Antoine Vermorel-Marques, member of the political party Les Républicains and deputy, recently presented a bill aimed at addressing the issue of fast fashion. According to him, this sector does not generate any job opportunities in France. Although this may be true in the case of ultra fast fashion, this statement is inaccurate when it comes to fast fashion in general.
In France, around 3.3 billion garments are sold in a year, which represents more than 48 garments per person. This phenomenon is mainly due to fast fashion, also known as the “disposable fashion industry.” Faced with this, the deputy of Les Républicains, Antoine Vermorel-Marques, has submitted a proposal to combat fast fashion through a bonus-malus system. According to him, these companies do not create any jobs in Europe, nor in France.
However, it is important to make a distinction between ultra fast fashion and fast fashion. For example, the retailer Shein, which does not have any permanent stores in France, has created very few jobs in the country. Although there is an online advertisement for a project manager position in Paris, the company only employs about a dozen people, mainly in the fields of communication and lobbying. It is these types of companies that the deputy is targeting with his bill, by imposing a malus on retailers that produce more than a thousand products per day.
On the other hand, fast fashion also includes companies like Zara, Primark, and H&M, which have hundreds of stores and employ several thousand people in France. Just H&M alone has over 200 stores in France and 4647 employees. Therefore, it is important to differentiate between fast fashion and ultra fast fashion. In the early 2000s, fast fashion emerged with retailers like Zara, who started offering products throughout the year, rather than the usual two collections per year.
Fast fashion is an industry based on large volumes of lower quality clothing at low prices, according to the European Parliament. Since 2020, ultra fast fashion has taken on another dimension with record volumes. A notable example is the Chinese company Shein, which offers between 7,000 and 10,000 new products every day. Analyzing this brand for a month, the association Les Amis de la Terre found that it adds an average of over 7,200 new models per day to its site, sometimes reaching up to 10,800 new references. According to the ready-to-wear federation, Shein offers between 8,000 and 10,000 products per day. The Chinese giant sold over three billion products in a year.
These figures are significantly higher than what fast fashion brands like Primark or H&M offer. For example, Zara releases about 500 new references per week, which is about 70 per day. Even though the quantities produced are significant, they are lower than those of Shein. Additionally, the average price of a product at Shein is less than ten euros, while it is around 30 euros at Zara. In conclusion, Shein offers as many new products in a day as French brands like Gérard Darel or La Fée Maraboutée do in their entire lifespan, according to the president of the ready-to-wear federation.
Source: francetvinfo.fr
