Wait, France is Banning Fast Fashion?
The lawmakers in France are voting to ban fast fashion advertisements, including social media influencers, too.
In France, there’s a new proposal that might ban advertisements for fast fashion, which means making and selling clothes that aren’t eco-friendly. Fast fashion often has a significant environmental impact. The French parliament recently voted unanimously to support this bill. The legislation also aims to introduce penalties for companies that produce low-cost clothing, requiring them to pay for the environmental damage they cause.
But first, let's review what fast fashion is.
Fast fashion refers to a business model in the clothing industry that emphasizes making and selling clothes quickly and cheaply. Most fast fashion clothing is made from synthetic fiber such as polyester and nylon, or other types of fabrics with dangerous chemicals. Also, fast fashion involves mass production, which means a rapid production of high volumes of low-cost clothing. The people who make these clothes often receive low wages and work in harsh environments.
The environmental advocates and French lawmakers also plan to create fines of 10 euros per clothing, which is about 11 USD. They also plan to address the environmental damage caused by ultra-fast fashion. which will make the price of fast fashion higher. This measure is intended to hold fast fashion brands accountable for their impact on the environment.
According to the Common’s website, ultra fast fashion aims to further shorten the time manufacturing the clothing leveraging advanced technologies such as 3D printing and digital design. This approach allows for real-time adjustments to production based on consumer demand, micro trends and social media.
These proposals were mostly pointed at companies like Shein Cider and Boohoo. Shein Cider is a fast fashion company that creates new types of clothes all the time, and up to 10,000 new products get sewed daily. These clothes consistently attract numerous customers, contributing significantly to daily CO2 emissions.
Many laws have made fast fashion better by banning clothing waste, promoting clothing repairs, and even prohibiting fossil fuel advertisements.
I believe that it is unacceptable for humans to have products made irresponsibly with the sole purpose of profit, ignoring issues, such as excessive consumption of resources, increased waste, environmental pollution, harsh labor conditions due to low wages, and the collapse of local industries.
France is already taking steps further to stop fast fashion! I hope that other countries could follow what France did, so then many countries will work together to help stop fast fashion.