The seemingly popular fashion brand Forever 21 announced on Sunday that it had filed for bankruptcy and would be closing over 150 stores, including all three Boston locations in Back Bay, Downtown Crossing and South Boston. Their economic struggles come with a trend of young shoppers away from physical shopping and toward online companies that churn out new looks constantly.
“Fast fashion,” as the industry is often referred to as, has been called out in recent years for questionable labor practices and environmental impact.
Churning out so many styles at such a low cost and so quickly requires a massive amount of labor and material. H&M and Gap were exposed last year for abusing their employees by overworking and underpaying women. Many women reported terrible conditions and being paid less than minimum wage.
Additionally, companies of this type create an enormous amount of waste. Anyone that has been in a Forever 21 clearance section can tell you not everything gets sold, which leads one to wonder where the leftovers go and the answer is not donation or recycling. Sometimes, it’s burning.
It is inevitable for a market that puts billions of items on the market each year to produce considerable waste, but Forever 21’s bankruptcy reveals a flaw in this system. Not selling everything is bad for the environment, but it’s also bad for business.
American Apparel, a popular clothing brand globally, provides a useful example of this. Their original business model boasted American-made products and was successful until eventually going under. Now it’s back with one exception: it’s not all made in America.
It is well-known that outsourcing labor is cheaper, mostly because wages are much lower and regulations are few and far between. It’s also much easier to burn endless waste in those places without consequences, which these companies are taking full advantage of.
Everything from the resources used to produce textiles to the amount of water wasted in the dying process contributes to fast fashions’ negative contributions to the environment. It is a problem to the point that the United Nations Environment Programme made a statement encouraging the halt of widespread support for fast fashion.
Forever 21’s bankruptcy does not signal an end in fast fashion as online shops like Shein and Fashion Nova are on the rise, but their business models are slightly different. They are now uploading designs sometimes mere hours after celebrities are seen in their much more expensive alternatives.
Even so, these sorts of shops are losing popularity and getting replaced by more sustainable shops in places like Boston. Newbury Street, on which one of the Forever 21 locations stands, has slowly become lined with more environmentally conscious brands like Reformation, Uniqlo and Allbirds, that pride themselves on their commitment to minimize waste.
These trends are an encouraging sign that consumers are becoming more aware of their impact on climate change through their buying choices. Although the decline of Forever 21 may not ring true for the entire industry, the issue may bring attention to the ongoing problems of fast fashion’s impact on human rights and wellbeing.
