Fast Fashion Companies to Avoid

There is a certain level of shock when learning about the manufacturing habits of the world and the extent these harmful practices have on our world.

The sad realization about this industry are that even the most favorable brands like Urban Outfitters and Zara to low cost brands (i.e., Shein) are funding these unethical practices and giving rise to the ongoing problems created by fast fashion.

Listed below are just a few of the industry's most popular, harmful fast fashion companies that should be avoided, if possible.

Victoria Secret

Once considered a top competitor in the world of lingerie, clothing, and beauty retail now ranks lowest on the totem pole of sustainability, ethics and inclusivity. Victoria Secret’s reputation quickly fell once customers and previous employees began criticizing the company for its lack of diversity, equity, inclusion, and ethical practices. The multimillion dollar company is one of the many harmful fast fashion brands to exist within the fashion industry, and as their empire grows, sustainability falls. With no policy enacted to minimize the impacts of micro-plastics or minimize textile waste when manufacturing its products, VS continues its harmful production of lingerie, clothing, and beauty products. And though a signatory of Greenpeace's “Detox My Fashion” program since 2011, the company has yet to meet their target and eliminate the hazardous chemicals used in production. Besides the company’s weakened sustainability and ethical efforts, none of the VS supply chains are certified by labour standards, ensuring worker health and safety or other labour rights; a direct reflection of the company’s scoring of 21-30% in the Fashion Transparency Index. VS does not ensure payment of a living wage or implement adequate policies and safeguards to protect its suppliers and workers from the impacts of COVID-19. A key flaw in the VS production method is the company’s heavy reliance on the fast fashion model. Having previously designed products in-house, as opposed to this new speed method, VS was working to design garments an entire year in advance. But with trends and color choices quickly and unexpectedly changing at the hands of consumers, many stores are left with marked-down or unsold merchandise. Rather than employ sustainable and ethical means of production, VS is eager to reduce only its production time of its garments in order to reach trends and its stores in time. According to Victoria's Secret CEO Sharen Turney, "[VS has] already taken probably four months out of [its] development time" and are working towards eliminating an additional month or two (Ashley Lutz; Business Insider).

Urban Outfitters

Deep down we all had to have questioned Urban Outfitter's clothing production at some point in time, and if you haven't yet, be prepared to now. Sported by countless celebrities, athletes, influencers and everyday individuals, Urban Outfitters is one of the most well-known, versatile, affordable and adaptable clothing companies. And what could be so wrong with a company that is capable of all of the above? Apparently a lot can be wrong. The company has yet proven to minimize its textile waste when manufacturing products, create meaningful action to reduce or eliminate hazardous chemicals or implement water reduction initiatives. Not only has UO lacked meaningful action in areas of environmentally safe and ethical production, but the company displays no transparency or evidence of supplying their workers with a living wage. I mean what more could we expect from a company who was caught in a labour rights scandal exploiting children through forced child labor while requesting other individuals to work for free in cover as a ‘training day’ (Maddie Dockrill; good on you). And as if living through a pandemic wasn't challenging enough, UO has stopped paying their garment factories using covid-19 as their excuse and ultimately damaging the employment, health and wellbeing of thousands of workers post pandemic. If all I have mentioned above wasn't horrible enough, UO is being accused of racial profiling shoppers in both their own stores and Anthropologie stores as of this past year.

Free People

If the company name does not make you question their products, boy do I have a handful of interesting information for you. Free People, or what I like to call Imprisoned People, is one of the most harmful companies to currently exist and use the fast fashion model. Free People, such as the companies above, habitually follow short trends while producing excessive amounts of resource-intensive clothes that continue to be tossed or burned in our environment. The company also received a score of 11-20% in the Fashion Transparency Index due to its lack of certified supply chains by labour standards which ensure worker health and safety, living wages or other labor rights. And as if the company does not hinder enough information regarding the production of their products, the brand does not sufficiently trace suppliers or publicly share a list of suppliers, therefore causing the welfare of their employees to be questioned. The list of suspicious action goes on as the company does not disclose any policies or safeguards to protect suppliers and workers in its supply chain from the impacts of COVID-19. Besides failing to protect their employees, the company has yet to address hazardous chemicals, excessive water usage and wastewater in its supply chain.

Zara

Gossip Girl's Luna La was right when declaring the no-Zara rule and here's why. Zara's business model (the fast fashion model) continues to be inherently harmful to the environment as the company's on-trend styles and regular new arrivals causing severely high turnover rate. Priding itself on providing the latest fashion trends every 13 days, Zara's promotion of rapid consumption is encouraging and influencing harmful shopping habits. Talk about sneaky, half of the company's final stage of production occurs in Spain,

a country guilty of severe labour abuse, therefore explained by its 51-60% score in the Fashion Transparency Index. According to a recent study conducted by Fordham University in regards to Zara and its fashion retailer, Inditex, “In order to achieve this fast fashion model, Inditex strayed from “the fashion industry’s traditional model of seasonal lines of clothing designed by star designers, manufactured by subcontractors months earlier, and marketed with heavy advertising” (Sitaro 9). The University also estimates that the average Zara shopper visits the chain 17 times due to Zara's “buy now” attitude and fear that specific products will no longer be in stores.

Shein

If you are still shopping here, stop. This company is flat out horrible in every single way possible. Your purchases of cheap and affordable products from Shein continue to fuel the company's unethical practices all while creating detrimental damage to our planet and the lives of so many. Shein is one of the fastest growing fast fashion retailers online, offering around 500 new items each day at extremely low prices, and therefore relying on a quick turnaround of designs. The amount of new products released on a weekly basis leads humans to see their clothes as disposable, therefore adding even more waste from the garment industry that ends up in landfill. The average American is now estimated to throw away 37kg of clothes each year, 85% of which will end up in landfill or be burned and Shein's lack of meaningful action to reduce its substantial impact on the environment cannot be helping this matter. The company is a mass producer of cheap, poorly-made clothing to promote and preserve a throwaway fashion culture. And aside from inspecting some percentage of its supply chain, it is making no headway on improving its labour conditions.

If you are looking to purchase more affordable and in trend styles, look to alternative methods like thrifting. I've found my most favorite pieces ranging from Levi's Strauss & Co. and Ralph Lauren to Tommy Hilfiger while thrifting.