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Sustainable Fashion Undressed: An Ecofeminist Critical Sustainability Semiotic Analysis of German Sustainable Fashion Brands’ Advertising
Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication.
2025 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 15 credits / 22,5 HE creditsStudent thesis
Sustainable development
Sustainable Development
Abstract [en]

Fashion is deeply entangled with socio-ecological injustice. Following Marxist theory, this problem stems from a society built on consumerism, leading to people's alienation from their (social) environment. Ubiquitously promoting fashion trends, wrapped in cultural messages creating desire, social media exacerbates this dynamic. Although the sustainable fashion industry argues to combat sustainability issues, it operates within a paradox, promoting sustainability while depending on economic success. In Western countries, like Germany, where fashion originally emerged as a marker of class, people nowadays show a greater commitment to sustainability practices in fashion. Nevertheless, fashion consumption remains high. Accordingly, this paper explores ads of three German sustainable fashion brands and their representations of sustainability notions. An ecofeminist-critical sustainability semiotic analysis was conducted to uncover how sustainable fashion brands construct sustainability narratives, particularly human-nature and social relationships. The findings reveal that the advertising narratives do not challenge conventional societal value systems. Instead, neoliberal-patriarchal social ideals are presented in conjunction with promoting sustainable clothing consumption as a solution to sustainability problems. In a discussion, these elements were evaluated regarding their negative impact on socio-ecological well-being.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. , p. 69
Keywords [en]
sustainable fashion, critical sustainability, ecofeminism, semiotic analysis, socioecological (in)justice
National Category
Media and Communication Studies Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified Environmental Studies in Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-68674OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-68674DiVA, id: diva2:1971573
Subject / course
HLK, Media and Communication Studies
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Examiners
Available from: 2025-06-19 Created: 2025-06-17 Last updated: 2025-10-13Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
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  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
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  • asciidoc
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