Fashion with heart: Sustainable fashion entrepreneurs, emotional labour and implications for a sustainable fashion system

Recent years have seen a rise in the number of fashion entrepreneurs who practise sustainable fashion design, including the use of environmentally friendly materials and transparent supply chains. However, mainstream fashion practises remain unsustainable and the pathway to a sustainable fashion system is not yet clear. Using qualitative data gathered from in-depth interviews with sustainable fashion entrepreneurs, this article examines the practise of sustainable fashion design to understand the industry's transition towards sustainability. Building upon social practise theory, the management of emotional labour is identified as a key element in sustainable fashion design as indicated by the pro-social motives of the entrepreneurs, financial precarity, entrepreneurial risk and the management of ethical complexities in sustainable fashion businesses. I argue that the element of managing emotional labour limits the reproduction potential of sustainable fashion design by other practitioners, thus slowing the transition to a sustainable fashion system.