For centuries, France has been the fashion capital of the world, sourcing the best fabrics and materials. With a global reputation, French fashion has been the basis of a remarkable image connected to luxury and artisanal creation for more than three centuries. France is perceived as the country of big brands and has paved the way for many trends and designers of the world.
However, French fashion, particularly luxury fashion, has been notorious for the amount of waste produced. Although luxury brands have lower rates of production and disposal than fast fashion brands and produce higher-quality products that last longer, luxury companies require the greatest quality fabric, dyes, and other production resources in order to produce items that accurately represent the history, values, and quality of the brand. As a result, considerable natural resources (such as water) are used to produce the perfect quality item. In addition, luxury brands are well-known for their practice of incinerating pieces that didn’t sell in the market to preserve the “exclusivity” of their products. For example, in 2018, Burberry was under fire for burning 28.6 million euros of bags, clothes, and perfume.
With such a major influence on the fashion industry, France has chosen to tackle clothing waste by setting out new fashion laws. On January 30, 2020, French Senate officially approved the new law, “Projet de loi relatif à la lutte contre le gaspillage et à l’économie circulaire“, or the “Bill on the fight against waste and the circular economy”, to ban retailers from destroying garments, cosmetics, and other unsold goods. This new law will inspire other countries to follow suit and hold companies accountable for their actions.
Moreover, France’s adoption of the Climate and Resilience Law on August 22, 2021 requires companies to include a label detailing their environmental impact for consumers. The French Climate and Resilience Law also makes it necessary for advertisements to mention a product’s influence on the climate. The Climate and Resilience Law will promote transparency and allow consumers to be well-informed of a company’s carbon footprint when making their purchasing decisions.
As the global icon for fashion, will France’s new laws pave the way for sustainability laws in more countries?
larryxc
March 4, 2023 — 10:34 pm
I love this post Lily! I really appreciate how you’ve highlighted the history of France as a fashion epicentre globally and how the government is moving towards these positive shifts of regulating how clothing can be disposed of.
I’m curious to hear your thoughts on what you think might happen because of this regulation? The first thing I thought about was the potential to essentially “outsource” the destruction of material to lesser developed nations as we’ve discussed in class. Many of these big companies, particularly with designer brands, have almost pivoted into the world of hyper-consumerism with their ready-to-wear pieces and I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this new regulation will actually help move the needle with sustainability efforts in the industry.
GigiLiew
March 5, 2023 — 9:54 pm
Hi Lily,
Thank you for your insight! I’m also interested in sustainability around fashion and am happy to know that France is dealing with clothing waste since, like you said, it is an icon of fashion. Hopefully, those unsold goods and garments will become another valuable thing, so the circularity continues. I know many designers have come up with fashion shows that showcase clothing made out of second-hand clothes. However, I wonder what they can do with cosmetics that are expired and cannot be sold; what else can they do besides throwing them or burning them? With this new law, I also hope Italy will be inspired as Italy, especially Milan, is another big city famous for fashion.
janhavi tibrewal
April 9, 2023 — 7:53 pm
Hi Lily, Thank you for sharing this useful post about France’s Sustainability Laws and Their Impact on the Fashion Industry. It’s wonderful to see a country with such a strong influence on fashion taking such decisive action to address the industry’s environmental impact. The prohibition on retailers destroying unsold goods is a step in the right direction, and the inclusion of eco-labels on products and advertisements will encourage consumers to make more informed and sustainable choices. It will be interesting to see if other countries follow France’s example and enact similar sustainability legislation in the future.
Defne Sokullu
April 16, 2023 — 11:17 pm
Hi Lily! Thank you for your insights. France did what most companies don’t and forced these brands to be transparent, which is absent in today’s fashion industry. These laws enabled these brands to become more eco-conscious and produce accordingly. I hope other fashion capitals get inspired by France’s initiatives to fight clothing waste. I enjoyed reading about how to collide fashion, sustainability and advertising to reduce the carbon footprint of these brands. As these brands aim to reduce their waste and abide by the new laws of France, I thought about the world’s first recycling mall that we discussed in class. This recycling mall in Sweden can be an excellent example for France. They could recreate something similar that reuses and recycles fashion apparel and teach people how to give a second life to the products.