Consumers Key to Ending Fast Fashion in Europe

The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, announced on 30 March, is indeed expansive. These are early days yet, and experts and stakeholders are still assessing the import of wide-ranging policy interventions and the impact it will have on the days to come.

Among the first to react to the Strategy was Changing Markets Foundation (CMF). Its Campaign Director Nusa Urbancic believes that the strategy is ambitious, “and it is also the first time that the fashion industry will be regulated. Fashion brands have managed to escape meaningful rules on circularity and transparency for a long time, saddling taxpayers with the costs of dealing with textile waste.”

Urbancic and the CMF would like to see the rules as soon as possible, “but it is promising that the EU-wide extended producer responsibility (EPR) requirements for textiles with eco-modulation of fees and measures to promote the waste hierarchy for textile waste is promised for 2023. It is also good that this will come with concrete targets for preparation for reuse and recycling and that the Commission will promote fibre-to-fibre recycling and not false solutions, such as using recycled plastic bottles for textiles. We have published a study, looking at how a progressive EPR can be done in practice, and we are happy to see that most of these elements are in the Commission's proposal.”

And since the Strategy seems to be quite broad in scope, does one foresee a paradigm shift in the way the whole system works? And, if there is a paradigm shift at all, how does one see the fashion education / communication system changing accordingly?

Just the right person to react to this question is Nicola Guerini, Director-General of Milano Fashion Institute (MFI). Guerini acknowledges that the fashion education has a tremendous responsibility (in the light of things). He says, “We are in charge of leading the change, through leading young talents, empowering their knowledge, and inspiring their professional direction. Sustainability is one of the most important challenges that are changing not just the way fashion companies are creating products, but also the way they are doing business.”

In fact, lots of changes are already under way. “New business models, product innovation, supply chain operations are under design, and educators should inspire these changes through training and constant dialogue with the fashion industry, like we did, with the very first University Master in Fashion Direction: Product Sustainability Management, a world premiere launched in 2021 in partnership with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (the Italian National Chamber of Fashion) for training the future sustainability managers.”

Founded as an inter-university institute in 2007 by top Milanese universities (Politecnico di Milano, Università Bocconi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) and institutions (Municipality of Milan, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana), the MFI had launched its first Masters programme in 2009.

Among other things, the EU Textiles Strategy calls for reduced collections in a bid to curb fast fashion. But then, does it work at all? How does one see it playing on the ground?

Urbancic argues, “If companies will be obliged to put in practice better product design with more durable and longer-lasting clothes, this might incentivise them to put out less of ultra-cheap low-quality fashion items and collections. We also hope that the EPR fees and their modulation will be high enough to drive some of the worst products off the market. But the details remain to be seen in the coming years.”

The popular view since last week’s announcement is that unless the laws/rules are enforced brutally, nothing much will change. For example, companies have been asked to reduce their collections. But there are so many ways to circumvent the policy guidelines.

Valeria Botta, Programme Manager at the Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS), has a holistic understanding of the subject. She takes a step back to present the big picture: “The existing production patterns and linear economy have put enormous pressure on our planet. It has enormous impacts on our resources (including labour), environment, climate. It is simply unsustainable. Changing the way we produce and use clothes will be key to ensuring a greener and more sustainable world. Unless we slow down, our planet will become the ultimate fashion victim.

“The initiative on Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition, which the Commission also launched last week, is a first step to tackling vague, irrelevant, misleading or factually wrong claims. As for all legislations, enforcement at the EU member state level needs to be front and centre. The role of market surveillance authorities will need to be reinforced to ensure effective enforcement of the rules. The success of the initiative will also depend on the implementation pace.”

One of the other keywords that emerged from the Strategy is ‘repair’. Does this mean brands/retailers would be starting their own repair services? Do we see a return of the friendly neighbourhood tailor to who we could visit for repairs some 30–40 years ago?

Urbancic agrees that repair is very important. “In the Textiles Strategy, the Commission says ‘failures in quality such as colour fastness, tear strength or the quality of zippers and seams are among the main reasons for consumers to discard textiles’ and some of these could be fixed via repair obligations. How this will play out in practice remains to be seen. Some brands already offer free repair services or tutorials for consumers on how they can fix their own clothes. It can be included in the warranty for more durable items, such as jackets. And as you say it might also drive new business models. I have a lot of faith in creativity of the industry to sort this out.”