Combined, drop-shipping and the de minimis exemption made things more affordable to US consumers, but they also sent travel miles and product packaging waste through the roof, with much of the poor quality products ending up in landfill shortly thereafter. All of which put a serious strain on the environment.
The hope that tariffs will “kill” fast fashion entirely is probably a pipe dream; 41 per cent of Gen Z and 29 per cent of Millennials in the US currently buy from Shein (Australians purchased $1 billion worth of their goods in 2023). But what they will likely do, as Business of Fashion pointed out, is slow consumption. Because where once you could buy at least two items from Shein for $US20, that will now become the price of one. In economic boom times that might see people willing to spend more money, but with the US currently teetering on the brink of a recession that’s unlikely to be the outcome here.
The Chinese-owned fast fashion label Shein is one of largest fast retailers in the world.Credit: Bloomberg
Reducing fast fashion consumption, delivery miles and the number of poor-quality products in one fell swoop, whether Trump knows it or not, sounds like pretty excellent climate policy.
Though this triple attack probably won’t kill fast fashion entirely, as many sustainable fashion advocates are hoping, will it drive manufacturing back to America, which seems to be Trump’s end goal?
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As French luxury fashion house LMVH has learned, it’s a little more complicated than that. In 2019, LMVH received a $US29 million tax incentive from the US government to open a Louis Vuitton workshop to Texas. Six years on, it is the label’s “worst performing factory”, with up to 40 per cent of its Texas-made stock reportedly destroyed due to poor quality due to struggling to train workers in the artisan skills required for high-end fashion.
If a company backed by billions of Euros, selling $US1500 handbags can’t make American manufacturing work over a six-year period, what hope does a company selling $10 tops on paper-slim margins have?
One thing is for sure – companies already working with US factories are likely to flourish, as will the more sustainable second-hand market. While everything, including fashion, is about to get a lot more expensive in the land of the free, the environment will be all the happier for it. But no one tell Trump that.
Bianca O’Neill is a freelance writer based in Melbourne.
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