British Survey on Ethical Wear

7,000 people were questioned about their opinion towards ethical and organic behaviour.

Especially younger shoppers are hard to convince to buy organic cotton and ethically produced garments. Just 42 % of under-25s stated they took any notice of ethical issues when it came to clothing. Only 27 % of people overall said they would be willing to pay more to guarantee their clothes were made in a sustainable way. The greatest awareness was found in over 55 year old people.

Ms Gobine, research manager at TNS, stated that there was a lack of awareness of what’s on offer. A quarter of respondents did not know about the availability of ethical clothing. Some big retailers may have been misjudging public demand. Only 14 % felt the use of organic fibre was a very important consideration. She also stated that 76 % of respondents said an end of child labour and sweatshops was a very important driver for ethical production, 60 % stated offering producers a fair price was important and 50 % wanted to reduce damage caused to the environment.

The ethical clothing People Tree’s Rachel Neame remarked that its core market was the 25 to 40 age range. A high demand comes from students – especially fashion students – concerning how to receive ethical clothes and materials. The company convinced TopShop to start selling its ethical range in its flagship London Store in March. Ms. Neame stated that if 58 % of young people said they don’t care about ethical shopping, it still leaves 42 % who do, which is a significant number.
http://business.guardian.co.uk