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Kilomet109 and Slow Fashion Movement: Understanding the landscape towards Promoting Sustainable Fashion Industry in Vietnam.

Week 6 Submission for MDA20009 Class - Hanoi Campus

In recent years, the global fashion industry has witnessed a significant shift towards sustainability with the Slow Fashion Movement, as opposed to that of Fast Fashion; hence, Vietnam, an emerging country with a rich textile heritage and a fashion landscape with cultural diversity, is no exception to this trend. Different characteristics of the Slow Fashion Movement are emphasised, as Domigos et al. (2022) demonstrate that Ethics and Sustainability are among the most concerned criteria among the involved consumers in Western countries. So, which specific concerns are the most important for Slow Fashion Consumers in Vietnam? In this post, together we discover the scene of Fashion Production, Distribution and Consumption in Vietnam; thus, through the case study of Kilomet109, a local fashion retailer based in Hanoi, come several solutions proposed for sustainable development of both the environment and the economy in this Southeast Asian country.

Phiêu Collection 2017 (Source: kilomet109.com)

Fashion Consumption in Vietnam: Several key points

As Vietnam is still among the developing nations, a large portion of Vietnamese population are among lower to middle class in terms of socio-economic background. With approximately two thirds of the population live in rural areas (General Statistic Office, 2019), accessibility to well-known fashion retailers (i.e. Muji, Uniqlo, etc.) is not largely viable compared to that in developed countries with mostly urbanized areas. About fashion consumption behavior, a significant portion of clothing in Vietnam is bought from independent merchants, with many products imported from China. As these items are often inexpensive and designed for short-term use, such clothing is easily disposable, posing a threat to environmental sustainability in Vietnam (Viracresreach.com, 2021). Hence, we can describe the scene here as Fast Fashion Consumption, which Liu et al. (2021) illustrate the movement with its characteristics of low-quality, constant distribution process and being detrimental to the ecosystem and the environment in general.

Independant retailers and clothing merchants are commonly viable on many streets in Vietnam, providing cheap and affordable products imported mainly from China.

Efforts in promoting sustainable fashion consumption in Vietnam: are they effective enough?

Several communication campaigns have been done in order to promote ethical and sustainable fashion consumption in Vietnam, namely Muji’s Release of Thiên Nhiên Giao Hòa Collection and Uniqlo’s Re.Uniqlo Recycling Process Infographic (Nguyen, 2024). Giving the credit for the success of changing consumer behavior towards ethical and sustainable fashion consumption, especially among Millennials and Gen Z consumers; however, provided that these brands are mainly viable in urban areas and big cities in Vietnam, as a rule of thumb, the movement has not yet been delivered on a large scale towards the largest segment of population in Vietnam, thus Slow Fashion Consumption has not yet been practiced en masse in this country.

Despite creditable effort towards enhancing Slow Fashion Movement, still there remains a large number of consumers choosing to buy cheap products from the aforementioned clothing retailers.

Kilomet109 Case study: Towards Sustainability through Community Engagement whilst Opening Opportunity for Economic Development in Vietnam

A brief introduction: Kilomet109 is a local fashion producer and retailer brand, being well-known for versatility, craftmanship and dedication for creativity. They collaborate with local artisans in rural mountainous areas to produce dye fabrics naturally using locally sourced and eco-friendly materials (Thao Vy, 2022); hence, the garments are transported to the designers’ Hanoi Studio for production and sale.

Mrs. Thao Vu, Founder of Kilomet109 (Source: from About | Kilomet109 @ www.kilomet109.com)

As such dedicated creative process meets the principles of the “slow fashion” movement, nevertheless, I believe that the key practice of Kilomet109, which is hidden here, is to provide jobs and income for the local, helping them gain social mobility through successful entrepreneurship, and, as a result, being less reliant on cheap imported products for their daily life. This practice, while not being stated by putting into word of mouth, is significantly practical to help reduce import and consumption of cheap and disposable clothing, thereby reducing the impact of Fast Fashion and further enhancing Slow Fashion Landscape in Vietnam.

Kilomet109's dedication towards craftmanship and community engagement among ethnic groups in Vietnam (Source: heritagevna.magazine)

Conclusion

Instead of just emphasising on Ethics and Sustainability by word-of-mouth only, through the case study of Kilomet109 analysed in the post, I believe that Slow Fashion Movement can be practically fostered in Vietnam through Community Engagement by providing jobs, enhancing income for workers in suburban and rural areas, thus promoting their craftmanship through effective communication campaign towards ethical consumption among consumers, thus helping the workers gain social mobility like what Kilomet109 has been doing for the ethnic communities. Hence, with a larger proportion of consumers with financial security, there will be no need for cheap imported products, thereby removing the need for rapidly produced fast fashion clothing, which, as a rule of thumb, promote the Slow Fashion Movement effectively in Vietnam, our beloved country.

Until next time...

Reference List

Liu, C., Liu, G. and Gong, X., 2021. The characteristics of fast fashion or slow fashion and their future sustainability. In International Conference on Economic Management and Corporate Governance (EMCG 2021) (pp. 227-235).

Domingos, M., Vale, V.T., and Faria, S., 2022. Slow Fashion Consumer Behavior: A Literature Review. In Sustainability 14, no. 5: 2860. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052860

Phuc, N., 2024. Khi Thương Hiệu Thời Trang ‘Sống Xanh’: Cách Muji, uniqlo tạo ‘điểm chạm’ Qua Các Chiến Dịch Bảo vệ môi Trường: Phuc Nguyen, Advertising Vietnam. Available at: https://advertisingvietnam.com/khi-thuong-hieu-thoi-trang-song-xanh-cach-muji-uniqlo-tao-diem-cham-qua-cac-chien-dich-bao-ve-moi-truong-p23863 (Accessed: 20 October 2024).

Viracresearch, 2021. Vietnamese fashion market and fashion trends in 2021, VIRAC. Available at: https://viracresearch.com/vietnamese-fashion-market-and-fashion-trends-in-2021/ (Accessed: 20 October 2024).

General Statistics Office of Vietnam, 2019. Infographic socio-economic situation 2019. Available at: https://www.gso.gov.vn/en/data-and-statistics/2020/09/infographic-socio-economic-situation-2019/ (Accessed: 20 October 2024).

Thao Vy, 2022. Kilomet 109 – thời trang Mang Dấu ấn Văn Hóa, TTXVN-vietnam.vnanet.vn. Available at: https://vietnam.vnanet.vn/vietnamese/long-form/kilomet-109-–-thoi-trang-mang-dau-an-van-hoa-303358.html (Accessed: 20 October 2024).

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