The fabric of the beauty premium

: aesthetical injustice within the fashion industry

Abstract

This thesis investigates how organizations in the fashion industry can counterbalance the beauty premium to mitigate aesthetic injustice. While extensive research has discussed and addressed conventional discriminations like gender, race, or ethnicity, appearance-based inequalities remain underexplored despite their significant impact on workplace opportunities and organizational culture. Drawing on an inductive qualitative research design, relying on a dataset of in-depth semistructured interviews at PUMA SE, the study deploys Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis to analyze the data, complemented with triangulation with PUMA´s Code of Ethics. The findings of the study reveal that appearance influences workplace perceptions through physical traits, clothing, and brand representation, but also through broader factors such as confidence, professionalism, and social skills. While PUMA demonstrates a strong commitment to DEI through their policies, training, reporting platforms, leadership action, appearance-based biases are less explicitly addressed compared to other forms of discrimination. The study identifies organizational challenges that include cultural diversity across a global workforce, departmental variations in aesthetic expectations, and the absence of a DEI-specific team. The participants suggested clearer communication policies, regular unconscious bias training, greater transparency in organizational processes, and the creation of DEI-specific structures. It was also emphasized the importance of expanding the inclusion to cover other areas such as disability and neurodivergence. Overall, this thesis contributes to the body of knowledge on aesthetic injustice by investigating how organizations in the fashion industry can counterbalance the beauty premium to mitigate aesthetic injustice offering practical recommendations for integrating appearance into the future organizational DEI strategies.

Date of Award	13 Oct 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rosa Fioravante (Supervisor)