Op-Ed: It’s Time for Governments to Regulate Fast Fashion

Fashion, Features/Op-Ed

Over the past twenty years fast fashion has spurred unbridled consumerism, with disastrous consequences for the environment and human rights. In this time period, companies like Sweden’s H&M and Spain’s Zara have gone from middle-size purveyors of inexpensive clothing to juggernauts that operate thousands of stores across the world. In the last ten years they have been joined by new entrants such as UK’s BooHoo, America’s Fashion Nova, and most notably the Chinese giant Shein, which has undergone explosive growth in the past few years. All efforts to stop them have failed. It is now time for governments to step in and regulate fast fashion the way it has regulated Big Tobacco and the automotive industry.

By pumping out vast amounts of clothing in countries where labor laws are lightly regulated, fast fashion companies have become some of the worst offenders when it comes to sustainability and ethical labor practices. Shein is a particularly egregious example because its operations are centered in China, which allows it to keep its manufacturing practices completely opaque and away from the eyes of Western regulatory agencies.

Meanwhile, on the consumer end, the amount of textile waste generated by the developed world has reached truly staggering amounts. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018 Americans discarded 17 million tons of textiles, most of which came in the form of trashed garments.

Much hand-wringing has been done to lament this sad state of affairs, and much blame has been put on the companies themselves. Fast fashion firms have enabled the shift in consumer mentality that has turned clothes-shopping into an addictive form of entertainment, making disposability the norm. Some of the blame should also fall on fast fashion consumers who treat shopping as a competitive sport, buying and discarding clothes at a historically unprecedented rate. According to a 2019 report by the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, “The average consumer buys 60 percent more pieces of clothing than 15 years ago. Each item is only kept for half as long.”

The Universe of Geoffrey B. Small

Fashion, Features/Op-Ed

Cavarzere is a sleepy Italian town about twenty-two miles southwest of Venice. Until the 1950s its main business was agriculture, but eventually it became a part of the fashion and textile manufacturing powerhouse that the province of Veneto grew into during the second half of the 20th Century, and that is now also dying or being transformed thanks to the two Frenchmen who are keen on buying up as much of Italian manufacturing as possible. 

The Season of Designer Comeback That Wasn’t

Fashion, Features/Op-Ed

This year as sales for many luxury fashion brands have dipped in key markets like China and the US, there has been much talk about fashion finally moving from product-driven, sellable but uninspiring fashion that has brought record profits for the fashion industry, but also made it into a lackluster, uninspiring discipline that by all accounts lacked creativity. To add to fashion’s tarnished image, we have seen appointments and subsequent quick exits of buzzy young designers like Rhuigi Villasenor at Bally and Ludovic de Saint Sernin at Ann Demeulemeester that has shown that hype does not equal talent and discipline required to run a major fashion brand. In such a time of reckoning the industry has two choices – to create excitement by taking creative risks or to seek refuge in bland commerciality. Much to the dismay of many fashion observers, it has chosen the latter.

Rick Owens Spring Summer 2024

Notes on Paris Women’s Fashion Week Spring / Summer 2024

Fashion, Features/Op-Ed

This fashion season has been one of going through way too much effort in terms of just being at the shows. Invitations went missing or showed up at the last minute or even after a show. Editors and buyers are increasingly being relegated to second row in favor of celebrities and influencers, of whom there is an ever-increasing number. Some said that this could be because of the Hollywood strike, but I think we are seeing a permanent shift, in which the only metric that matters is your Instagram following. It looks like many brands just want amplifiers of their image, and don’t care for, or are actually afraid of engaging in a conversation about their output. If it’s the latter, they are not wrong, considering what a parade of mediocrity the fashion month has become. But not in Paris, at least not yet. This season virtually all of the brands that I hold in high regard delivered – it was an uplifting fashion week and a wonderful reminder that fashion can still evoke emotion, create beauty, and make one think. And if it’s the PR agencies that spoil everything with their lack of professionalism, then, well, even though I still absolutely love being at a good show, in 2023 I can do this from the comfort of my home.