Fast Fashion

Lead has been found in fast-fashion children's clothing at levels exceeding US federal safety limits, according to preliminary research presented at the American Chemical Society's spring meeting. All 11 shirts tested surpassed the 100 parts-per-million regulatory threshold, with brightly coloured garments recording the highest concentrations and simulated digestion tests indicating harmful exposure risks for young children.

Spain’s footwear and fashion sector organisations have issued a joint declaration warning against the spread of ultra fast-fashion across Europe. Signed at the Futurmoda fair, the statement highlights environmental damage, competitive distortions and social impacts, while urging Spanish and European authorities to tighten regulatory oversight and support domestic industry resilience.

Indonesia's largest textile manufacturer Sritex has collapsed into bankruptcy, leaving over 10,000 workers jobless whilst Central Java communities celebrate a landmark pollution victory against the fast fashion giant's environmental crimes.

A new report from the Netherlands’ Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate warns that fast fashion is derailing global efforts to build a circular textile economy. With low-quality, disposable clothing flooding the system, the report outlines urgent structural, financial, and policy reforms needed to keep circularity from collapsing under its own weight.

Trump’s tariffs were designed to bring manufacturing back to the US but instead reshaped global supply chains. Ultra-fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu adapted by shifting production and targeting new markets like Australia. The result is an even faster, cheaper, and more exploitative fashion system with hidden environmental and human costs.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published a report describing how and why the rate of textile waste in the country has changed in the last two decades, and suggested federal actions to reduce textile waste and advance textile recycling.

Changes in consumer habits, new technologies and legislation can each help reduce demand for unsustainable fashion. The cost of cheap clothes worn a few times also adds up. Next time you buy clothing, think about the long-term value to you and the planet.

Generation Z, "the sustainability generation", craves engaging ways to receive sustainability-related content. But there are complexities surrounding their shopping habits which often fail to align with their values.

More than 11 million tonnes of textile waste end up in US landfills yearly. The problem is getting worse, but the apparel industry has the power to be part of the solution. It is with this thought and the urgent need to rein in the fast fashion pollution that Congresswoman Chellie Pingree launched the Congressional Slow Fashion Caucus to create climate-smart policies to reduce, repair, rewear, and recycle textiles.  She outlines her plans in this exclusive to texfash.

In a landmark move, members of the US Congress have launched the first ever caucus dedicated to curb waste and check the continuing onslaught of fast fashion pollution by introducing climate-smart policies that exhort repair, reduce, rewear, and recycle of textiles.