PARIS — Luxury resale platform Vestiaire Collective is wrapping up its three-year campaign to tackle textile waste, which has included a ban on fast-fashion brands.
In November 2023, Vestiaire blacklisted 30 fashion brands including H&M, Mango, Uniqlo and Zara from being bought, sold or listed on its platform, and continued adding brands such ultra-fast-fashion players Temu and Shein.
The company embarked on an influencer education campaign in November 2024 to help change the narrative around popular social media “hauls,” call attention to marketing tactics and nudge consumer behavior.
The latest images show piles of fast fashion in front of residences in London, Paris and New York, as well as the U.S. Capitol and the French Senate.
“This goes to people’s doorstep to say, ‘This is an emergency, and we cannot avoid the issue anymore.’ Before we used to say the problem is in the Global South — it’s out of sight,” said Vestiaire Collective’s chief impact officer Dounia Wone. “Now, it’s in front of them.”
Seeing clothing waste piled in front of home front doors highlights the problem of textile disposal, especially in Europe.
EU regulations that went into effect on Jan. 1 requiring clothing to be sorted and recycled separately has left many countries scrambling for solutions for tons of textile waste.
The Vestiaire campaign also calls out fast-fashion brands for their “accessible luxury” positioning — such as high-profile campaigns and partnerships taking the codes of historical houses while still keeping their labor and overproduction practices the same.
Vestiaire Collective’s latest campaign comes as it has thrown its support behind France’s Anti-Fast Fashion Bill, which was passed by the country’s assembly on March 14, 2024, and is due for a vote in the senate.
The bill had been in limbo for some time. It is now scheduled for a vote on June 3.
When the bill suddenly disappeared from the senate schedule last December, Vestiaire Collective cofounder and president Fanny Moizant led a campaign across media to call attention to the missing bill, particularly after former interior minister Christophe Castaner took a position at Shein.
An image from Vestiaire Collective’s latest campaign.
Courtesy Vestiaire Collective
The proposed legislation could impose fines of up to 10 euros per garment by 2030, plus ban advertising or require a disclaimer, and put curbs on influencers. Passage of such a law in France, which was a pioneer on Extended Producer Responsibility requirements, is largely seen to be a testing ground for wider European Union regulation down the line.
To drive home the issue, a dozen environmental groups working together as the “Stop Fast-Fashion Coalition” dumped mountains of clothing waste outside the senate building last month, an image that is echoed in Vestiaire’s campaign.
Last year the company released eye-catching images of world landmarks including the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace and Times Square covered in clothing waste to highlight the growing problem of fashion waste that sees 92 million tons of textiles tossed each year.
The campaign was designed to spur consumers to think about the long-term effects of their buying.