There is an artwork that could be considered as a perfect embodiment of the fashion industry - Michelangelo Pistoletto's "Venus of the Rags". This work consists in an industrial reproduction of Venus, representing a degraded idea of the western canon of beauty, with her face buried in a pile of clothes. The garments could be interpreted as shadows of human existences turned into rags, but they also hint at consumerism. Therefore the installation could be a sort of logo for our collective consumption habit and be used to illustrate a horrible practice that has sadly become rather popular in fashion - destroying unsold clothes.
Between 2017 and 2018 there were quite a few reports about fashion companies destroying discarded clothes. This practice was carried out by fast fashion companies such as H&M, but also luxury brands. Burberry's 2017-18 annual report included the cost of finished goods "physically destroyed in the year" that amounted to $37.8 million (the annual revenue was $3.61 billion). Louis Vuitton engages in the same practice while Richemont dismantles its luxury watches to recycle diamonds and assorted spare parts (there are also ready-to-wear companies such as sportswear giant Nike that engage in this unsustainable practice).
Things may be changing, though, at least in France where the government has been working on a legislation to ban clothing destruction.
A few days ago it was announced that Brune Poirson, the Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, is working on a law that should stop companies from destroying, throwing away or incinerating unsold clothing. The law will require shops to donate any unsold articles of clothing to charity and tax breaks may also be introduced for companies that re-use and recycle landfill waste such as textiles and plastics.
Consumers have played a part in planning the new law: in 2018 shopper Nathalie Beauval posted on her Facebook page photos of unwanted, abandoned and cut up clothes outside a shop in Rouen, highlighting that this was a terrible waste as people in need may have used the garments. While it is often a shop's policy to destroy torn, stained or damaged clothes that are therefore considered unfit for donations, quite often the clothes seem absolutely fine, but they are defaced to avoid dumpster scavenging.
The first steps towards a proper law were actually taken in April last year when the country released its "Circular Economy Roadmap" highlighting ways to improve consumption behaviour, eliminate waste and encourage recycling.
In that roadmap it was stated that by 2019 the French government will put in place in the textile sector the major principles of the fight against food waste.
In 2016 France became indeed the first country to pass a law to stop grocery stores and supermarkets from throwing away food that neared the expiry date, requiring them to donate the food to charities.
Yet grocery store waste represents just 11 percent of total food waste in the country, while fashion has more polluting potential with statistics reaching 17.5 percent in France (that said the French government is also studying how to reduce the waste produced by other indutries such as electronics, furniture and hotels).
The announcement of the law being drafted in France was particularly topical considering that it arrived on 22nd April, Earth Day, and that at the moment "eco-friendly" and "sustainability" seem to be the keywords used in the fashion universe.
If France manages to establish a proper law preventing companies from destroying unsold clothing it will set an example for the entire industry and for other countries as well and it will be intriguing to see how companies based in France that engage in clothes destruction (such as Louis Vuitton) will react if the proposal becomes law.
Comments