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Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Unsustainable Fashion Is Pricing Out the Conscious Consumer

Brands that make products with little concern for environmental and social impact are benefitting from a ‘brown discount,’ undercutting industry efforts to operate more responsibly, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.
A group of women holding Shein bags at a party hosted by the brand.
Ultra-fast-fashion companies like Shein offer products at ultra-low prices. (Getty Images)

Over the last year, two seemingly contradictory trends have come into focus.

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Further Reading

Beware Fashion’s Sustainability Retreat

Financial and political volatility are having a chilling effect on the industry’s environmental efforts. But failure to act now will bring bigger risks in the future, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.

Fashion’s Confounding Climate Math, Explained

Want to understand why it’s so hard to cut fashion’s planet-warming emissions? Or why consumers say they care about sustainability, but shop like they don’t? Stop thinking in straight lines, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.

Beware the ‘Sheinification’ of Fashion

The ‘instant fashion’ juggernaut’s explosive growth is attracting imitators. But keeping up with Shein’s relentless churn puts the industry on a perilous course when it comes to sustainability, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.

About the author
Kenneth Pucker

Kenneth Pucker is a contributing writer at The Business of Fashion. Pucker is an American writer and educator who specialises in sustainability.

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