In this episode of Fashion Means Business, Dr. Nina Van Volkinburg is joined by London College of Fashion colleagues, Dr. Stine Hedegaard and Olga Cieslak, to explore how marketing and sustainability intersect in fashion — and why understanding consumer behaviour is central to creating meaningful change. Drawing on academic research and real-world industry experience, this conversation examines how sustainability has evolved from early CSR conversations into a complex, systemic challenge that fashion can no longer address in isolation.

Dr. Stine Hedegaard (Course Leader, MA Fashion Marketing & Sustainability) shares her early journey from CSR in Copenhagen to helping build what became the Global Fashion Agenda and the Global Fashion Summit, including how sustainability went from “niche” to mainstream, and why collaboration across the fashion industry is now essential.

PhD candidate Olga Cieslak (Lecturer, MA Fashion Marketing & Sustainability) takes us into her doctoral research on clothing attachment and detachment, based in the UK charity retail ecosystem. She shares why high-value garments are often hoarded, how trust and “hope” can unlock reuse, and what happens when that trust breaks. Together, we discuss what marketing can do beyond selling — from translating specialist sustainability language inside organisations, to storytelling and new business models that make circularity feel real.

• Learn more about the Fashion Business School at London College of Fashion Here.

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