methodologies including case studies, reflective practice and a practice-based approach; this paper examines the use of pre-consumer waste in the creation of new luxury textiles. Several projects are cited, offering examples of collaboration between textile mills and designers in the creation of new fabrics made from luxury by-products. This luxury waste is routinely shredded for automobile seat filling or landfill, however current sustainable thinking encourages a more creative solution to this circumstance. Designers have a crucial role to play in converting an unwanted by-product to one that is highly desirable.

Traditional values of what constitutes a luxury item include the concept of time invested in making a unique handmade artefact. More recently, this premise has been overlooked in favour of branded goods. The slow fashion movement advocates the inherent value of craftsmanship coupled with the ethical use of sustainable and or local materials and processes. The traditional techniques of felting, weave and stitch are utilised to create beautiful, original textiles from discarded waste. By collaborating with local mills, designers provide solutions to something that could be perceived as a problem.

The embedded narrative within these layered textiles provides an original quality and added value, building on their Scottish heritage. The resulting textiles reflect their provenance; the landscape they come from and the people who created them. As a result of purchase, the story continues with the new custodian, adding to the ongoing history of the textile. The design work and collaboration that this paper outlines embodies a transferable model for sustainable upcycled luxury textiles.

This study examines consumer behaviour based on product sustainability and brand luxury. The purpose is to provide strategic suggestions to apparel companies attempting to invest in sustainable development of plastic clothing, as well as implications for marketing and sustainability research.

Consumer brand attitude and purchase intention towards sustainable plastic clothing are examined across material types, brand luxury levels and price levels from 315 valid samples collected in Japan.

The results reveal that sustainable plastic clothing raises brand attitude, indirectly influencing purchase intention. However, the direct effect of sustainable clothing on purchase intention is contradictorily negative. These contradictory effects are especially significant when brand luxury is high. Both brand attitude and purchase intention hardly vary across price levels or material types of sustainable plastic, such as post-consumer bottles versus apparel.

The results imply that sustainable products are not instantly profitable but contribute to a desirable brand association, especially for luxury brands. An investment in costly closed-loop technology for apparel recycling is found to be commercially disadvantageous. Managers are suggested to discuss this aspect carefully, since it seems partially unprofitable, while sustainable management seems to comprehensively contribute to overall enterprise performance.

The study specifically reveals the luxury effect enhancing, yet contradictory, consumer behaviour towards sustainable plastic clothing. To the best of the author’s knowledge, few studies have examined the relationships between these elements. Furthermore, the study sheds new light on consumer behaviour across recycled plastic types from a marketing perspective.

For cloths having direct contact with the skin, comfort properties are a priority than the physical and mechanical properties. Innerwear clothes should induce pleasant feelings because they have a direct influence on human psychological satisfaction, health and work efficiency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of cotton fiber parameters on the sensorial comfort of woven fabrics.

Four types of cotton fiber with different fineness, mean length, uniformity index, short fiber content, strength and elongation were used to develop yarns used to weave fabric samples. Kawabata evaluation system (KES) was used to analyze the fabrics’ sensorial comfort.

Results showed that cotton fiber parameters have a significant effect on surface friction and roughness properties. Low stress tensile, tensile resilience and tensile strain properties were affected by fiber micronaire, mean length, uniformity index, short fiber content, fiber strength and elongation. However, fabric shear, bending and compression properties were least dependent on fiber parameters. The correlation of the dependent variable and the independent variable was also statistically analyzed and reported. From the results, it was shown that cotton fiber parameters play a significant role in woven fabrics’ sensorial comfort.

The cloths that are in contact with the skin can be developed using the results of these studies to feel pleasant. This will, in turn, have a direct effect on the customer's psychological satisfaction, health and work performance.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight critical sustainability challenges facing luxury fashion firms and to describe examples of best practice in responding to these challenges.

The research approach combines a detailed literature review with multiple-case examples. The paper adopts the triple bottom line framework for structuring the analysis and findings, which suggests reporting sustainability efforts in three categories of actions – social, environmental and economic.

Prior research suggests that luxury fashion marketing and principles of sustainability may represent contradictory philosophies. However, this paper of case examples suggests that this may no longer be the case. We identify six lessons in guiding future sustainability practices.

The findings have implications for managers operating in luxury fashion, but the findings are also pertinent to managers in other industries.

Prior research in luxury fashion has generally focused on the industry’s poor record in sustainability and how luxury and sustainability may be incompatible. In this paper, we conclude that most luxury fashion firms are aware of the need to integrate sustainability into their business models. By uncovering examples of best practice in sustainability, we demonstrate how luxury fashion firms have responded to these challenges with lessons for other industry sectors.