ICEBERG MODEL Design Innovation & Leaderhip

Spring 2021 - Prof. Mariana Amatullo

by David Restrepo

T H E E V E NT
After years of fast fashion an estimated 60 billion units of clothing
go into landfill or are burned releasing more C02 into the atmosphere.
Bonime, Western. Forbes. July 12, 2020.

PAT T E RN S OF B E H AV I OUR
Seasonal Collections have been accelerated, when in pre-fast
fashion era, brands used to have 2-4 collections per year, fast
fashion brands offer between 12 and 24 collections. Fast Fashion
brands have to copy from the luxury brands in the runway shows.
While luxury brands take 8 months between runway shows and
collection launches, fast fashion can have the trends in store
within 30 to 45 days. If a collection is unsuccessful or the trend
has evolved, most of the unsold clothes at the store is thrown
away and disposed into landfills.
The speed of communication and social media has accelerated
the seasonality of collections. Trends are becoming shorter and
shorter. Since 2000 production of clothing has more than doubled.
Consumers have become more interested in being trendy at
cheaper prices, therefore purchasing more clothes at a higher
rate. Since trends are accelerated the clothes become “obsolete”
and are thrown away. Fashion consumers are buying roughly 60%
or more garments since 2000, but only keeping the clothes for
half as long. An issue evident between accelerating trend and
poor quality garments.

UN D E RLY I N G ST RU CT U R ES
The supply chain structure of Fast Fashion is designed to
respond almost immediately to the current demand of trends.
Therefore it must be very cost effective and look to cut costs in
all areas of production. This has an immediate effect on the
quality of the clothing. This demand driven model makes the
fast fashion brands look for very cheap labor, low quality fabrics,
and delivering everything by airplane. This structure is a direct
contributor to both environmental and social issues, speed to
stores is the most important underlying rule to this structure.
Decades of globalization and trade policy have encouraged
brands (from fast fashion to luxury) to outsource production, and
with it they have lost oversight and ownership of their supply
chains, this is a big huge disconnect from sustainability. Despite
Ecommerce emerging as an important channel, fast fashion
brands are highly dependent on their brick and mortar stores.
Here they are able to catch insights from the consumers and
deploy sales strategies of unsold clothes. An aggressive expan-
sion of these stores is critical for the growth of the business.

M E NTAL M OD E LS
From a fashion industry perspective:
There is a paradigm that in order to be more profitable you
need to sell more. Looking for better cost opportunities around
the world, without considering the environmental and social
impacts. In order to sell more you need more stores, more
clothes, and more speed between the collections. Landfill and
burning clothes seems to be the only answer towards disposing
the clothes. No one takes responsibility for the social and envi-
ronmental issues, most claim that it is a system problem, not an
individual actor problem.
From a consumer perspective:
Consumers know sustainability is something they should care
deeply about, but they are not informed enough to know what it
means to be truly sustainable. An accelerated disposal of clothes
has become more and more common, and consumers are
getting used to purchasing garments with less quality.
Consumers are getting more and more used to waiting for sea-
sonal sales and discounts, this undermines the work and effort of
the brands, the manufacturers, and textile developers.

Reflective Summary. This exercise has given me a new perspective on the whole industry, not just the sustainable perspective.
Although I agree that it is a systematic problem, it is also a problem with the mental models of the consumers, who on one side look for
sustainability without really understanding what it is and on the other side they still need to look out for their pockets and reputation, so
they want to buy trendy and affordable clothes. In previous research I had the brands more at fault, this model has revealed a myriad of
consumer targeted intervention ideas. In regard to leverage points I think from an industry perspective, we need to go deeper into proper
disposal of textiles while also developing more circular materials towards the future. Addressing the social issues that come with fast
fashion and fashion in general is another topic worth exploring with the Iceberg model. Brands and companies need to be able to under-
stand how revenue can increase without a massive expansion of stores and units of clothes, this is the biggest Mindshift and leverage
point that could potentially drive structures and behaviors to change. All in. all we have to slow down fashion and let trends live longer,
achieving this harmony between brands and consumers will be key (as a first step). From here we can move forwards towards better and
healthier materials for our planet and redefining disposal. My biggest frustration doing this model was trying to find a common place as to
what sustainability means to different stakeholders. This is perhaps one of the bigger issues, that sustainability has many different mean-
ings, and despite the industry using it as a marketing tool, there is no clear sense of what it truly is.

SOURCES
Bonime, Western. “Biomimicry: using nature’s perfect innovation systems to design the future.” Forbes. July 12, 2020. Accessed January 30, 2021.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/westernbonime/2020/07/12/biomimicry-using-natures-perfect--innovation-systems-to-design-the-future/?sh=3f300eef174e

McFall-Johnsen, Morgan. “These facts show how unsustainable the fashion industry is” World Economic Forum. January 31, 2020. Accessed January 30, 2021.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/fashion-industry-carbon-unsustainable-environment-pollution/

Indvik, Lauren. “Sustainable Fashion? There is no such thing.” Financial Times. November 13, 2020. Accessed January 30, 2021.
https://www.ft.com/content/d174e7d7-97c4-43fc-8765-95075e5fcce7