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Despite its pitfalls, fast fashion is still a strong economic performer, boosting economic growth, and presenting many jobs in developing countries. For example, Cambodia’s garment industry generates a third of the country’s GDP and provides over half a million jobs. https://bearmarketreview.wordpress.com/2018/06/23/fast-fashion-in-a-better-light-its-benefits-on-the-economy-and-across-the-world/

Origins

Before the 1800s, fashion required sourcing materials such as wool, cotton, or leather and was prepared by hand. By the Industrial Revolution, new technologies such as the sewing machine and textile machines were introduced which removed the previously laborious and time-consuming process.

In the 19th century, workshops and companies were looking to cut additional production costs by guiding fashion trends away from intricately embellished gowns, skirts, bustles, and blouses to simpler, sleeker ready-to-wear designs. Around the same time, production centers of all sizes began to outsource parts of production to “sweaters” which were people who completed simple production tasks for low wages.

By the mid 1970s, retailers began exporting production to countries where they could pay them a lower wage than in Western countries. This included China, Latin America, and other developing countries in Asia. This is when the fast fashion business model first emerged. In the past few decades, companies have been pushing out new collections each week to keep up with fast-paced fashion trends and demands.

https://growensemble.com/history-of-fast-fashion/

Environmental Concerns

Over the past 20 years, global consumption of fashion has increased by 400%. Fast fashion has been at the forefront of environmental concern because it comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions, which is as much as huge entities such as the European Union. The reason being is because in fast fashion, wool is commonly blended with fibers derived from fossil fuels and coated with chemicals. This is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, water pollution, deforestation, increasing levels of microplastics in our environment, etc.

In addition, many of those who wear fast fashion only wear the garments once, and then they end up in landfills which is the primary way the spread of microplastics occurs.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/fast_fashion

Shein

Shein is one of the industry giants within fast fashion; a huge contributor in many aspects. The company operates on a digital-first model meaning they use cutting edge technology to stay at the forefront of the latest trends and deliver them to a vast and diverse customer base. Industry insights suggest that Shein produces around 10,000 clothing items daily. In 2022, Shein earned $22.7 billion. They are believed to have 74.7 million active customers, with 13.7 million from the United States.

Shein has received widespread media attention due to their many controversies. Shein deceivingly claimed that they were certified for ethical and sustainable production and labor practices in 2021, but incorrectly cited such certifications. Shein also leaves about 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year in its trail, and is nowhere near following the U.N.’s statement that fashion companies need to eliminate 45% of their carbon emissions by 2030 in order to help limit global warming. Different news outlets uncovered that Shein had unsafe workshops, lacking safety protocols like windows and emergency exits. In addition, It's been reported that workers were forced to pull 17-hour shifts to make hundreds of garments a day, making only $20 total.

In December 2022, Shein sent out a memo regarding their labor law violations promising they would comply with International Labour Organization code of conduct. In addition, they have launched eco-friendly and sustainable fashion lines as a means to address the environmental concerns.

Shein has also reportedly been stealing garment patterns from small artists as a way to keep up with their fast fashion model, which has resulted in several lawsuits being filed against them. As of April 16t, 2024, Shein has been accused of copyright infringement in a class-action lawsuit due to this continuous stealing of designs.

https://www.playbite.com/how-many-clothes-does-shein-make-a-day/#:~:text=The%20Daily%20Fashion%20Factory%20of%20SHEIN&text=While%20the%20exact%20number%20can,trendy%20styles%20to%20its%20customers.

https://time.com/6247732/shein-climate-change-labor-fashion/

https://futurestartup.com/2023/11/06/a-brief-history-of-shein/

https://fortune.com/2024/04/16/shein-class-action-lawsuit-copyright-infringement-data-scraping-ai-art-alan-giana-china/

Legislation

There are 3 pieces of legislation in the United States regarding fashion sustainability.

California’s Garment Worker Protection Act Aims to ensure that workers in California’s garment industry are paid fairly. This would make California the first state to adopt legislation requiring hourly wages for garment workers. Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change Act (FABRIC Act) Aims to protect American garment workers and revitalize the domestic garment industry by improving working conditions, reforming the piece rate pay scale, and investing in domestic apparel production New York Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act Requires fashion companies to map their supply chains and address the human rights and environmental impacts of their operations and supply chain

More recently in France, after seeing their lower-end market sectors suffer due to competition from fast fashion retailers like Zara and H&M in addition to the powerhouses Shein and Temu, they proposed a bill to curb the rampant pace of fast fashion. This bill won unanimous approval in the lower house of the French Parliament.

https://www.sedex.com/blog/fashion-sustainability-laws-in-the-us/ ​​ https://apnews.com/article/fast-fashion-france-environment-bill-parliament-lvmh-a85da46b3a159e04d8789bfc15cb2be8

Child Labor

In many nonwestern countries, there is a lack of regulation when it comes to child labor. According to Sofie Ovaa of Stop Child Labour, one of the reasons children are so vulnerable is because “there is no supervision or social control mechanisms, no unions that can help them to bargain for better working conditions. These are very low-skilled workers without a voice, so they are easy targets.”

There are several countries that are particularly notorious for child labour in the textile and garment industry – including India, Uzbekistan, China, Bangladesh, Egypt, Thailand and Pakistan.

To this day, child labor is utilized in the production of fast fashion. The COVID-19 pandemic is amongst the main reasons it is still on an incline. There are now around 160 million children working worldwide. Child labor can be found at all levels of the fashion industry, but is most prevalent in cotton production.

In cotton mills in Southern India in the past, young girls under the age of the fourteen were subjected to horrible mistreatment. It’s speculated that factory managers had hormones put into their food to stop them from menstruating, as women are seen to be less productive during their menstrual period.

https://goodonyou.eco/child-labour/

https://www.somo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fact-Sheet-child-labour-Focus-on-the-role-of-buying-companies.pdf