A Qualitative Study on Consumer Behavior of Female Teaching Professionals Towards Purchase of Sustainable Premium Fashion Apparel in Ahmedabad City

Abstract

Sustainable fashion apparel is carbon-neutral apparel based on socioeconomic equity, animal welfare, ethical work practice, organic fabrics, and recyclable. Sustainability is a differentiating factor that impacts consumer behavior toward purchasing premium apparel for female teaching professionals. This paper is focused on studying the factors that impact consumer behavior toward purchasing sustainable premium fashion apparel in female teaching professionals or encouraging purchasing of sustainable premium fashion apparel. Focus group interviews of 10 female teaching professionals were used for data analysis. It is a fashion that is ethics-based and ecofriendly. Manufacturing such apparel runs overheads, making apparel relatively costlier. In an era of fast fashion, bringing sustainable fashion apparel is becoming more challenging. This paper aims to identify the reasons behind sustainable fashion in the market and retailers using this feature as a unique selling proposition for their brands despite having high overheads. These changes in consumer behavior towards sustainability led to the popularity of some homegrown affordable Indian brands like Rust Orange, Hempkari, etc. These study findings emphasize important factors, i.e., favorable attitude, subjective norms, and willingness to pay a premium, encouraging them to buy sustainable premium fashion apparel. This study relies on the existing model TPB in consumer behavior.