Consumer Resistance to Sustainable Fashion: Green Skepticism, Face Consciousness, Need for Status, and Eco-Shame

Objectives: Despite increasing environmental awareness, consumers continue to favor conventional fashion over sustainable alternatives. This study explains active consumer resistance to sustainable fashion by integrating functional, psychological, and emotional barriers within Innovation Resistance Theory. Specifically, it examines perceived limited choices, green skepticism, face consciousness, and need for status as predictors of resistance purchase intention, while testing eco-shame and need for status as moderators. Methodology: A quantitative explanatory survey was conducted among 602 visitors to three fashion and sustainability exhibitions held in the Greater Jakarta area in June 2026: Shafara at Bintaro Xchange Mall, Jakarta Muslim Fashion Week at ICE BSD, and Sustainable (Matter)ial Connection at the Jakarta International Convention Center. The measurement and structural models were evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Finding: Green skepticism was the strongest direct predictor of resistance purchase intention (beta=0.419), followed by need for status (beta=0.296), perceived limited choices (beta=0.177), and face consciousness (beta=0.136). Eco-shame strengthened the effect of perceived limited choices on resistance (beta=0.148), but did not significantly moderate the green skepticism-resistance relationship (beta=-0.025). Eco-shame significantly weakened the relationship between face consciousness and resistance (beta=-0.140), while need for status strengthened the effect of face consciousness (beta=0.042). The model explained 70.3% of the variance in resistance purchase intention and demonstrated high predictive relevance (Q2 predict=0.695). Conclusion: The study shifts sustainable fashion research from an adoption-oriented perspective toward active resistance. It extends Innovation Resistance Theory by combining product-choice constraints, distrust of environmental claims, social-image motives, status consumption, and eco-shame in one empirical model in an emerging-market context. The findings show that consumers may resist sustainable fashion not because they reject sustainability, but because they question its credibility, variety, and symbolic value.