Breaching take-make-dispose cycle: “Beauty in the Flawed”- a study of customers' intent to purchase upcycled fashion

Introduction The global fashion industry is currently facing an environmental crisis and is being driven toward circular-economy models such as upcycling. Upcycling employs creative reuse of post-consumption superfluous materials to create higher-value offerings. Studies indicate that there is growing awareness of the ecological impact of fast fashion, but this has not diminished demand for it. Today's younger cohorts are digital natives with high levels of social self-expression and environmental awareness, yet are difficult to engage with upcycled apparel, reflecting a disconnect. Despite rising environmental awareness among younger cohorts, adoption and purchase intentions for upcycled fashion remain limited. This research aims to fill critical gaps in the understanding of upcycled fashion purchase intention among young, urban, tech-savvy consumers. Method A structured survey from 477 participants was analyzed through Structural Equation Modelling. The model also seeks to determine the moderating influence of narrative competence on the relationship between the key antecedents and customers' purchase intention, using Process Macro. Result This paper examines the key customer values—functional, social, emotional, conditional, and epistemic—and the moderating effects of Narrative competence on purchase intention for upcycled fashion. By leveraging this theoretical framework, this research aims to fill critical gaps in understanding upcycle fashion purchase intention among younger cohorts, offering valuable implications for both academia and industry. Discussion The study contributes towards developing a unified Consumer Value-Narrative competence model for studying the purchase intention in the context of upcycled fashion. The outcomes offer valuable insights for retailers seeking to enhance customers' purchase intention and contribute substantially to the extant literature on upcycled fashion.