IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i23p13054-d687813.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“ I Still Love Them and Wear Them ”—Conflict Occurrence and Management in Wearer-Clothing Relationships

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Neto

    (CIAUD, Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Design, Lisbon School of Architecture, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Sá Nogueira, 1349-063 Lisboa, Portugal)

  • João Ferreira

    (UNIDCOM/IADE—Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação, Av. D. Carlos I, 4, 1200-649 Lisboa, Portugal)

Abstract

The reasons why people use their clothes for longer are complex, but essential to understand how to promote longer clothing lifetimes. We conducted an online survey with open-ended questions, asking 170 female participants to write about one of their oldest garments still in use. When analysing our qualitative data, we found that many participants reported going through some mishaps with their item, a situation which is identified in existing literature as a reason for garment disposal. Following ongoing research which compares wearer-clothing relationships with human relationships, we analysed our qualitative data in the light of theory on interpersonal relationships to understand why conflict did not lead participants to dispose of their garments. The findings suggest that the way people manage conflict with their clothes is more critical for garment longevity than the conflict per se, which is bound to happen at some point in time. This paper presents different approaches to conflict in wearer-clothing relationships and illustrates them with testimonies from our survey. We discuss our findings through relevant literature and their implications to specific strategies for garment longevity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Neto & João Ferreira, 2021. "“ I Still Love Them and Wear Them ”—Conflict Occurrence and Management in Wearer-Clothing Relationships," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13054-:d:687813
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13054/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/23/13054/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kirsi Laitala & Ingun Grimstad Klepp, 2018. "Care and Production of Clothing in Norwegian Homes: Environmental Implications of Mending and Making Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Marium Durrani, 2018. "“People Gather for Stranger Things, So Why Not This?” Learning Sustainable Sensibilities through Communal Garment-Mending Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, June.
    3. Emma Johnson & Andrius Plepys, 2021. "Product-Service Systems and Sustainability: Analysing the Environmental Impacts of Rental Clothing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-29, February.
    4. Catherine E. Cherry & Nick F. Pidgeon, 2018. "Why Is Ownership an Issue? Exploring Factors That Determine Public Acceptance of Product-Service Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonali Diddi & Ruoh-Nan Yan, 2019. "Consumer Perceptions Related to Clothing Repair and Community Mending Events: A Circular Economy Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-17, September.
    2. Donald Wilson & Eleni Iacovidou, 2023. "Investigating the Potential Adoption of Product-Service Systems in the Luggage Industry to Promote Sustainability," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-18, August.
    3. Ruth Mugge, 2018. "Product Design and Consumer Behaviour in a Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-4, October.
    4. Michelle Burton & Rachel Eike, 2023. "The Sustainability-Conscious Consumer: An Exploration of the Motivations, Values, Beliefs, and Norms Guiding Garment Life Extension Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-16, August.
    5. Andreza de Aguiar Hugo & Jeniffer de Nadae & Renato da Silva Lima, 2021. "Can Fashion Be Circular? A Literature Review on Circular Economy Barriers, Drivers, and Practices in the Fashion Industry’s Productive Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Lisa Zhang & Jo Hale, 2022. "Extending the Lifetime of Clothing through Repair and Repurpose: An Investigation of Barriers and Enablers in UK Citizens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-18, August.
    7. Pengen Mai & Steven James Day, 2023. "Persuading Reluctant Customers: The Online Marketing Communications of Car Sharing Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-18, December.
    8. Marcos Ferasso & Tatiana Beliaeva & Sascha Kraus & Thomas Clauss & Domingo Ribeiro‐Soriano, 2020. "Circular economy business models: The state of research and avenues ahead," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3006-3024, December.
    9. Sehrish Atif, 2023. "Mapping circular economy principles and servitisation approach in business model canvas: an integrated literature review," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, December.
    10. Shaofei Jiang & Di Feng & Chunfu Lu, 2019. "A Sustainable Innovation—Additional Services for Products Based on Personalised Customer Value," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-16, March.
    11. Johan Niskanen & Duncan McLaren & Jonas Anshelm, 2021. "Repair for a Broken Economy: Lessons for Circular Economy from an International Interview Study of Repairers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.
    12. Jain, Ritu & Jain, Kokil & Behl, Abhishek & Pereira, Vijay & Del Giudice, Manlio & Vrontis, Demetris, 2022. "Mainstreaming fashion rental consumption: A systematic and thematic review of literature," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1525-1539.
    13. Sarah Gray & Angela Druckman & Jhuma Sadhukhan & Keith James, 2022. "Reducing the Environmental Impact of Clothing: An Exploration of the Potential of Alternative Business Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-24, May.
    14. Sehrish Atif & Shehzad Ahmed & Muhammad Wasim & Bassam Zeb & Zeeshan Pervez & Lorraine Quinn, 2021. "Towards a Conceptual Development of Industry 4.0, Servitisation, and Circular Economy: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-27, June.
    15. Olga Zakharova & Anna Glazkova & Lyudmila Suvorova, 2023. "Online Equipment Repair Community in Russia: Searching for Environmental Discourse," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-16, August.
    16. Wenjun Guo & Eunyoung Kim, 2023. "Categorizing Chinese Consumers’ Behavior to Identify Factors Related to Sustainable Clothing Consumption," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-18, April.
    17. Cai, Ya-Jun & Choi, Tsan-Ming, 2020. "A United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals perspective for sustainable textile and apparel supply chain management," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    18. Rahman Dwi Wahyudi & Moses Laksono Singgih & Mokh Suef, 2022. "Investigation of Product–Service System Components as Control Points for Value Creation and Development Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-23, December.
    19. Ciara Gyde & Lisa S. McNeill, 2021. "Fashion Rental: Smart Business or Ethical Folly?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-18, August.
    20. Belezas, Fernando & Daniel, Ana Dias, 2023. "Innovation in the sharing economy: A systematic literature review and research framework," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:23:p:13054-:d:687813. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.