As a reminder, fast fashion is a business model in the clothing industry focused on quickly producing trendy garments at a low cost. Fast fashion typically is created in large quantities from low-cost materials, and they typically have a short lifespan—either because of their poor quality, or because the trend that drove their production is no longer a trend. The result? Most of it ends up rather quickly being discarded, and that means either incineration or landfills. None of this is good for the environment, and as we have said many times in this space, brands will continue with this flawed business model as long as consumers are willing to buy this stuff.

Or, they are faced with regulatory compliance issues, taxes, and/or a reputational hit that incents them to change.

In recent news, we’ve seen emerging regulatory action that can help this situation, but it still doesn’t take the pressure and responsibility off of consumers to NOT support brands like Shein, Zara, and others, whose primary mission in life is to put out as much trashy apparel as possible at cheap prices (often at the expense of fair labor practices), which still give them profits but are certainly not eco-friendly.