Bridging the Gap: A Review of Sustainable Fashion Literature and Practice

Although there are relatively few reviews, a lot of work has been done in the SF literature in recent years; the strategic capabilities of SF practice and literature are still unclear. Previous systematic reviews focus on specific aspects of SF in management. Köksal et al. (2017), Strähle and Müller (2017), and Karaosman et al. (2017) focus on the SF supply chain whilst Ng et al. (2015) looks at the relationship between social media and the way consumers dispose of fashion items. Yang et al. (2017) investigates SF retailing but, as of yet, there has not been an attempt to bring these elements together. Johnson et al. (2013) explored research trends in social responsibility in fashion and found that the main issue is the lack of a shared definition and thereof of a shared direction., However, Tranfield et al. (2003) highlight the risk of asking questions and developing theories that do not have practical applications. To avoid this and to ensure further development of the field, this review is intentionally provocative. Godfrey et al. (2010) note that "any opportunity to increase the strength of integrative research is valuable" (p. 740). This review hopes to encourage researchers to connect theory to practice, to ask relevant questions, to be creative and to engage with the public. The first step to do this is to categorise what is known and what is yet to be known and to identify directions for the field to grow. This systematic literature review applies an interpretative approach to map the existing body of sustainable fashion (SF) literature across the management discipline. It aims to achieve some level of congruency and to identify what is known and what is yet to be known. With aims to incorporate theory into practice and practice into theory, this paper is the first to systematically draw together the different aspects of sustainable fashion and its associated terms across the management discipline. From this review, two conceptual models are developed to integrate SF across different domains to further society’s understanding of SF. It is hoped that this review would serve as a foundation for developing a SF labelling scheme, identifying knowledge gaps, and informing managerial decision making.