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Health Advice

April 17, 2024admin

‘A very odd and ugly worldview’: the dark side of fast fashion brand Brandy Melville | Documentary

If you haven’t heard of Brandy Melville, you probably don’t have a teenage girl in your life. The clothing brand – confusingly named for two characters, an American girl named Brandy and an Englishman named Melville who fall in love in Rome – is synonymous with a certain large swath of gen Z, very online and inundated since consciousness with images of very skinny celebrities like Bella Hadid. As one ex-store associate puts it in a new HBO documentary on the brand: Brandy Melville was for the kinda basic but very trend-aware girl.

Over the past decade and a half, the brand built a giant following via Instagram, Tumblr and TikTok posts of and by teenage girls channeling a certain recognizable aesthetic: tiny outfits accentuating pre-adult metabolisms, exposed midriffs so taut they seem to be begging for a tape measure, long hair flowing cheerily in motion, overwhelmingly white. Most of the brand’s pieces sold for less than $40, in “one size fits all”, that size being small. What Abercrombie & Fitch was to millennials at the mall, Brandy Melville was to teenage girls on their phone – organically popular, ubiquitous and reinforcing existing, retrograde ideas of what’s cool and popular. A divisive status symbol spotted on such rail-thin celebrities as Kaia Gerber and Kendall Jenner that many people love to hate, and also secretly want.

More recently, the brand has also become synonymous with the environmental scourge of fast fashion and shady, discriminatory business practices. Brandy Hellville and the Cult of Fast Fashion, which premiered at SXSW and on HBO this week, digs deeper into a 2021 exposé by Business Insider’s Kate Taylor on the company’s murky, outright creepy management – not just the “opaque minefield” of “sustainable” fashion, as the director, Eva Orner, told the Guardian, but allegations

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Health Advice

April 14, 2024admin

HBO’s Brandy Melville Doc Reveals Fast Fashion’s Dark Side

What’s the true cost of fast fashion? That’s the question at the heart of Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion, the shocking HBO documentary released this week on Max that investigates the many controversies surrounding popular fast fashion brand, Brandy Melville. Since the 2010s, the clothing company has developed and maintained a cult following of teenage girls who scooped up its beachy, feminine offerings and marveled at its relatively cheap price points and celebrity fans. The brand’s immense popularity, however, has masked a number of troubling issues with Brandy Melville and its CEO, Stephan Marsan, from exclusionary sizing practices (their clothing comes in just one size, about an American XS/S) to reports of racial discrimination and sexual harassment from staffers working in their stores.

Read more: What Needs to Happen to Tackle Fashion’s Climate Impact

In the documentary, director Eva Orner makes the case that Brandy Melville, a brand associated with a very specific type of carefully presented girlhood, has built its success, like many other fast fashion brands, on multiple levels of exploitation—from the teenage girls it courts and employs to the Chinese immigrant staffers sewing its clothes in sweatshops in Prato, Italy. The documentary features interviews from former store employees and two former executives for the brand, as well as insights from journalists like Kate Taylor, whose 2021 investigation for Insider into Brandy Melville found not just rampant discrimination at the company, but blatant racism and sexual assault.

Here’s what you need to know about the many controversies covered in Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion.

How Brandy Melville became so popular

Brandy Melville was founded in Italy in the ’80s by Silvio Marsan and his son, Stephan, now the brand’s CEO. While some might assume that its name

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Health Advice

April 9, 2024admin

Is fast fashion sustainable?

As you probably know already, the jacket you just bought cost much more than what’s written on the price tag.

You haven’t paid for the trillions of liters of water and the carbon emissions by the industry that produced it, for example.

Still, you’re reassured when the retailer says its brand is strongly committed to ‘green values,’ or ‘sustainability,’ maybe even ‘circularity.’ Perhaps the retailer claims it has signed some sort of global pledge of environmental awareness and concern.

But do those pledges actually mean anything? Unlikely, says Greenpeace, which warns in a recent report that we should all be very skeptical about most of these claims from big fashion brands.

And regulators, including those in the E.U. and the U.S., are increasingly scrutinizing such green claims and calling out offenders, who are even facing lawsuits in some cases.

They say it’s hard for consumers to know if they can trust retailers’ claims that their products are ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘carbon-neutral’ or part of product ‘circularity,’ which suggests that old textiles are recycled into something new.

“Sustainability sells,” Greenpeace says of the USD 2.4 trillion-dollar global fashion industry as it warns that the industry’s statements don’t always mean much. Often, it argues, they’re nothing more than ‘greenwashing.’ That’s when companies try to appear eco-friendly but continue environmentally harmful practices behind the scenes.

“Marketing by fashion brands can make it seem as if their actions are making a difference – but what’s behind the claims made to consumers of fashion on the labels used to sell the ‘sustainability’ of the garments?” the Greenpeace report asks.

The clothing industry has a massive environmental footprint, contributing an estimated 2 to 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. At least part of that can be blamed on coal-powered factories and petroleum-based fabrics such as polyester, nylon,

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Health Advice

April 1, 2024admin

At prom, fast fashion slowly bows out

This story was originally published by Grist and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

On a Saturday in February, high school senior Kaylee Lemmien sifted through racks of dresses at Tinker Tailor, a small shop in downtown Elk Rapids, a village of about 1,500 people in northern Michigan.

“I’d call this a mermaid, sequin, light blue gown with a tulle skirt. It’s got a lace-up back, kind of open,” Lemmien said. “Very pretty.”

Tinker Tailor usually alters clothes, but on this day it was selling them — prom dresses, to be exact. Gowns in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours — short and long, neons and pastels, satin and sequins — lined the racks. The garments were donated and consigned by people around the region, with the goal of giving them a new life at the Elk Rapids High School prom in May. Called Sustainable Style, the secondhand shopping initiative takes aim at fast fashion.

Zoe Macaluso, the president of the Eco Club at Elk Rapids High School, said that when a local volunteer group approached her with the idea, she “immediately latched onto it.” The Eco Club wants to use the project to lead by example and hopefully inspire other schools in the area to pursue their own climate projects.

Kaylee Lemmien, left, browses used evening gowns at the Sustainable Style event in Elk Rapids, Michigan, on February 17. Photo by Grist / Izzy Ross — Kaylee Lemmien, left, browses used evening gowns at the Sustainable Style event in Elk Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 17. Photo by Grist / Izzy Ross

It’s one of many efforts by high school students around the country to address fast fashion — clothing produced cheaply and quickly enough to stay on top of swiftly moving trend cycles — in their own lives and through advocacy. Such efforts are small, but experts say they can help people —

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Health Advice

March 25, 2024admin

French lawmakers approve bill penalizing fast fashion

Reuters
—

France’s lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill seeking penalties on ultra-fast fashion products, sold by companies like China’s Shein, aimed at helping to offset their environmental impact.

The bill calls for gradually increasing penalties of up to 10 euros ($11) per individual item of clothing by 2030, as well for a ban on advertising for such products.

All voting lawmakers unanimously approved the bill, which will head to the senate before it can become law.

The popularity of fashion retailers Shein and Temu — which scale up orders based on demand thanks to ultra-flexible supply chains — have disrupted the retail sector while established players like Zara and H&M continue to largely rely on predicting shoppers’ preferences.

“This evolution of the apparel sector towards ephemeral fashion, combining increased volumes and low prices, is influencing consumer buying habits by creating buying impulses and a constant need for renewal, which is not without environmental, social and economic consequences,” the bill said.

Related video: 5 ways you can change your fashion habits to help the planet

Shein said in a statement to Reuters that the clothes it produces meet an existing demand, which allows its rate of unsold garments to remain consistently in low single digits, whereas traditional players can have up to 40% waste.

It added that the only impact of the bill would be to “worsen the purchasing power of French consumers, at a time when they are already feeling the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.”

Writing on X, France’s environment minister, Christophe Béchu, described the bill as a “major step forward,” adding: “A big step has been taken to reduce the textile sector’s environmental footprint.”

Workers make clothes at a garment factory that supplies Shein in China's southern Guangdong province in July 2022.

The bill comes as the French environmental ministry said it would propose a European Union ban on exports of used

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Health Advice

March 24, 2024admin

French lawmakers vote to slow down fast fashion with penalties

France’s parliament on Thursday backed a string of measures making low-cost fast fashion, especially from Chinese mass producers, less attractive to buyers.

Issued on: 15/03/2024 – 08:57

2 min

The vote makes France the first country in the world “legislating to limit the excesses of ultra fast fashion”, said Christophe Bechu, minister for the ecological transition.

Key measures include a ban on advertising for the cheapest textiles, and an environmental charge slapped on low-cost items.

The French clothes market has been flooded with cheap imported clothes, while several homegrown brands have declared bankruptcy.

But the main arguments put forward by Horizons—the party allied to President Emmanuel Macron submitting the draft law—were environmental.

“Textile is the most polluting industry,” said Horizons deputy Anne-Cecile Violland, saying the sector accounted for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and was a major polluter of water.

She singled out Chinese company Shein and its “7,200 new clothing items per day” as a prime example of intensive fashion production.

Read moreFrance’s fast-fashion ‘kill bill’: Green move or penalty for the poor?

France will apply criteria such as volumes of clothes produced and turnover speed of new collections in determining what constitutes fast fashion, according to the law.

Once the law comes into force—which still requires a vote in the Senate—precise criteria will be published in a decree.

Fast fashion producers will be forced to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their output.

A surcharge linked to fast fashion’s ecological footprint of five euros ($5.45) per item is planned from next year, rising to 10 euros by 2030. The charge cannot, however, exceed 50 percent of an item’s price tag.

Violland said the proceeds from the charge would be used to subsidise producers of sustainable clothes, allowing them to compete more easily.

A measure to

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Health Advice

March 20, 2024admin

The dark side of fast fashion

Global fast fashion brands are churning out more clothes than the planet can handle. Today’s trends are tomorrow’s trash, with our clothes made cheaply and disposed of quickly. It’s time to stand up for Papatūānuku, to demand sustainable ethical fashion that looks great and feels great at the same time.

A person, out of focus, holds an old Adidas shoe, in focus. In the background are two people in a landfill. Fast Fashion Research in Kenya. © Kevin McElvaney / Greenpeace — Used and new clothes are sent to Kenya from Europe and China to be sold as so called “Mitumba” but often they end up as landfill and waste disposal due to the huge amount. Nairobi.

What is fast fashion?

‘Fast fashion’ is what we call the rapid and cheap design, manufacture and marketing of huge (like really HUGE) volumes of clothing. This way of producing garments often uses low-quality materials and exploits low-paid labour in other countries.

Fast fashion also refers to an approach to the design and marketing of clothing that emphasises making fashion trends quickly and cheaply. Fast fashion trends appeal to people shopping because they are cheap, stylish and trendy. Fast fashion has an irresistible offer – new shiny clothes at unbelievably low prices.

As you can guess, large volumes of low quality garments cause large problems for both people and the environment.

How much clothing goes to landfill in New Zealand?

The clothing industry’s huge production is a huge waste problem. Every year around 180,000 tonnes of clothing and textile waste is thrown away in New Zealand landfills.

That’s equivalent to 6429 shipping containers of waste!

The global statistics for fast fashion waste statistics are really shocking. Internationally 1.92 million tonnes of textiles waste is produced every year.

A staggering 92 million tonnes of discarded garments find their way into landfills, out of the 100 billion produced every year.

A pile of clothes in a landfill, a tractor is small at top

Slow down fast fashion!

By regulating to slow down fast fashion we

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Health Advice

March 16, 2024admin

Three ways your wardrobe could help you avoid fast fashion

Think about the clothes you are wearing right now. How long have you had them? How often do you wear them? Like me, you’re probably wearing favourites that you always reach for, despite having a wardrobe stuffed with rarely worn clothes.

But still, you might feel the irresistible urge to buy more. In high-income countries, overconsumption of clothing contributes to the climate crisis throughout the accelerating cycle of fashion, from production and distribution to mountains of barely worn clothing waste. It might be true that the most sustainable clothes are the ones we already own, but has the industry convinced you that’s boring?

Caring about what’s inside your wardrobe, while resisting the urge to buy more clothes, might be more fun than you think. As part of my PhD research into what our relationships with our clothes might mean for sustainability in fashion, I’ve been experimenting with these simple and positive ways to reconnect with clothing:

1. Put pen to paper

In 2018, campaign group Fashion Revolution encouraged supporters to write a love story about their most-loved garment. Writing about your clothes can uncover personal stories, gaps in your knowledge and a deeper understanding of why you wear what you wear.

Hands of person in shot, leaning over paper on table — Writing about the garments you own could help reconnect you to the personal meaning of your clothes.
Wendy Ward, Author provided (no reuse)

I have written poems about some of my clothes and started to write break-up letters to each garment that leaves my wardrobe. It’s a mindful process that reminds me of places I’ve been and people I’ve met in a much more vivid way than scrolling through photos on my phone.

A recent break-up letter to a rarely worn jacket helped me to pinpoint exactly why I wasn’t wearing it, and

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Health Advice

March 11, 2024admin

From fast fashion to excessive earrings, these trends might be harmful to your health

The perilous nature of some fashion items have a long history, from the potentially hazardous heights of stilettoes to the damaging constrictions imposed by the corset. But health-harming trends aren’t a thing of the past.

Fast fashion, the making and selling of cheap clothes with short life-spans at mass volumes, has become a notorious modern-day phenomenon – so much so that in 2023, the European Union attempted to crack down on the “overproduction and overconsumption of clothes and footwear” to make clothing more sustainable and reduce worker exploitation.

Fast fashion might be cheap but its environmental costs are dear. The detrimental ecological effects of the consumer appetite for trend-driven disposable clothing – and the consequential impacts on human health – are well known. But toxic clothing is a comparatively under-reported danger of consumers’ continuing love affair with fast fashion.

Affordable, on-trend clothing is often made from synthetic materials that can irritate the skin. But throwaway fashion garments can also contain toxic chemicals including PFAS (synthetic chemicals used widely in consumer products from non-stick baking tins to clothes), azo dyes, phthalates and formaldehyde.

Approximately 8,000 synthetic chemicals are used in the fast fashion manufacturing process, with residues staying on the garments that we purchase. Alden Wicker’s 2023 book, To Dye For, reveals the unregulated use of potentially harmful chemicals and the impacts these can have on our health. Azo dyes, for example, which are restricted in the EU, can be absorbed causing a range of reported health issues.

And there are other, perhaps more surprising, potential dangers lurking in your wardrobe too.

Trainers and sneakers

Trainers have become the most popular shoe style of the 21st-century, transcending fashion boundaries of gender, race and age. The trend for athleisure – buoyed by

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Health Advice

March 7, 2024admin

‘An ecological disaster’: French bill proposes crackdown on throwaway culture of ultra fast fashion

Guilty of buying into throwaway fashion? This French bill could crack down on unsustainable clothing.

Fast fashion adverts could soon be banned in France under a new proposal to crack down on the polluting industry.

The bill, tabled by MP Anne-Cécile Violland, also seeks to impose penalties on low-cost clothing to cover its environmental impact.

It will be debated by the Sustainable Development committee on 14 March, after which it could pass to the Senate.

“Ultra fast fashion is an ecological disaster: clothes are poorly made, widely purchased, rarely worn and quickly thrown away,” Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu wrote on X on Tuesday following a debate held with industry stakeholders.

He backs the proposed ban on advertising for fast fashion products, including via social media influencers, and the establishment of ecological penalties on clothing.

Béchu also voiced support for strengthened consumer information from fast fashion brands on the environmental impact of their clothing, and said they should encourage consumers to reuse items.

Shein targeted by French anti-fast fashion bill

Chinese-Singaporean fast fashion retailer Shein is specifically targeted in the proposal.

“Shein offers 900 times more products than a traditional French brand,” it reads, adding that the brand releases more than 7,200 new models of clothing per day, with a total of 470,000 different products available overall.

This allows the brand to attract a wide range of customers, achieve “vast economies of sale” and charge “ever lower prices”, it states.

This in turn forces European fashion brands to increase their output in order to compete.

Last month, Shein considered listing on the London Stock Exchange. In its application, the ultra-fast fashion brand, selling in more than 150 countries across the world, aimed for a valuation of around $90 billion, according to Bloomberg. This would be the

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How Brandy Melville became so popular

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What is fast fashion?

How much clothing goes to landfill in New Zealand?

1. Put pen to paper

Trainers and sneakers

Shein targeted by French anti-fast fashion bill