Fast fashion existential threat to French textile industry, says NGO (#1682754)

Fast fashion has been threatening France’s textile industry for decades, obliterating jobs and triggering unfair competition, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Les Amis de la Terre NGO (part of the international Friends of the Earth network), which is calling for “urgent legislative action.”

Foreign fast-fashion players began to pose a threat to the French textile industry as early as 1990, as the sector’s most renowned names gradually started to establish themselves in the country, the NGO stated in the report. Spain’s Zara set up shop in France in 1990, Sweden’s H&M in 1998, and Ireland/UK’s Primark in 2013, followed by the disruptive arrival of giant Asian fashion e-tailers like Shein in 2015 and Temu in 2023.

But the fast-fashion business model, with production relocating to South-east Asia, was operational from as early as the 1980s, and “began to peak with the end of the multi-fibre agreements between 2005 and 2008,” said the NGO.

The international trade agreements that established import quotas for textile products in Europe and the USA, to protect local manufacturers from competition from low-wage countries, ended in fact in 2005, leaving the door wide open for Asia-sourced textiles.

Since 1990, “nearly 300,000 jobs” have been lost in France’s textile industry, according to the NGO, which cited figures based on data from national statistics office INSEE, environmental advisory agency ADEME, and national e-commerce association Fevad.

Although “in less than 40 years” the quantity of clothes consumed has doubled, this has not benefited the local industry, noted the NGO, which believes that fast-fashion players create “unfair competition” for the rest of the sector.

“In 2023, the business volume of apparel and footwear retailers in France was barely higher than in 2016, while revenue for brands like Zara and Primark recorded rises of 70% and 116% respectively,” said the NGO.