Samenvatting

QUOTES “’We, the youth generation, are imaginative. We lack real world experience and predict future outcomes. We come of age, create the person we want to become. Never face any limitations, worries and fears. These components make a great accidental inventor: the fanciful and active process of recognizing, questioning, comparing and creating opinions - Making sense of the responses we get.’ – Elise By Olsen, 16 year old editor in chief of youth culture magazine Recens Paper ” “[…] what is important to note is that most companies define generation Z with a set of universal characteristics to describe how all members think and behave, while this is highly doubtful in reality. Even when they do share a set of values and common cultural experiences when growing up, people who belong to the same age group can differ in many ways (Solomon et al., 2016). Therefore, it is important to consider the knowledge given by these companies, yet maybe more important to use them as tendencies as opposed to facts or realities.” “There is also a certain contradiction between fashion’s economic and socio-cultural importance and its wastefulness in the aspect of sustainability. The breakdown of the traditional fashion seasons into shorter cycles represents an unsustainable model in a long term. Fashion appears to be directly the opposite of sustainability and portrays therefore an oxymoron.” RESEARCH QUESTION To what extent does sustainability constitute a driving factor in generation Z’s fashion consumption choices? SUB QUESTION 1. Who is generation Z? 2. What do we know about generation Z’s consumer behavior? 3. What are the drivers (motivations) in the fashion consumption of generation Z? 4. How can sustainable fashion be defined? 5. What are the subsets that drive sustainable consumption in generation Z and under what conditions do they materialize? ARTICLE The article was written for the Business of Fashion. It complements the thesis by discussing the findings of this study and proposing an (fictive) Instagram platform, which will serve as an inspirational and sustainable shopping guide.