Worldcrunch
Shein, a Chinese retailer, has rapidly risen to compete with the likes of H&M and Zara — and even Amazon. But now France is leading the West’s crackdown on the questionable practices of so-called “fast fashion.” Here’s deep look inside the company’s working and sourcing practices.
Women who are garment workers for well-known European labels face frequent gender-based violent harassment, caste-based discrimination, wage theft, forced termination, and other forms of labor and human rights violations. The laws simply don’t help.
Discreet about its strategy, the Chinese company Temu is proving a fierce competitor to incumbent e-commerce brands, notably Amazon, by operating at a major loss. Some are worried whether its aim is to collect something more valuable: data on the habits of Westerners.
The Made in Tunisia clothes industry for the European market consumes large amounts of water and pollutes Tunisia’s coastline. In Ksibet El Mediouni, the population is paying the price of the environmental cost of fast fashion.
With the rise of influencers has come a sub-category: deinfluencers, who tell their followers what NOT to buy instead of promoting products in an effort to reduce wasteful consumption.
The pontiff’s visit to Tuscany brings him to the historic textile town of Prato, where Chinese workers have flocked to toil in what are often very inhuman circumstances. These are the faithful Francis wishes to see.