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https://www.designforsocialchange.org/journal/index.php/DISCERN-J 

 

ISSN 2184-6995 

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 

International License. 

 

  

 

 
 

South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices  
of sustainable fashion supply chain operations 
 
Nailejileji Mollel-Matodzi, Anne Mastamet Mason, Nalini Moodley-Diar  

 

Published online: May 2023 

 
To cite this article:  
Mollel-Matodzi, N., Mastamet Mason, A., & Moodley-Diar, N. (2023). South African fashion design 

entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations. Discern: 

International Journal of Design for Social Change, Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 4(1), 1-11. 

 

 

  



 

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South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices  
of sustainable fashion supply chain operations 
 
Nailejileji Mollel-Matodzia, Anne Mastamet Masonb, Nalini Moodley-Diarc  

 
aFaculty of Arts & Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. nailamollel@gmail.com. 
bFaculty of Arts & Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. Masona@tut.ac.za   

cFaculty of Arts & Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. MoodleyDiarN@tut.ac.za 
 

Abstract 

The textile and clothing industry intensifies pollution through the production of fast fashion clothes.  

The increase in fast fashion clothes imports in South Africa has led to the closure of textile factories and 

consequent loss of jobs. Sustainable development is a pathway to reducing socio-environmental, cultural 

and economic harm. Sustainable processes and products create new employment. Fashion design 

entrepreneurs are often involved and have influence in every supply chain of their business and are thus in 

one of the best positions to implement sustainable fashion supply chain operations. This qualitative study 

aimed to investigate South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable 

fashion supply chain operations. Participants were selected purposively, and data was collected through 

semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that most of the participants were aware of sustainable 

fabrics through personal research. Half of them source and produce sustainable garments on a small scale 

due to the high price of sustainable fabrics. All the participants had limited knowledge of sustainable design 

methods. All the participants save their fabric offcuts, and only half of them are motivated by 

environmental concerns. Furthermore, the results indicated a lack of systems to manage the recycling of 

fabric offcuts. Given that there are few sustainable fashion design entrepreneurs in South Africa, the study 

recommends that textile and clothing industry leaders, especially sustainability practitioners, disseminate 

knowledge and training across the board on sustainable supply chain operations. 

 

Keywords: Fashion design entrepreneurs, Sustainable supply chain operations, Sustainable fabric sourcing, 

Sustainable garment design, Sustainable garment manufacturing 

 

Introduction  

Entrepreneurship is linked to sustainable development because entrepreneurship contributes to 

innovation, generates employment, influences economic development, betters social issues and assists in 

dealing with environmental issues (UN, 2015). Sustainable operations in businesses entail those businesses 

integrating sustainable values into the creation of new merchandise (Zu, 2014) and reconsider their core 

processes and productions (Fisk, 2010). Given the fact that the textile and clothing industry (TCI) has 

contributed to the current socio-environmental challenges, fashion design entrepreneurs cannot afford to 

have sustainable operations as a separate element in their business. Sustainable operations ought to be at 

the core of their business. The inability to address socio-environmental challenges endangers businesses’ 

capacity to build wealth and to be viable in the future (Zu, 2014,). Businesses that incorporate sustainable 

practices have a competitive advantage (Bomgardner, 2018). For the South African textile and clothing 

industry (SATCI) to be sustainable and improve its sustainability efforts, sustainable supply chain operations 

need to be integrated into business practices and processes to ensure and increase the production of 

sustainable clothes. South African Fashion Week (SAFW) is a platform for South African fashion designers  



 

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to showcase their work. May (2019) reports that SAFW has a record of 580 fashion designers. However, 

only a small number of fashion designers are socio-environmentally sustainable. 

 

Within this research context, this study aimed to investigate South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ 

awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations. Table 1 presents the objectives  

of this study. 

 

Table 1:  Sub-aims of the study. 

 

Sub-aim 1 

Explore and describe fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness of sustainable fabrics and garment design 

methods 

Sub-aim 2 

Explore and describe how fashion design entrepreneurs balance economical sustainability and socio-

environmental sustainability while sourcing fashion materials, designing garments and manufacturing 

garment 

Sub-aim 3 

Explore and describe fashion design entrepreneurs’ current practices while sourcing fashion fabrics and 

manufacturing garments 

Sub-aim 4 

Explore and describe fashion design entrepreneurs’ current practices towards economic sustainability in 

sourcing fashion materials, designing garments and manufacturing garments 

 

Literature review 

The emergence of sustainability has led numerous fashion businesses into altering their organisational 

approaches in their supply chain (Choi & Li, 2015; Shen, 2014). It is worth bearing in mind that altering 

supply chain operations is a gradual process. This requires fashion design entrepreneurs to evaluate their 

supply chain operations and identify gaps and opportunities where sustainable supply chain practices and 

processes can be integrated. This study focused on three stages of fashion supply chain: sourcing, design 

and manufacturing. 

 

Sustainable fabric sourcing 

Sustainable sourcing firstly involves sourcing sustainable fabrics and secondly sourcing locally 

manufactured fabrics. It is important to note that every fabric has its individual socio-environmental threats 

(Fletcher, 2014). Sustainable fabrics include organic cotton, recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), 

wool, linen, hemp, Tencel or Lyocell and bamboo. Some of the sustainable fabrics that can be sourced in 

South Africa (SA) are cotton produced by the Sustainable Cotton Cluster (Cotton SA, 2016), rPET, linen 

hemp (Del Monte, 2021), wool, cashmere and mohair (Twyg, 2020). It is important to note that some of 

these fabrics are sometimes sourced in SA and processed outside the country and vice versa (Del Monte, 

2021).  

 

Sourcing locally is reasonably costed and sustainable because it benefits the country’s economy through job 

creation, reduces shipping costs and reduces carbon emissions (Cadigan, 2014; Fontes, 2016; Ho & Choi, 

2012; Sprague, 2015). Over previous years, leading retailers sourced fabrics and clothes from China, and 

this has negatively affected South African textile manufacturers’ capacity (Daniel, 2022). Chinese imports 



 

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have weakened the South African textile, clothing, leather and footwear industries (SATCLF) (Mahlati, 

2017). In 1996, the SATCI had about 1,600 clothing factories. In 2015, the industry had approximately 900 

functional clothing factories (Reuters, 2015). The drop in the number of factories indicates the urgent need 

for South African retailers and fashion design entrepreneurs to source and manufacture locally to improve 

the economic well-being of the industry and society.   

 

To date, leading retailers have committed to sourcing locally produced fabrics (Daniel, 2022). When large 

businesses boost the demand of sustainable fabrics, it will help boost production demand from smaller 

manufacturers and will make sustainable products more reasonably priced and enable customers to 

purchase more products (Lee, 2014). Sustainable fashion design entrepreneurs often struggle to find 

reasonably priced sustainable fabrics (Kawana, 2017; May, 2019). Given that the SATCI struggles with 

adequate mainstream fabric production for its market, it is logical that there would also be a shortage of 

sustainable fabric production. Thus, where sustainable fabrics are not readily available and are beyond the 

fashion design entrepreneur’s financial capacity, purchasing sturdy polyester should be an alternative. 

Polyester is a controversial fabric because it is harmful to the environment, yet it is one of the two most 

used fabrics in the world (DeHaan, 2016; Fletcher, 2014). It is made from non-renewable resources and 

pollutes the environment (Niinimäki, 2013; Olajire, 2014). However, polyester manufacturing uses less 

water than cotton manufacturing (Fletcher, 2014), it is durable and has stronger fibres than cotton (Norway 

Geographical, 2019). The popularity of polyester, due to its affordability and other characteristics, makes it 

difficult to stop using this fabric completely. In the fashion supply chain, the sourcing stage is followed by 

the garment design stage.  

 

Sustainable garment design  

Sustainable garment design involves careful consideration of the type of fabric and its effects, the 

manufacturing, the customer-use phase and disposal of garments to reduce harmful global socio-

environmental impacts (Zoltkowski, 2022). Sustainable garment design must consider, among others, 

“economic, social, and environmental values” (Niinimäki, 2013) and cultural values. Fashion design 

entrepreneurs determine the look of sustainable garments (Sherburne, 2009), as well as the processes  

and practices that the garment will experience. Fashion design entrepreneurs can use various methods  

to design sustainable garments, including, among others, zero-waste design methods, design for 

multifunctional garment design and design for emotional durability.  

 

Zero-waste design methods do not separate the design stage from the manufacturing stage. Zero-waste 

design is a method of reducing fabric waste at the design stage by considering the cost of the fabric, 

balancing garment aesthetics, fit and cost and pattern cutting (Rissanen, 2013). Zero-waste design methods 

consist of and are not limited to draping, zero-waste pattern layout or jigsaw puzzle methods and 

subtraction pattern cutting (The Cutting Class, 2013; Ecochic Design Award, 2017). The jigsaw puzzle 

method refers to laying pattern pieces like a jigsaw puzzle to avoid fabric wastage (The Cutting Class, 2013). 

The subtraction pattern-cutting method is like the draping method in that both subtraction and draping 

require the fashion designer to “twist, displace, and feed the fabric back to itself” (The Cutting Class, 2013).  

 

Multifunctional garment design – also known as transformable design and convertible design – involves 

designing a garment that can be reversible, consisting of various elements that can be added or removed 

by the wearer depending on the occasion or season (Li et al., 2018). Multifunctional garments provide 

customers with one garment that can be worn in multiple ways, with each look consisting of a different 



 

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aesthetic identity and function. It is possible to reduce customers’ purchases of new fashion (Lang & Wei, 

2019), extend the life cycle of a garment and thereby reduce the number of garments in landfills  

(Koo et al., 2014).  

 

Emotional durability is a design concept that intends to create a long-lasting emotional connection between 

the garments and the users (Chapman, 2015). Involving customers at the garment design stage can 

contribute to creating an emotional bond with the garment (Durrani et al., 2016) and tackling consumption 

behaviour (Durrani et al., 2016). The sustainable garment design methods discussed above all focus on 

reducing fabric waste at either the pre-consumer or post-consumer phase. The garment design stage in the 

fashion supply chain is followed by the manufacturing stage. 

 

Sustainable manufacturing  

In this study, sustainable manufacturing refers to the treatment of fabrics at the pre-consumer phase and 

of garments at the post-consumer use phase. Fashion design entrepreneurs can employ various methods  

in the treatment of both fabrics and garments at the pre-consumer and post-consumer phases that can 

contribute to the sustainability of the TCI in SA. This study focuses on a closed loop approach consisting  

of reuse and recycling practices. According to Cuc and Vidovic (2011) and Holm (2013), reuse and recycling 

have environmental, social and economic benefits. The closed-loop approach, also known as the “circular 

economy”, refers to the treatment within the clothing factory of fabric offcuts, waste fabrics and 

merchandise once the garment is no longer useful to the client (Niinimäki, 2013; Pervez, 2017). Given that 

the closed-loop approach seeks to reduce landfill and extend the life cycle of fabrics (Norwich University, 

2020), it is important to note that this approach can be applied both to fabrics that are considered 

sustainable and those that are not considered sustainable. 

 

Reusing and recycling are approaches conceived to reduce waste and require fashion design entrepreneurs 

to re-think their entire manufacturing processes and practices. Reuse approaches also involve reselling, 

renting and swapping (Hendriksz, 2016). In some cases, before garments can be reused, they need to be 

repaired, which means providing a repair service to customers. Renting clothes enables companies to 

increase their profit (Hendriksz, 2016). Recycling means modifying the original attributes of fabrics to make 

new items (Ho & Choi, 2012). One of the ways fashion design entrepreneurs can implement a closed-loop 

system is by encouraging customers to bring back their used and unwanted clothes. In addition, South 

African fashion design entrepreneurs can also practise product-centric recycling. Product-centric recycling 

means that clothing manufacturers recycle their own textile waste (Sherburne, 2009); this approach is 

intended to generate profit. In SA, the rising cost and limited access to landfill sites indicate the need for 

the SATCI to strengthen its reusing and recycling systems (Enviroserv, n.d). According to Hendriksz (2016), 

many overseas businesses and manufacturers join forces with their local governments to reduce carbon 

emissions, energy and water consumption, waste and their general environmental impacts. It is crucial that 

the South African government aids the SATCI in obtaining technologically advanced equipment to improve 

the industry’s recycling capacity. 

 

A few fashion design entrepreneurs identify themselves as sustainable. Furthermore, the current climate 

challenges facing the world and the state of the SATCI denote the need for more fashion design 

entrepreneurs to adopt sustainable supply chain operations. 

 

 



 

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Methodology  

In this study, qualitative methods were used to explore and describe fashion design entrepreneurs’ 

awareness and their current sustainable fashion supply chain practices. The six participants for this study 

were selected purposively based on the following four criteria: 

 

1. Must produce clothes for men or women. 

2. Must have been in business for at least three years. 

3. Must have an online and a physical store 

4. Must not be primarily producing sustainable clothes. 

 

The data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews and analysis of documentation found on the 

participants’ websites or social media pages and was conducted in 2020. Due to financial constraints, 

telephone interviews were conducted. The participants were informed ahead of time that the interview 

would be recorded. The interviews were recorded using the Another Call Recorder application. The semi-

structured interviews were transcribed, coded, categorised and arranged for analysis (Babbie, 2016).  

 

Credibility, dependability and confirmability were the categories used to maintain the trustworthiness of 

this study. Credibility was maintained by transcribing the recorded interviews, submitting the transcribed 

interviews to another researcher and by data triangulation. Evaluation of the data collection, data analysis, 

and interpretation was maintained through continual consultation and discussion with supervisors. This 

ensured that the dependability and confirmability of the data were maintained. The results and discussion 

are provided below. 

 

Results and discussion 

The findings of this study are discussed based on the sub-aims as shown in Table 1. 
 

Fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness of sustainable fabrics and garment design methods  

Regarding awareness of sustainable practices at the fabric sourcing stage, Participant C was the only 

participant who indicated that she is not aware of sustainable fabrics, stating, “I’m not clued up about 

sustainable fabrics, and I’ll need to be educated more on their benefits. Smal (2016) pointed out that the 

local TCI is in the early stages of addressing sustainable practices, so there is not widespread awareness  

in the local TCI. This may explain why Participant C is not knowledgeable about sustainable fabrics. 

Participants A, B, D, E and F indicated that their knowledge on sustainable fabrics and their benefits was 

based on personal research. These participants revealed that they found sustainable fabrics to be more 

expensive than other fabrics. May (2019) and Kawana (2017) report that sustainable fabrics are indeed 

expensive. To make sustainable fabrics affordable to micro and small businesses, large retailers must 

continue to source these fabrics.  

 

Regarding awareness of sustainable operations at the design stage, all the participants showed minimal 

awareness of various sustainable design methods. Participants B, D and F indicated they are conscious that 

reducing fabric offcuts is environmentally sustainable. Although Participants A, C and E save fabric offcuts, 

they were not aware that this is a sustainable design method, and their motivation for saving fabric offcuts 

was economic. Participant B indicated that he experiments with draping, and this is motivated by the 

plethora of style options that this method offers. Participant is the only participant who uses the design for 

emotional durability method. However, this participant is unaware of this terminology and that this  



 

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is a sustainable design method. This participant’s motive for using this method is to increase sales. All the 

participants were unaware of the other three remaining sustainable design methods: zero-waste pattern 

layout, subtraction pattern cutting and multifunctional garment design. 

 

Fashion design entrepreneurs balance economic sustainability and socio-environmental sustainability  

in sourcing, design and manufacturing 

Regarding balancing environmental sustainability and profitability, Participants A, B, D, E and F indicated 

that environmental sustainability and economic sustainability are connected. Participant A indicated that 

making a profit while disregarding environmental sustainability is counterproductive. According to 

Brubaker (2015), entrepreneurs can fix catastrophes by innovating sustainable business models that can 

influence customers and increase profit. Participant D indicated that a designer must be able to solve 

problems and produce garments that bring in profit. Some of the participants concurred that balancing 

environmental sustainability and economic sustainability is a process that requires intentional development 

and time. Some of the methods that participants use to balance environmental sustainability and economic 

sustainability are reducing fabric waste, using waste for sellable products and producing garments based on 

orders only. Participant B stated that profit and environmental sustainability is a process that involves both 

research and collaboration with other professionals who are knowledgeable about environmental 

sustainability.  

 

With regards to balancing social sustainability and economic sustainability, all the participants indicated 

that it is possible to balance these. Some of the methods that the participants use to balance social 

sustainability and economic sustainability are as follows: 

 

• Intentionally producing garments that are affordable to the target market; 

• Developing employees’ skills through training workshops; 

• Providing rent-free space in the retail store for emerging designers’ products; and 

• Providing factory space for employees’ private clients on weekends. 

 

Regarding balancing employees’ salaries and social sustainability, three participants indicated that they pay 

their employees based on existing systems such as the Basic Employment Act, the Bargaining Council, the 

Companies Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) and union regulations. One participant indicated that 

his employees are paid above the existing minimum wage standard. Two participants indicated that they 

use their standard based on the current cost of living in SA, the daily operational cost of the business, the 

level of employee work experience and overtime. Overall, the various avenues that the participants use  

to empower their employees demonstrate a value for human life and the services rendered by  

their employees. 

 

Fashion design entrepreneurs’ current socio-environmentally sustainable practices at the sourcing and 

manufacturing stages 

Participants B, D and F source sustainable fabrics such as linen, sustainable cotton and wool on a small 

scale. These participants manufacture sustainable clothes on a small scale for their upper-class customers 

because most of their customers cannot afford the clothes. All the participants revealed that they 

manufacture their garments in-house. As mentioned, all participants in this study save their fabric offcuts. 

Participants A and C reuse their fabric offcuts to make accessories. The remaining four participants 

indicated that they donate their fabric offcuts to their employees, charity organisations and local 



 

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communities. Participants D and F indicated that there should be better systems to manage fabric offcuts. 

The participants are not always able to donate their fabric offcuts, which results in unused fabric offcuts 

filling up their studios, and these may end up in landfills. Participant F pointed out that as a small business, 

it is difficult to prepare fabric offcuts and garments for recycling due to a lack of recycling services in the 

area they operate in. This may suggest that there is a need for more accessible recycling services to 

streamline recycling for fashion design entrepreneurs.  

 

This study found that garment reuse and renting are not common practice among the participants. 

Participant A reports redesigning and reusing garments that do not sell. Participant D reported that they 

occasionally rented runway garments and found that there is no market for renting clothes. This may 

suggest that fashion design entrepreneurs can initiate and build a renting culture among customers. 

 

Fashion design entrepreneurs' current economically sustainable practices at the sourcing, design and 

manufacturing stages 

Exploring participants’ various economically sustainable practices in fashion supply-chain operations was 

the fourth sub-aim of this study. Economically sustainable practices in this study were threefold, namely 

sourcing locally manufactured fabrics, businesses making profit consecutively and overall economic 

contribution to the TCI. Several international authors Cadigan (2014), Ho and Choi (2012), Sprague (n.d.) 

and Fontes (2016) acknowledge that sourcing fabrics in the country where your business is situated is one 

way of improving the local economy. Participant A indicated that they source locally manufactured 

conventional cotton. Participant B indicated that the socio-environmentally friendly cotton and hemp they 

source are manufactured locally. Based on participant C’s website, some of their African print fabrics are 

produced by South African fabric manufacturers. Participant F sources linen and conventional cotton in SA. 

Participants D and F pointed out that the industry needs more textile mills to increase local production. In 

addition, Participant D indicated that they source wool fibres locally, and the fibres are then sent overseas 

to be woven and finally imported back to SA. Thus, more wool and leather mills are needed in SA to 

increase the local TCI production capacity, reduce pollution incurred in shipping and alleviate poverty  

by providing jobs.  

 

Participants B, C, D, E and F source their synthetic fabrics from South African wholesalers who stock 

imported fabrics. These findings suggest that imported fabrics are readily available in SA and that there are 

not enough fabric factories to cater to local demand. Importation of fabrics is not economically friendly 

because it does not benefit the local TCI and the country and impedes the growth of textile and clothing 

factories. Given that the SATCI has few textile factories, it is understandable that the fabrics that 

participants source are often imported. Although South African fabric wholesalers may employ a few 

people, the countries that produce these fabrics have greater economic benefits (in terms of fabric 

production), good production capacity for their TCI and employment opportunities for their local 

communities.  

 

With regards to consistently making a profit, participants A, B, C and F revealed that they have been 

consistently making a profit, and this has allowed them to remain in business. Participant F indicated that 

having multiple businesses in one location is one of the ways he manages financially. This may suggest that 

for some small and medium enterprises, it may be necessary for them to expand their services to deal with 

tougher business seasons. Participants D and E indicated that they were only able to make a profit after 

three years, and this was due to assistance from a business rescue specialist. Both participants highlighted 



 

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the importance of business skills in managing a business. This suggests that without the right sets of 

business skills, it is difficult to remain sustainable and make a positive contribution to the local TCI and the 

country. Regarding economic contributions to the TCI, all the participants in this study indicated they are 

making an economic contribution to the TCI because they manufacture their garments locally. 

 

Conclusion and recommendations 

This study has revealed that fashion design entrepreneurs incorporate minimal sustainable practices in one 

to two stages of their supply chain operations. The minimal sustainable practices are not solely motivated 

by the desire to contribute to a sustainable TCI and reduce socio-environmental harm. Regarding sourcing, 

the study revealed that there is a need to educate fashion design entrepreneurs on sustainable fabrics and 

where to source them. Sustainable fabric manufacturers and stockists need to be visible in the 

marketplace, as this will further increase awareness and purchases of the fabrics. The data uncovered the 

knowledge and skills gap at the garment design stage. It is crucial to empower fashion design entrepreneurs 

with sustainable garment design knowledge and skills training in the advancement of a sustainable SATCI. 

Sustainable design methods may increase the quantity and variety of sustainable clothes in the South 

African retail environment and provide customers with more options. The participants in this study have 

shown that saving fabric offcuts for reuse and donation is a widespread practice while renting and 

redesigning garments is rare. Garment renting, repair and redesigning are sustainable manufacturing 

methods that can decrease clothing consumption and the production of new fabric and reduce landfills. 

The findings of this study reveal that there is a need to promote garment renting and repair among fashion 

design entrepreneurs and customers. Additionally, fashion design entrepreneurs can practise sustainable 

manufacturing by redesigning garments that do not sell or by donating them to charitable organisations. 

Incorporating minimal sustainable practices and processes in one or two stages of the supply chain 

operations is a starting point towards building a sustainable TCI. For fashion design entrepreneurs to 

increase their sustainable contribution to the industry, moderate to maximum sustainable practices and 

processes need to be implemented at every stage of supply chain operations.  

 

This study had a limited criterion. First, we suggest that future research should include clear target market 

criteria (upper class, middle class and lower class). Second, future studies should have an equal number of 

participants who have been operating for the same number of years. Participant B stated that sustainability 

is a journey that takes years to implement. It can be deduced that as a business progresses, there are 

unique supply-chain operations that must be modified, adapted and preserved accordingly. Third,  

a longitudinal study will provide in-depth insight into methods that fashion design entrepreneurs can use  

to transform their businesses in a sustainable manner. In conclusion, this study is not representative of the 

entire South African TCI. This study offers valuable insight into the current practice of micro- to-small 

businesses of mainstream fashion design entrepreneurs’ sourcing, designing and manufacturing operations. 

 

Acknowledgements 

This paper is based on a thesis from Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. The financial 

assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. 

 

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	https://www.designforsocialchange.org/journal/index.php/DISCERN-J
	ISSN 2184-6995
	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
	South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices  of sustainable fashion supply chain operations
	To cite this article:  Mollel-Matodzi, N., Mastamet Mason, A., & Moodley-Diar, N. (2023). South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations. Discern: International Journal of Design for ...
	South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices  of sustainable fashion supply chain operations
	Nailejileji Mollel-Matodzia, Anne Mastamet Masonb, Nalini Moodley-Diarc
	aFaculty of Arts & Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. nailamollel@gmail.com.
	bFaculty of Arts & Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. Masona@tut.ac.za
	cFaculty of Arts & Design, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa. MoodleyDiarN@tut.ac.za
	Abstract
	The textile and clothing industry intensifies pollution through the production of fast fashion clothes.  The increase in fast fashion clothes imports in South Africa has led to the closure of textile factories and consequent loss of jobs. Sustainable ...
	Keywords: Fashion design entrepreneurs, Sustainable supply chain operations, Sustainable fabric sourcing, Sustainable garment design, Sustainable garment manufacturing
	Introduction
	Entrepreneurship is linked to sustainable development because entrepreneurship contributes to innovation, generates employment, influences economic development, betters social issues and assists in dealing with environmental issues (UN, 2015). Sustain...
	Within this research context, this study aimed to investigate South African fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and practices of sustainable fashion supply chain operations. Table 1 presents the objectives  of this study.
	Table 1:  Sub-aims of the study.
	Literature review
	The emergence of sustainability has led numerous fashion businesses into altering their organisational approaches in their supply chain (Choi & Li, 2015; Shen, 2014). It is worth bearing in mind that altering supply chain operations is a gradual proce...
	Sustainable fabric sourcing
	Sustainable sourcing firstly involves sourcing sustainable fabrics and secondly sourcing locally manufactured fabrics. It is important to note that every fabric has its individual socio-environmental threats (Fletcher, 2014). Sustainable fabrics inclu...
	Sourcing locally is reasonably costed and sustainable because it benefits the country’s economy through job creation, reduces shipping costs and reduces carbon emissions (Cadigan, 2014; Fontes, 2016; Ho & Choi, 2012; Sprague, 2015). Over previous year...
	To date, leading retailers have committed to sourcing locally produced fabrics (Daniel, 2022). When large businesses boost the demand of sustainable fabrics, it will help boost production demand from smaller manufacturers and will make sustainable pro...
	Sustainable garment design
	Sustainable garment design involves careful consideration of the type of fabric and its effects, the manufacturing, the customer-use phase and disposal of garments to reduce harmful global socio-environmental impacts (Zoltkowski, 2022). Sustainable ga...
	Zero-waste design methods do not separate the design stage from the manufacturing stage. Zero-waste design is a method of reducing fabric waste at the design stage by considering the cost of the fabric, balancing garment aesthetics, fit and cost and p...
	Multifunctional garment design – also known as transformable design and convertible design – involves designing a garment that can be reversible, consisting of various elements that can be added or removed by the wearer depending on the occasion or se...
	Emotional durability is a design concept that intends to create a long-lasting emotional connection between the garments and the users (Chapman, 2015). Involving customers at the garment design stage can contribute to creating an emotional bond with t...
	Sustainable manufacturing
	In this study, sustainable manufacturing refers to the treatment of fabrics at the pre-consumer phase and of garments at the post-consumer use phase. Fashion design entrepreneurs can employ various methods  in the treatment of both fabrics and garment...
	Reusing and recycling are approaches conceived to reduce waste and require fashion design entrepreneurs to re-think their entire manufacturing processes and practices. Reuse approaches also involve reselling, renting and swapping (Hendriksz, 2016). In...
	A few fashion design entrepreneurs identify themselves as sustainable. Furthermore, the current climate challenges facing the world and the state of the SATCI denote the need for more fashion design entrepreneurs to adopt sustainable supply chain oper...
	Methodology
	In this study, qualitative methods were used to explore and describe fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness and their current sustainable fashion supply chain practices. The six participants for this study were selected purposively based on the follo...
	1. Must produce clothes for men or women.
	2. Must have been in business for at least three years.
	3. Must have an online and a physical store
	4. Must not be primarily producing sustainable clothes.
	The data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews and analysis of documentation found on the participants’ websites or social media pages and was conducted in 2020. Due to financial constraints, telephone interviews were conducted. The parti...
	Credibility, dependability and confirmability were the categories used to maintain the trustworthiness of this study. Credibility was maintained by transcribing the recorded interviews, submitting the transcribed interviews to another researcher and b...
	Results and discussion
	The findings of this study are discussed based on the sub-aims as shown in Table 1.
	Fashion design entrepreneurs’ awareness of sustainable fabrics and garment design methods
	Regarding awareness of sustainable practices at the fabric sourcing stage, Participant C was the only participant who indicated that she is not aware of sustainable fabrics, stating, “I’m not clued up about sustainable fabrics, and I’ll need to be edu...
	Regarding awareness of sustainable operations at the design stage, all the participants showed minimal awareness of various sustainable design methods. Participants B, D and F indicated they are conscious that reducing fabric offcuts is environmentall...
	Fashion design entrepreneurs balance economic sustainability and socio-environmental sustainability  in sourcing, design and manufacturing
	Regarding balancing environmental sustainability and profitability, Participants A, B, D, E and F indicated that environmental sustainability and economic sustainability are connected. Participant A indicated that making a profit while disregarding en...
	With regards to balancing social sustainability and economic sustainability, all the participants indicated that it is possible to balance these. Some of the methods that the participants use to balance social sustainability and economic sustainabilit...
	• Intentionally producing garments that are affordable to the target market;
	• Developing employees’ skills through training workshops;
	• Providing rent-free space in the retail store for emerging designers’ products; and
	• Providing factory space for employees’ private clients on weekends.
	Regarding balancing employees’ salaries and social sustainability, three participants indicated that they pay their employees based on existing systems such as the Basic Employment Act, the Bargaining Council, the Companies Intellectual Property Commi...
	Fashion design entrepreneurs’ current socio-environmentally sustainable practices at the sourcing and manufacturing stages
	Participants B, D and F source sustainable fabrics such as linen, sustainable cotton and wool on a small scale. These participants manufacture sustainable clothes on a small scale for their upper-class customers because most of their customers cannot ...
	This study found that garment reuse and renting are not common practice among the participants. Participant A reports redesigning and reusing garments that do not sell. Participant D reported that they occasionally rented runway garments and found tha...
	Fashion design entrepreneurs' current economically sustainable practices at the sourcing, design and manufacturing stages
	Exploring participants’ various economically sustainable practices in fashion supply-chain operations was the fourth sub-aim of this study. Economically sustainable practices in this study were threefold, namely sourcing locally manufactured fabrics, ...
	Participants B, C, D, E and F source their synthetic fabrics from South African wholesalers who stock imported fabrics. These findings suggest that imported fabrics are readily available in SA and that there are not enough fabric factories to cater to...
	With regards to consistently making a profit, participants A, B, C and F revealed that they have been consistently making a profit, and this has allowed them to remain in business. Participant F indicated that having multiple businesses in one locatio...
	Conclusion and recommendations
	This study has revealed that fashion design entrepreneurs incorporate minimal sustainable practices in one to two stages of their supply chain operations. The minimal sustainable practices are not solely motivated by the desire to contribute to a sust...
	This study had a limited criterion. First, we suggest that future research should include clear target market criteria (upper class, middle class and lower class). Second, future studies should have an equal number of participants who have been operat...
	Acknowledgements
	This paper is based on a thesis from Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged.
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