Selling sustainability: What drives consumers to choose responsible fashion

Fashion Network

8 hours ago

Caught between encouragement and guilt, brands and public authorities are still searching for the most effective way to guide consumers toward responsible fashion. This challenge took center stage at a conference held in Paris on June 25, organized by Ademe (the French Agency for Ecological Transition), where the agency presented a new study on overconsumption driven by ultra-fast fashion and secondhand shopping habits.
'People buy because something is beautiful—not because it's eco-friendly,' reminded Nicolas Rohr, co-founder of French fashion brand Faguo. 'Customers are looking for pleasure first, then price, and only after that do environmental concerns come into play. So it's time to stop selling burlap bags made in Peru by saying, 'Wear this, it's responsible.' Brands like Patagonia have shown that you can have great design and be sustainable.'
According to Boris Descarrega, associate director of Obsoco (the Observatory of Society and Consumption), the fashion industry continues to face a major contradiction among consumers. 'The data shows a real increase in awareness. Climate change denial is declining, but that doesn't always translate into consumer behavior,' he explained. 'This paradox isn't specific to fashion—it's seen across all product categories.'
'When it comes to convincing consumers, price remains the biggest barrier to sustainable fashion,' noted Sihem Dekhili, professor of sustainable marketing at ESSCA School of Management. 'On average, people are willing to pay 7.5% more for a more sustainable garment. So the question becomes: what arguments actually encourage them to pay more? Three factors stand out—Made in France, repairability, and recyclability. Brands must fundamentally reimagine their business models to gain trust.
Why guilt-based messaging is counterproductive
That transformation is something influencer Charlotte Lemay is trying to support by carefully choosing her brand partnerships and adopting a tone that's engaging rather than moralizing for her 253,000 Instagram followers. 'One in two young people says, 'We're doomed no matter what,' according to a study I read,' she shared. 'That gives you some perspective—how are they supposed to feel motivated when the sixth mass extinction seems inevitable? In that context, guilt‑tripping is counterproductive.'
'Responsibility shouldn't rest solely on consumers,' said Boris Descarrega. 'While raising awareness is essential, we also need action on the supply side. Prideful speeches about resisting polluting fashion often come across as moralizing—and that approach tends to backfire. If I were a manufacturer, I'd rather use humor to undermine the appeal of major players, making them seem less cool and less desirable, rather than resort to preaching.'
For Raphaël Guastavi, deputy director of the circular economy division at Ademe, highlighting the benefits of responsible consumption is key. 'We need to better communicate the value of extending the life of garments—that's the goal of the repair bonus. The question of recycling is how to surpass the 20% threshold for recycled products. We need to recover more material. There are options like industrial rags or insulation, but ideally, we'd remake textile from textile. That's where the industry needs strong support.'
From polluter-pays to polluter-invests
That vision is shared by textile manufacturer Eric Boël, head of Les Tissages de Charlieu and the Nouvelles Fibres Textiles initiative, which aims to recycle 25,000 tons of textile back into textile. 'Manufacturers can't fund such high-risk innovation alone—it requires public support,' he said. According to Boël, the sector is entering a new paradigm. 'We can move from a 'polluter‑pays' model to a 'polluter‑invests' model for a new responsible economy. We're both the client and the supplier since the material we produce comes back to us. We aim to prove that aligning business and ecology through circularity is possible—an economy built on human connection and geographic proximity.'
'There needs to be a real alternative to overconsumption,' added Marie Castagné, co‑executive director of France's national network of reuse and recycling centers.
Beyond recycling, she pointed to common cognitive biases around secondhand fashion. 'First, there's a false sense of saving money when shopping on platforms like Vinted, even though you might find the same branded jeans for $5 at a reuse center,' she explained. 'Second, 70% of sellers on Vinted then go buy something new. Some even justify it by thinking they'll resell those new items later. So we need to make community‑based reuse more accessible, and expand concepts like the 'Repair Café'—because repairing changes how people see their wardrobe.'
At Faguo, Nicolas Rohr is preparing to roll out environmental labeling in January 2026 with support from service provider La Belle Empreinte. 'It won't require a huge effort—it's just a matter of entering data into their system, almost like pressing a button,' he said. 'Our only regret is that it's still optional.' He noted that sustainable regulations often end up stalling. 'But we hope this labeling system shakes up the market—especially among those dumping thousands of products online every day.'
B2B campaigns are planned starting in the second half of 2025 to encourage brands to adopt environmental labeling. Pascal Dagras, from the French Ministry of Ecology and the lead on the project, recently urged brands to 'get creative' when explaining how the scoring system works. Influencer Charlotte Lemay, meanwhile, reminded the audience not to underestimate social media's role in promoting sustainable fashion consumption.
'Influencers aren't just pushing people to shop—we're the first source of information for an entire generation,' said Lemay, who founded the nonprofit Aware last year to educate influencers on sustainability and help them avoid promoting questionable brands. 'It's not always easy for influencers to turn down paid partnerships,' she added—a challenge that mirrors the one consumers face as they try to .