On Thursday, the French Parliament supported a series of measures that will make the so-called cheap make fast fashion, especially from Chinese mass producers, less attractive to customers.
The vote makes France the first country in the world “to pass laws to limit ultra-fast fashion,” said Christophe Bechu, the minister for ecological transition.
Key measures include a ban on advertising the cheapest textiles and an environmental fee for cheap items.
The French clothing market was flooded with cheap imported clothes, while several domestic brands declared bankruptcy, “Poslovni dnevnik” reports.
But the main arguments put forward by Horizons, the party allied to President Emmanuel Macron, which submitted the bill, are environmental.
“The textile industry is the most polluting,” said Horizons Vice President Ann Cecil Violan, saying the sector is responsible for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and is a major water polluter.
She singled out the Chinese company Shein and its “7,200 new garments per day” as an example of intensive fashion production.
France will apply criteria such as the amount of clothing produced and the speed of change of new collections when determining what constitutes fast fashion, according to the law passed.
After the law enters into force, which still requires a vote in the Senate, the precise criteria will be published in a decree.
Fast fashion manufacturers will be forced to inform consumers about the impact of their production on the environment.
An additional fee related to the ecological footprint of fast fashion of five euros per item is planned from next year, to increase to €10 by 2030. The fee, however, cannot exceed 50 percent of the price of the item.
Violan said revenue from the fee will be used to subsidize sustainable clothing producers, allowing them to more easily compete in the market.
A measure to limit fast fashion advertising was also approved, although conservative MP Antoine Vermorel-Marques noted that “a ban on textile advertising, especially fashion, means the end of fashion”.
The initiative of representatives of the left and the Greens to include in the new law minimum fines for producers who break the rules, as well as import quotas and stricter criteria for jobs in the industry, was not accepted.
High-end fashion is a cornerstone of the French economy thanks to world-leading luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, Dior and Cartier.
But other parts of the French fashion sector have lost out in the race to European rivals Zara, H&M and, more recently, Chinese giants Shein and Temu, reports “b92”.
Photo: SHEIN/ Instagram
