Results of research questions 1 and 2: keywords relating to consumption of sustainable and ethical fashions pre- and post-COVID-19
After the data purification process to compare extracted keywords on sustainable and ethical fashion consumption before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, we arranged the top 30 extracted keywords by their frequency, as shown in Table 2.
Results of Keyword Frequency Analysis Based on “Sustainable Fashion Consumption”
Among the keywords extracted for sustainable fashion consumption pre-COVID-19, the high-frequency keywords were “sustainable” (2,219), “fashion” (1,790), “brand” (832), “consumption” (722), and “product” (622), and the keywords with the highest frequency post-COVID-19 were “consumption” (3,177), “sustainable” (2,465), “fashion” (2,457), “eco-friendly” (1,683), and “brand” (985). Comparing the data collected for sustainable fashion consumption keywords, we found no significant difference between the periods – 5,338 cases pre-COVID-19 and 5,647 cases post-COVID-19. However, when comparing the sum of the frequencies of the top five keywords, the frequency increased by approximately 1.74 times, from 6,185 cases pre-COVID-19 to 10,767 cases post-COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, in the extracted keywords related to sustainable fashion consumption, we found keywords such as “eco-friendly” and “material” mentioned with a higher frequency post-COVID-19 outbreak than pre-COVID-19. On the other hand, “fast fashion,” mentioned in sustainable fashion consumption pre-COVID-19 and presented as a task to overcome, was not in the top 30 frequency order post-COVID-19 outbreak, and “generation” and “earth” were not mentioned pre-COVID-19. The keyword “online” also emerged after post-COVID-19.
Results of keyword frequency analysis based on “Ethical fashion consumption”
Among the extracted keywords for ethical fashion consumption pre-COVID-19, the keywords with high frequency were “fashion” (1,452), “eco-friendly” (899), “consumption” (859), “ethics” (815), and “brand” (757). During the post-COVID-19 outbreak, the most frequent keywords were “fashion” (3,497), “eco-friendly” (1,236), “consumption” (1,044), “ethics” (962), and “brand” (869). The number of keywords for ethical fashion consumption collected post-COVID-19 was 5,420, and 4,610 pre-COVID-19, showing a larger difference (810) than the respective number of keywords for sustainable fashion consumption (309). As with sustainable fashion consumption, the sum of the frequency of the top five keywords by period for ethical fashion consumption increased by about 1.59 times, from 4,782 cases pre-COVID-19 to 7,608 cases post-COVID-19 outbreak. When comparing the frequencies of keywords related to ethical consumption, we extracted more post-COVID-19 (856) than before (553). We separately extracted the keyword “vegan fashion,” the top keyword pre-COVID-19, as “vegan” post-COVID-19. Similar to sustainable fashion consumption, in ethical fashion consumption, the keyword “material” emerged as an extracted keyword post-COVID-19.
Results of research questions 3 and 4: major topics relating to consumption of sustainable and ethical fashions in pre- and post-COVID-19
We conducted LDA topic modeling using data collected as keywords for “sustainable fashion consumption” and “ethical fashion consumption” by period: pre-and post-COVID-19.
Results of LDA topic modeling for keyword “Sustainable fashion consumption”
We derived the top 10 topics using LDA topic modeling on “sustainable fashion consumption” from January 20, 2018, to January 19, 2020, before the COVID-19 outbreak. Table 3 summarizes the topics emerging from the related keywords.
The title of Topic 1 was “fashion technology,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “sustainability,” “technology,” “product,” “Japan,” “Korea,” and “consumption.” The title of Topic 2 was “sustainable exercise environment,” with related keywords derived from “sustainable,” “self,” “exercise,” “environment,” “clothing,” “benefit,” and “service.” The title of Topic 3 was “local culture,” with related keywords derived from “culture,” “country,” “region,” “China,” “power,” “product advertisement,” and “soft.” The title of Topic 4 was “generational consumption trend,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “sustainability,” “consumer,” “product,” “generation,” “ethics,” and “society.” The keywords “fast fashion” and “generation” were only in Topic 4. As a result of checking the original text of the keyword “generation” in the collected data, we found many references to the millennial-Z (MZ) generation. We named Topic 5 “wholesale market trend,” with related keywords derived from “China,” “trend,” “product,” “fashion,” “wholesale,” “cosmetics,” and “brand.” The title of Topic 6 was “eco-friendly business brand,” with related keywords derived from “sustainable,” “fashion,” “brand,” “eco-friendly,” “consumption,” “industry,” and “environment.” The title of Topic 7 was “fashion industry trend,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “trend,” “clothing,” “sustainable,” “industry,” “growth,” and “brand.” The keywords “sustainable,” “product,” “consumption,” “fashion,” “increase,” “online,” and “trend” were the derived related keywords for Topic 8, “online fashion consumption.” The title of Topic 9 was “sustainable fashion production,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “brand,” “sustainable,” “product,” “meaning,” “production,” and “growth.” Finally, Topic 10 was “sustainable product growth,” with related keywords derived from “sustainable,” “product,” “growth,” “market,” “China,” “industry,” and “inspection.” We derived country-related keywords such as “China,” “Korea,” “USA,” “Japan,” and “Thailand” together from related keywords in the topics on sustainable fashion consumption pre-COVID-19. In addition, we identified keywords related to real estate and stocks concerning social issues.
The intertopic distance map (IDM) shows the weight and distance between topics. In addition, it shows the degree of relevance between topics. For example, the IDM for Topic 6 of the 10 topics extracted from LDA topic modeling in pre-COVID-19 sustainable fashion consumption is in Fig. 1.
IDM for topic 6 derived from LDA topic modeling on pre-COVID-19 sustainable fashion consumption.
Next, we used LDA topic modeling and analyzed “sustainable fashion consumption” from January 20, 2020, to October 19, 2021, the period post-COVID-19 outbreak, deriving ten topics, as summarized in Table 4.
The title of Topic 1 was “eco-friendly fashion consumption,” with related keywords derived from “eco-friendly,” “consumption,” “fashion,” “sustainable,” “product,” “brand,” and “clothing.” We classified the keywords “fashion,” “sustainable,” “consumption,” “eco-friendly,” “brand,” “industry,” and “trend” under the title “fashion industry trend” (Topic 2). The title of Topic 3 was “eco-friendly brand value,” with related keywords derived from “consumption,” “fashion,” “sustainable,” “eco-friendly,” “brand,” “value,” and “clothing.” We classified the keywords “brand,” “consumption,” “eco-friendly,” “sustainable,” “gender,” “fashion,” and “global” as “eco-friendly brand consumption (Topic 4). “Real estate,” “consumption,” “sustainability,” “fashion,” “global,” “growth,” and “potential” were the keywords for the title “real estate growth” (Topic 5). Topic 5 combines the potential for real estate growth and sustainable fashion consumption. Topic 6 was “brand evaluation,” with related keywords derived from “consumption,” “sustainable,” “fashion,” “brand,” “city,” “evaluation,” and “clothing.” The title of Topic 7 was “fashion technology,” with related keywords derived from “happiness,” “technology,” “wholesale,” “fashion,” “consumption,” “growth,” and “Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (KOSDAQ).” The keywords “happiness” and “technology” had the highest frequencies under Topic 7. Topic 8 was “increasing clothing consumption” because related keywords derived from “consumption,” US, “rising,” clothing, “related stocks,” and “market conditions.” The keywords “consumption,” “sustainable,” “fashion,” “industry,” “clothing,” “eco-friendly,” and “production” fell under “fashion industry production” (Topic 9). Finally, the title of Topic 10 was “online fashion consumption” as related keywords derived from “consumption,” “fashion,” “sustainable,” “brand,” “product,” “dollar,” and “online.” If the country name derived as a keyword related to the period pre-COVID-19, we found that “global” derived from several topics as a keyword related to the period post-COVID-19.
The IDM for Topic 1 of the 10 topics extracted from LDA topic modeling in post-COVID-19 sustainable fashion consumption is in Fig. 2.
IDM for topic 1 derived from LDA topic modeling on post-COVID-19 sustainable fashion consumption.
Results of LDA topic modeling on the keyword “Ethical fashion Consumption”
We derived 10 titles using LDA topic modeling for “ethical fashion consumption” from January 20, 2018, to January 19, 2020, pre-COVID-19. Table 5 summarizes the topics and related keywords.
The title of Topic 1 was “eco-friendly fashion brand,” with related keywords derived from “eco-friendly,” “fashion,” “brand,” “ethics,” “consumer,” “animal,” and “product.” The title for Topic 2 was “eco-friendly product culture,” with related keywords derived from “eco-friendly,” “society,” “culture,” “product,” “beauty,” “fashion,” and “brand.” We classified the keywords “fashion,” “brand,” “sustainable,” “trend,” “eco-friendly,” “ethics,” and “clothing” under “fashion brand trend” (Topic 3). This topic differs from other topics in that it includes the keyword “BBYB,” a bag brand pursuing vegan fashion, as a brand name. The title of Topic 4 was “fashion industry ethics,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “consumption,” “sustainability,” “ethics,” “industry,” “value,” and “eco-friendly.” The keywords “bag,” “culture,” “society,” “product,” “use,” “brand,” and “good consumption” were under the title “good consumption culture” (Topic 5). The title for Topic 6 was “fashion consumption trend,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “clothing,” “product,” “trend,” “consumption,” “ethical consumption,” and “eco-friendly.” Only Topic 6 included the keywords “fast fashion” and “upcycling.” Furthermore, the title of Topic 7 was “logistics development,” with related keywords derived from “development,” “logistics,” “trend,” “brand,” “fashion,” “consumption,” and “generation.” The keywords “fashion,” “clothing,” “consumer,” “brand,” “global warming,” “water,” and “ethics” fell under the title “fashion consumer ethics” (Topic 8). In addition, we included specific keywords, such as “warming” and “water. The keywords for Topic 9 were “eco-friendly,” “ethics,” “problem,” “trend,” “thought,” “consumer,” and “product,” and the title was “eco-friendly ethical issues.” The title of Topic 10 was “fur fashion,” derived from “eco-friendly,” “fur,” “animal,” “fashion,” “clothing,” “thought,” and “brand.” The IDM for Topic 3 of the 10 topics extracted from LDA topic modeling in pre-COVID-19 ethical fashion consumption Fig. 3.
IDM for Topic 3 derived from LDA topic modeling on pre-COVID-19 ethical fashion consumption.
We also conducted LDA topic modeling of “ethical fashion consumption” from January 20, 2020, to October 19, 2021, post-COVID-19. As a result, we derived 10 topics from these keywords, as summarized in Table 6.
The title of Topic 1 was “investment in distribution development,” with related keywords derived from “investment,” “development,” “distribution,” “fashion,” “generation,” “programming,” and “brand.” We regarded the topic as an extension of “logistics development trend,” which was Topic 7 under “ethical fashion consumption,” and both titles included “generation” as a related keyword for these two topics. The title of Topic 2 was “vegan fashion trend,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “vegan,” “ethical consumption,” “trend,” “animal,” “consumption,” and “clothing.” The title of Topic 3, “ethical consumption brand,” derived from the keywords “fashion,” “clothing,” “brand,” “consumption,” “ethical consumption,” “use,” and “bag.” The keyword “conscious,” included in the other topics, was also related. The title of Topic 4 was “ethical consumption industry,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “sustainability,” “clothing,” “ethical consumption,” “industry,” “ethics,” and “product.” The title of Topic 5 was “culture,” which was the only keyword for Topic 5 after refining the data. Topic 6 was “eco-friendly fashion brand,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “eco-friendly,” “ethical consumption,” “sustainable,” “ethics,” “vegan,” and “brand.” The keywords for Topic 7 were “fashion,” “logistics,” “brand,” “consumption,” “eco-friendly,” “generation,” and “ethical consumption,” and the title was “fashion brand logistics.” As in Topic 1, “distribution and development investment,” the keyword “generation” was also in Topic 7. Further, the title of Topic 8 was “online ethical consumption,” with related keywords derived from “fashion,” “development,” “consumption,” “online,” “ethical consumption,” “brand,” and “market.” The keywords “fashion,” “society,” “ethics,” “culture,” “brand,” “use,” and “problem” (Topic 9) fell under the title “fashion social problem.” The keywords “fashion,” “brand,” “good consumption,” “ethical consumption,” “bag,” “leather,” and “clothing” were under the title “good consumption brand” (Topic 10).
Even pre-COVID-19, “vegan fashion” was a keyword related to ethical fashion consumption. However, we did not select it as the title name because the probability of appearing within the topic was low. However, post-COVID-19 confirmed that keywords related to “vegan,” such as those under Topic 2 (“vegan fashion trend”), were more likely pre-COVID-19. As such, we found that under “ethical fashion consumption” post-COVID-19, there were more titles with keywords related to “animal” and those related to “vegan” than pre- COVID-19.
The IDM for Topic 7 of the 10 topics extracted from LDA topic modeling in post-COVID-19 ethical fashion consumption is in Fig. 4.
IDM for Topic 7 derived from LDA Topic Modeling on Post-COVID-19 ethical fashion consumption.
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