‘Thread Lightly’ – The European Fashion Industry and EU Efforts to Tackle Fast Fashion

From major high-street retailers, like Zara and H&M, to ‘Haute Couture’ (high fashion) luxury designer brands, like Dior and Hermés, Europe is undoubtedly the home of global fashion and design. The European high-end fashion industry holds enormous power, employing over one million people, with five million people directly employed by the European fashion industry more broadly. Yet with great power comes great responsibility, and while production and export rates are high for European fashion, so are consumption rates. To target issues regarding sustainability, the EU has introduced new legislation to tackle fast fashion and improve the durability and recyclability of textile products.

To celebrate September Fashion Week, this Just the Facts looks at the European Fashion Industry and the efforts the EU is making to increase sustainability standards within the industry for the benefit of people around the world, and to better protect our planet.

September is for fashion

If December is for season’s greetings, and March for St. Patrick’s Day, then September is for fashion. Across the month of September, designers, photographers, models, and stylists will touch down in four major cities for ‘Fashion Week’, showcasing the top collections ahead of the Spring/Summer 2025 fashion season. Europe is home to three of these ‘Big Four’ cities – London (13-17 September), Milan (17-23 September), Paris (23-30 September) – solidifying its position as a powerful influencer in fashion design. While Fashion Week also takes place in February for the Autumn/Winter collections, September is notably the more prestigious month for designers, due to the perception that September marks the beginning of the fashion year, and the release of the highly anticipated Vogue September Issue. While the US sees fashion as an industry, there is a rich history and culture of design in Europe. Haute Couture is seen as part of French cultural patrimony, while Italy holds a global reputation for excellent craftsmanship, particularly in the realm of accessories.

Haute Couture, Haute Ca-Ching: The European Fashion Industry

Building on this rich history, and its global reputation, Europe is home to some of the most lucrative markets for apparel and clothing worldwide, as well as some of the largest apparel companies. 62% of all goods manufactured by European high-end brands are sold outside of Europe. Europe is also home to two heavyweights within the high-street or ‘fast fashion’ industry – H&M and Spanish retail group Inditex, which owns brands such as Zara, Bershka, and Massimo Dutti. ‘Fast Fashion’ is precisely what it sounds like – quickly produced goods sold at low price points and mimicking the latest trends. Inditex, the European retailer with the highest rate of turnover, reached sales just shy of €36 billion euros in 2023, while revenue from the European fashion industry is expected to surpass €155 billion euros in 2024.

While the revenue of high-fashion luxury designer goods, and those of the fast fashion industry can be tracked separately, it is difficult to discuss consumption rates without acknowledging the role that Haute Couture design plays in shaping fast fashion outputs. Fashion works ahead of time, meaning that the items we see across the four major September Fashion Weeks will not showcase the current trends, but rather the potential trends of the next season; in this case Spring/Summer ’25. Fashion professionals across the industry will be watching closely to pick out the leading styles which we will then see up and down the high-street over the coming months, with utility jackets, flip flops, and aquamarine predicted as key emerging trends.

From Runway to Rubbish – EU Textile Consumption

Between designers, and the advance of social media, it is easy for trends to emerge and when they do, there is a rush to grasp the latest item before it sells out or is no longer in fashion. Consequently, the consumption rates for fast fashion items across Europe, and textile consumption more broadly are large. The European Environmental Agency estimates that Europeans consume an average of 26 kgs per person of textiles per year and discards 11 kgs. When it comes to textile consumption, Irish citizens are considered to “over consume”. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) most recent data from 2021, Irish people consume double the amount of the EU average at 53kg per capita per year.

Fast fashion has detrimental impacts for the environment and is the world’s third most polluting sector after fossil fuels and agriculture. Textile consumption is one of the top three pressures on water and land use, with approximately 900 cubic metres of water, 400 square metres of land, and 391 kgs of raw materials needed for each EU consumer. In addition, over the past decade, the price of clothing has fallen with the availability of more fast fashion brands such as Shein and Temu, as has the duration of use by consumers for each item. As a result, just 1% of all clothing worldwide is recycled – the rest go to landfills or are incinerated.  Between 25-40% of all fabric in factories is either leftover or becomes waste.

Making Sustainability Stylish

While the fashion industry, particularly Haute Couture design, form essential expressions of art and creativity, the growing challenge presented by climate change has pushed the EU in recent years to implement legislation designed to make the industry more sustainable.

The European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) is  responsible for examining, amending and negotiating legislation proposed by the European Commission to improve the environmental impact of the fashion industry.  With 90 MEPs, ENVI is one of the biggest committees in the European Parliament. It will be chaired by Italian MEP Antonio Decaro for the next two and a half year term. A quick glance at the committee’s activity report for the previous mandate (2019-2024) shows that the committee worked across a wide range of policy topics from waste management, to the relatively recent Nature Restoration Law. Irish MEP Lynn Boylan (GUE/NGL) is now a full member of the ENVI Committee, while Seán Kelly (EPP) and Billy Kelleher (Renew) are substitute members.

In March, the European Parliament adopted its position regarding a revision of the EU’s Waste Framework Directive which is targeted specifically at tackling textile and food waste. Revisions have focused on the “polluter pays” principle in EU law whereby companies adopting fast fashion practices may be required to pay higher fees by EU countries, while social economy entities may be exempted from certain reporting obligations. The Council, with Hungary in the Presidency role until December 2024, will now discuss and adopt its position on the directive. There is a conference scheduled to take place on the topic in October 2024.

In July 2023, the European Parliament voted in favour of revising the EU’s Ecodesign Framework, which was first introduced in 2009. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) sets out new requirements in terms of performance and information conditions for physical goods, including textiles and clothing (with some exceptions, for example, food). The new ecodesign requirements include:

• Improve the product durability, reusability, upgradability, and repairability
• Make products more resource efficient
• Increase the recycled content of products
• Improve the availability of information on product sustainability.

The ESPR is part of a wider package of measures designed to meet the objectives of the 2020 Circular Economy Plan which aims to improve the life cycle of products. Circular economy refers to a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible.

Regarding fashion, the ESPR addresses textiles specifically through the Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles. This initiative seeks to ensure that, by 2030, all textile products placed on the EU market are durable, repairable, recyclable, made of recycled fibres, and produced with respect for the environment. It also aims to safeguard human rights, as well as economic and social rights across the global textiles production chain. It promotes that re-use and repair services are widely available. In essence, the strategy’s objective is to ensure EU consumers benefit longer from high quality, affordable, sustainably and ethically produced textiles, putting ‘fast fashion out of fashion’.

The ESPR entered into force on 18 July 2024. As consumers, we may recognise some changes such as spotting a ‘Digital Product Passport’ – an identity card for products which will provide information on the materials used, recycling capabilities, and environmental impacts. This may encourage consumers to be more mindful in their consumption. In addition, a ban will be introduced on the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear, with large and eventually medium-sized companies required to publicly report on the number, weight, and reasoning for discarding goods which could otherwise be re-used or recycled.

Overall, Europe will continue to dominate the fashion industry, with notable designs displayed at Fashions Weeks across London, Milan and Paris (and New York!) setting the tone for the coming months in terms of trends and style. Yet style can still be sustainable – investing in high-quality, ethically sourced pieces where possible is better for the environment, and helps consumers stay in style for longer, rather than jumping from trend to trend. It remains to be seen whether the ESPR will contribute to the EU’s objective to meet its 2030 climate targets.

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