The Sustainable Fashion Revolution: How Gen Z is Redefining Style
Written by: Lilly Roth-Shapiro
Outside the home, our clothing and accessories are some of the most powerful ways we express ourselves and our tastes. The fashion industry makes up a large portion of what ends up in landfills each year, with consumers purchasing and pitching pieces of fast fashion at increasing speeds. However, as Gen Z begins to enter the market as independent consumers, things may be shifting. Gen Z-ers, born between 1997 and 2012, are the first generation to have grown up surrounded by technology and social media. The influence of this has been immense, and the vastness of it continues to unfold as time progresses.
For Millennials—those born between 1981 and 1996—the 2008 market crash meant they had to learn to live with less, boosting the prevalence of foreign goods and Chinese-made clothes for their cheapness. For Gen Z, the COVID-19 pandemic had a different effect: Together with social media, COVID-19 helped Gen Z send the push towards sustainability in fashion into overdrive. Compared to other generations, Gen Z-ers and Millennials are more vocal about the need for climate action, are seeking out climate content online, and are more involved in climate politics. Almost 70% of Gen Z members say they felt anxious about the future after seeing content regarding climate change.
More than any other generation before them, Gen Z consumption habits are most influenced by the friends and figures they follow on social media. Combine this with uncertainty about the future viability of the planet, and you get a generation of young people passionate about sustainable fashion. Online, this takes up significant space. 82% of Gen Z are concerned about the climate, and 72% say they have already made changes to their habits in order to minimize their carbon footprint. This concern for the well-being of the Earth translated to a greater willingness to pay in younger generations if it means they will be getting an environmentally friendly piece. In the summer of 2022, the hashtag #secondhand had 1.6 billion views on TikTok.
One of—if not the—biggest ways Gen Z-ers have stuck to these environmental values is by thrifting and secondhand shopping. Thrift shopping cuts down on the demand for fast fashion, gives new life to older garments, and keeps old pieces out of landfills. It appeals not only to the environmental benefits but is also budget-friendly, a plus for a generation that is still in its teens and mid-twenties. A key aspect of the allure of thrift lies also in its ability to deliver unique, daring, cultivated looks. It keeps you from looking “basic,” since you are essentially getting a one-of-a-kind piece when sorting through every color, shape, and era of clothing. “Dopamine dressing,” or dressing to exhilarate or boost one’s confidence also factors into this. Thrifting fosters creativity, community, individuality, exploration, and the challenge and thrill of finding something that is unrecognizable and unbranded, yet cool and personal.
Nearly half of Gen Z is buying secondhand clothing now, up from just 25% in 2016. Resale platforms like Depop, Poshmark, ThredUp, Etsy, The RealReal, and eBay provide a similar sense of community and eco-consciousness, along with bargaining and lower prices. Depop has stated that almost 90% of its users are under 26, meaning they are flooded with Gen Z-ers.
These shifts paint a powerful picture, having already affected some luxury brands, and may be signaling to the fashion industry at large. Luxury brands are facing challenges in attracting and retaining the attention of Gen Z. Values of status, tradition, heritage, and prestige are being pushed aside to make room for those of environmentalism, sustainability, transparency, innovation, and inclusivity. Some companies have taken this in stride, adapting to the new demands of Gen Z by shifting their practices. As Gen Z’s spending power increases, and as Gen Z and Millennials are predicted to make up 70% of luxury spending by 2025, sustainability in fashion becomes an increasingly pressing issue for these brands.
eBay launched a platform for authenticating and reselling pre-owned luxury goods. French multinational conglomerate LVMH, as well as Prada and Mercedes-Benz, have begun using blockchain technology to account for the carbon life cycle of their products to increase transparency, accountability, and authenticity. This is a wise move, as 84% of Gen Z-ers and 73% of Millennials are willing to spend more for products that are sustainably made and ethically sourced.
Deloitte cited Gen Z as adopting more behaviors to cut their carbon footprint than any other generation—50% reduced how much they purchase, and 45% stopped buying from certain firms due to concerns about lack of sustainability or ethics. But Gen Z and Millennials are looking at more than just the clothing they’re buying in terms of environmental impact: 90% of Millennials are interested in sustainable investing, and one-third of Millennials often or exclusively invest in companies that take ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) considerations into account, compared to 19% of Gen Z, 16% of Gen X, and 2% of Baby Boomers.
As Gen Z continues to rise in the economy, and already 40% are making their investments based on whether companies have some sort of social purpose, it’s expected that 33% of all managed global assets will have ESG mandates by 2025. ESG investments are projected to reach $160 trillion by 2036, a huge jump from $30 trillion in 2018. This large-scale shift has pushed companies to adopt more sustainable practices to fall in line with ESG requirements, but it has also led other firms to greenwash, shifting their image by touting environmentalism to appeal to younger generations without making meaningful changes to their business model. This has created feelings of skepticism in consumers and investors and will require more stringent regulation of ESG products, as well as greater accountability for firms.
Bank of America foresees Gen Z as becoming the most disruptive generation of all time, and we’ve started to see this trend—a deep care and concern for the environment and climate change influencing consumer behavior—push and shift the fashion industry. If fashion (and other sectors) want to keep up with Gen Z and its Millennial counterparts, it should embrace these shifts and engage in self-examination to restructure and become truly sustainable. Brands should capitalize on ESG, shifting to sustainable practices while being as transparent as possible in order to build trust in consumers and Gen Z-ers that they are accountable and responsible. Transparency is the ultimate way to combat greenwashers, gain consumer confidence, and ultimately hold a firm accountable to its sustainability goals in order to reduce environmental impact.
Climate change is an enormous and complex issue, tied to so many different spheres of life. It can be overwhelming and seem futile, but the demands that Gen Z have been making of the fashion sector—boycotting fast fashion; opting for thrifting, secondhand clothing, and shopping on online platforms like Depop and ThredUp; and rejecting the values of tradition, heritage, and exclusivity that luxury brands have been pushing for ages, in favor of true sustainability, accountability, and transparency—has realized some real change. Fashion must capitalize on this momentum to get ahead of the curve.
