Sustainable fashion promotes a shift away from the resource-heavy, exploitative practices of traditional fashion toward an industry that reduces environmental impact and ensures fair treatment of workers. It encourages mindful, responsible consumption and production, focusing on creating eco-friendly, ethical clothing that prioritizes long-term well-being for people and the planet, as opposed to the harmful effects of fast fashion. Some of the sustainable fashion practices are listed below.

Collaborative consumption, defined by Felson and Spaeth (1978), is a sustainable system where consumers share goods and services, fostering a circular economy that promotes product reuse and minimizes environmental impact (Papamichael & , 2024). Recognized by Time magazine in 2011 as a transformative idea (Gopalakrishnan & Matthews, 2018) collaborative consumption is culturally significant in Egypt among family and close friends, especially in fashion, where practices like sharing, donating, and swapping offer alternatives to fast fashion and extend product’s lifecycle. Secondhand fashion provides an eco-friendly and affordable alternative to fast fashion, enabling consumers to engage with style without financial strain or environmental harm (Yang & , 2024) (Machado et al., 2019). Fashion rental services further promote this by emphasizing use over ownership (Jain et al., 2021). As ecological awareness rises, thrift shops and online secondhand platforms have gained popularity, particularly among Gen-Z, with social media playing a key role in promoting sustainable practices (Boyer et al., 2024). Research indicates that influential figures, like Emma Watson, can raise awareness about sustainable fashion, although their impact on actual purchasing behavior may be limited due to the negative face stigma related to hygiene and socioeconomic status ((Ronda, 2023); (Jain et al., 2021); (Liu et al., 2024); (McKeown & Shearer, 2019)).

Conducted by Ajzen (1991), TPB is a social-psychological theoretical framework that studies human behavior through attitude, norms, and perceived behavior. The theory suggests that these constructs influence intention, which if experienced frequently results in the actual behavior. To summarize, the adoption of fashion collaborative consumption modes is influenced by various psychological and social factors including attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavior, and intention suggesting that choosing to apply this theory to this research will achieve the most insightful findings (Leifhold, 2018),(Lang & Armstrong, 2017), (Koay et at., 2022), (Boyer et al., 2024) ,and(Lee &Chow, 2020).

Attitude: When consumers have a positive evaluation of fashion collaborative consumption modes (more perceived values than risks), they are more likely to adopt the system.

Subjective Norms: When consumers feel that their significant others accept, value, and adapt to fashion collaborative consumption modes, they are more likely to adopt the system.

Perceived Behavior: When consumers feel that fashion collaborative consumption is a convenient and easy practice, they are more likely to adopt it.

This study, which focuses on the increasing acceptance of the secondhand fashion market among Egyptian Gen-Z consumers, historically influenced by negative perceptions, will adopt the interpretivism philosophy. This approach is effective for understanding consumer behavior within cultural contexts, enabling the exploration of deeper meanings and motivations behind the acceptance of secondhand fashion in Egypt. While existing literature covers the secondhand fashion market and its adoption behaviors (Arrigo, 2021), it remains relatively unfamiliar to Egyptian consumers. Recognizing the diverse social and cultural experiences that shape perceptions, this study aims to develop new insights specific to Egyptian society through thematic analysis of primary data, utilizing an inductive approach. This flexible method facilitates in-depth exploration of participants’ perspectives.

The research employed a qualitative approach with a narrative inquiry strategy, conducting semi-structured interviews with 20 participants to gather detailed narratives about their acceptance of secondhand fashion. Gender was not considered as a mediating factor in this research thus 3 male participants were included. Given the study's time constraints and exploratory nature, it used a cross-sectional design with a non-probability yet purposeful sample of 20 participants, recruited from the researcher's circle of family and friends, were selected for their awareness of sustainability and fashion secondhand markets. This simple convenient sampling technique was chosen because it best fits the research’s scope and participants were easily accessible and readily available to the researcher.

For this research, which aims to generate new insights from individual experiences (interpretivism philosophy and narrative inquiry) and build a conceptual framework from coded themes (inductive theory approach), thematic analysis was chosen. This method involves fragmenting, reducing, and coding data to identify patterns. While narrative inquiry typically uses narrative analysis to maintain data integrity, this study focused on thematic analysis to identify themes. Interviews were manually transcribed and translated from Arabic before analysis, despite the availability of transcription software.

Ethical considerations in qualitative research are vital for maintaining integrity and respecting participants. The researcher obtained ethics approval, thoroughly briefed participants on the research’s nature, objectives, and potential impacts, and ensured participants of their right to withdraw at any time without consequence. Participant confidentiality and respectful treatment are essential, including valuing their time and ensuring their safety and well-being. During data analysis, the researcher avoided manipulation or selective reporting, ensured accuracy and transparency, and addressed potential biases. These practices uphold the research's accuracy, credibility, and validity.

Twenty Egyptian participants (17 females and 3 males) belonging to Gen-Z, aged between 20-27 years, and belonging to the upper-middle class holding a Bachelor’s (BA) degree were included in this research (Figure 1, Table 1). The participants’ monthly income ranged between 5-30K Egyptian pounds (LE). Amongst all participants, 7 were not open to the concept and had no experience in secondhand shopping or rentals. To ensure the participants’ privacy, only their initials were presented in this research after their approval.

Participants express a strong urgency for sustainable practices to combat climate change, shaped largely by social media exposure from 2015 to 2017. They are aware of the negative impacts and greenwashing in the fashion industry, committing to boycotting brands that engage in deceptive practices. While they enjoy fashion trends, they also practice reuse and recycling to alleviate guilt over overconsumption, favoring donation, resale, and repurposing for disposal. Emotional attachment complicates their willingness to discard items, emphasizing their desire to keep them useful.

In Egypt, traditional practices like passing down clothes reflect cultural and economic factors rather than a deep commitment to sustainability. Although interest in secondhand and rental fashion is growing due to economic pressures and social media influence, actual adoption remains limited due to barriers such as inconvenience, high costs, and quality concerns.

This conceptual framework (Figure 2) uses the TPB to explore how consumers' attitude (overall evaluation of the perceived benefits and risks), perceived behavior (action’s ease and convenience), and subjective norms (significant others’ perception) influence their adoption intentions of thrifting and renting through connecting the emergent themes. Participants' attitude is reflected in their evaluation of the key benefits of the secondhand and rental markets such as financial, psychological, hedonic, and sustainability benefits while their perceived risk includes poor product attributes and platform’s lack of trust. There is a lack of positive perceived behaviour towards thrifting and renting fashion goods and the concept remains unsupported within the demographics of research. This is a resulting factor of the perceived hassle and inconvenience in accessing thrifting and renting services. Social norms are reflected in the impact of changing social perceptions, social media trends, and significant others’ acceptance of thrifting and renting fashion goods.

Not applicable.

The author(s) declare that there is no competing interest.