Could This Really Be the End of Fast Fashion?

Death knell has been sounded for fast mode. Gen Z wants to spend more sustainably, the argument goes, while profits at big players like Boohoo, Pretty Little Thing and ASOS have slumped in recent years.

However, the fact that H&M and Zara have seen sizeable gains recently, combined with the rise of ultra-fast fashion giants like Shein (and recent viral influencer journey), suggesting that the appetite for cheap, trend-following clothing – most of which ends up in landfill – isn’t going away anytime soon. Indeed, what Shein adds is, on average, tantalizing 6,000 new styles to its website every day shows the scale of the challenges we face.

That’s why the European Union has endorsed a new set of regulations “end fast mode”, including policies designed to make clothing more durable, easier to reuse, repairable, and recyclable. “We cannot continue with the current linear model, where [clothing waste] has tripled in the last 20 years,” said Virginijus Sinkevičius, EU commissioner for environment, maritime affairs and fisheries. Mode. “We need to overcome [this].”

Moving from a linear model to a circular model – where all clothing is reusable, recyclable or biodegradable and compostable – is critical to addressing fashion’s impact on the planet. But experts question whether the EU’s proposals are really enough to stop fast fashion.

“It is not the durability that is the problem,” Veronica Bates Kassatly, an independent analyst and sustainable fashion consultant, said, pointing to the fact that lace dresses will fare less well in the washing tests normally used to test durability, compared to polyester garments. “If you look at the piles of discarded clothes in the Atacama Desert [Chile] or in Ghana or Kenya, it’s not the lace dresses that are thrown there. It’s not physical endurance that’s the problem.”

In fact, a French Studies 2022 found that while 35 percent of people said they threw away their clothes because they were worn out, 26 percent said it was because they didn’t fit anymore, while 30 percent said it was because they were bored – suggesting durability is not a major issue. “If more than 50 percent of clothing is discarded for reasons that have nothing to do with durability, adjusting the durability will not solve the problem,” continues Bates Kassatly.

Sinkevičius argues that there are limits to what policy makers can do to address the problem of fast fashion, suggesting that consumer behavior is a very important factor. “Not everything can be included in the policy,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s also a consumer choice.” However, even though buyers, and in particular the younger generation, say they care about sustainability, a recent study found just that nine out of 10 Generation Z still buying fast fashion – indicating that consumer behavior will not change at the required pace.

It should be noted that the focus on resale and repair in the EU proposal does not necessarily make financial sense, at this time, given the low selling prices of fast fashion. “Zara has a repair service now; from £3 to have a button re-stitched, and go up to £15 to have a dress re-stitched,” says Bates Kassatly, pointing to the fact that the average price of a garment in France is €8.20 (£7). “Who will pay more to repair clothes than to buy them?”

While France has just announced a new scheme to subsidize clothing repairit remains to be seen whether this will outweigh the effort required to repair the garment, if the item is not very valuable in the first place.

While experts doubt whether the EU’s eco-friendly design guidelines will have a significant impact on fast fashion, there is more to hope for extended producer responsibility (EPR) proposal – which would make retailers financially responsible for the collection, sorting and recycling of garments at their end-of-life stage. While the finer details of the plan haven’t been made public, it could encourage brands to produce less. “It remains to be seen how much this will cost brands, as it will be critical to making a difference,” George Harding-Rolls, campaigns manager at Changing Market Foundations, say. “If costs were ignored, it might just be business as usual.”

Meanwhile, there are concerns whether the EPR regulations will help countries – especially in the Global South – which are currently bearing the brunt of the world’s textile waste. “While the proposal acknowledges the environmental damage caused by fashion waste in its so-called ‘third countries’, what is missing is the will to incorporate the realities of those most affected by the fashion waste crisis and to support the solutions that are shaping up in those countries. . community,” Branson Skinner, co-founder and executive producer of Or Foundation – a non-profit organization that helps those affected by the huge textile waste problem in the Kantamato Market in Ghana – comments.

Other campaigners have also argued for the need to introduce a living wage law – meaning that retailers can no longer rely on cheap labor to produce large quantities of cheap clothes. “Millions of women around the world make our clothes,” Ciara Barry, co-lead of the campaign at Nice Dress Fair Pay, say. “Most of them earn so little that they are stuck in poverty. Factories were pressured to produce more clothing with less money and less time, ultimately leading to overproduction and an inability to pay garment workers a living wage. Paying a living wage is one of the most effective mechanisms we have to slow down the fashion industry, and reduce not only the poverty of garment workers but also the overproduction of mass production.”

While the EU’s proposals are a start, it’s clear they don’t go far enough to completely halt the rise of fast fashion – and really fast. “Without tackling overproduction, fast fashion will be endless,” Skinner concluded.