Ethical Value Perception of a Secondhand Fashion Value Chain in Thailand

The secondhand fashion has emerged as an alternative source of the ethical fashion consumption.
This fashion concept is associated with the conscious consumption, which minimizes environmental
impacts and maximizes fairness for people throughout the whole value chain. Although a group of fashion
consumers who are conscious of negative impacts fashion cause is continuously growing in Thailand, the
understanding of the ethical fashion practices in the secondhand fashion industry in the country is a lack
of transparency, from material sources to the consumption end. The purpose of this study is to explore
the value chain of a secondhand fashion segment in Thailand and to understand the perceived ethical
value of its stakeholders. In-depth interview with pre-defined questions was used to collect data from
three different sample groups, i.e., wholesalers, retailers and end-consumers. The Ethical Fashion
framework of the Ethical Fashion Forum was applied to analyze and gain the five value insights, i.e.,
emotional, epistemic, social, environmental, and economic value. The study suggested that the conscious
consumers emphasize sincere information of secondhand fashion items from retailers rather than the
transparency of their original sources or energy consumption data. The wholesalers and retailers are not
eager to promote their ethical practices whereas the conscious consumers expect and support the
secondhand fashion seller platforms that can project environmental and social movement on ethical
values. This study helps to rethink and redesign the secondhand fashion value chain in Thailand to achieve
a better equitable and sustainable development goals.