Demonstrate your ability to synthesize and analyze information from multiple sources in order to develop your own insights into the topic.

The essay:

Be persuasive. You need to make a clear argument, articulated in your thesis statement, and supported throughout the body of the essay.

Be directed at a specific audience.

Have a thesis statement that includes your overall argument and maps out the points you make in the body of the paper.

Support the thesis with research from credible sources.

Demonstrate your ability to synthesize and analyze information from multiple sources in order to develop your own insights into the topic.

Summarize and respond to counterarguments.

Topic: Environmental impact of fast fashion. added some articles

Requirements: about 5 pages

137 Volume 40 WINTER 2022-2023 Number 2 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW NOTE The Fast Fashion Industry: Formulating the Future of Environmental Change ALEXA MARATOS* ABSTRACT This Note focuses on the harmful environmental impacts the fast fash-ion industry has created, and continues to create, on our planet. In the 1960s, consumer attitude towards clothing shifted drastically when demand for new, disposable clothing skyrocketed. These choices led fashion retailers to give life to the environmentally detrimental breed of “fast fashion.” Mov-ing production from a domestic to an international level, increasing the amount of clothing collections on a yearly basis, and lack of transparency in supply chain are just a few examples of the dangers this industry has created for our planet. The fast fashion industry in particular is one that has been overlooked for decades, now only in focus due to the almost irreparable harm it has caused on a transnational level. No clear, collective legal defini-tion exists for “sustainability” in the fashion industry. This Note explores, an-alyzes and compares current and potential fashion-specific legislation, do-mestically and internationally, that has not only created definitions but policies going forward for collective action. This Note focuses on the “four c’s”: compliance, caliber, consumers and circularity. These “c’s” create a broad answer as to how some of this environmental damage can be stopped going forward. The solution lies in collective transparency as well as a *J.D. Candidate, Promotions Editor, Pace Environmental Law Review, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, 2023; B.A. Political Science, Loyola University Maryland. The author would like to dedicate this Note to her family and close friends, as they have supported and believed in her from drafting to finishing touches. The author would like to especially thank Catherine Calicchia, who influenced the author’s interest and expanded her view on the im-portance of environmental sustainability in the fashion industry. Additionally, the author would like to thank the Pace Environmental Law Review editors and associates for their col-laborative hard work on this Note. 1

138 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 circular economy. The growth of investment in companies who value envi-ronmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards has allowed consumers to change past behaviors toward a circular economy. It is vital that consum-ers invest in spaces they know are working towards a better future, in all aspects. I. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………..138 A. The Influence of Fashion …………………………………………….138 B. Background ………………………………………………………………139 C. The Importance …………………………………………………………140 D. Scope and Purpose …………………………………………………….106 II. History: Fast Fashion’s Unfolding ……………………………………………..143 III. Fast Fashion’s Environmental Footprint ……………………………………146 A. Our Human Right ………………………………………………………….146 B. Microplastics ……………………………………………………………….148 C. Levi’s: Water<Less ………………………………………………………..150 IV. Sustainability: According to Who? …………………………………………..152 A. Sustainability Defined …………………………………………………152 B. Greenwashing …………………………………………………………..153 C. Examples of Greenwashing …………………………………………154 V. Who is Responsible? ………………………………………………………………154 A. The United States: State Action ………………………………………155 B. Europe ………………………………………………………………………..160 C. Non-Regulatory Actors ………………………………………………….166 VI. Moving Forward ……………………………………………………………………170 A. Sustainability as the Caliber ………………………………………..170 B. Conscious Consumers …………………………………………………170 C. Rise of ESG Investment and Circularity ………………………….171 VII. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………..172 I. INTRODUCTION A. The Influence of Fashion The significance of fashion is rooted within its adaptability to our eve-ryday lives. While we understand clothing to be a basic essential in society, fashion is the actualization of ideation. Fashion encourages outward self-expression, allowing one to display their personality to the world. Easily in-fluenced by world events and pop culture, generations are framed by cer-tain “staple” pieces of clothing, identifying moments in time. Fashion has played a vital role in shaping history by being interactive and representative. 2https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 139 This idea of self-expression has been catapulted through the ever-changing trends fashion designers declare as “chic.”1 Privileged with expan-sive technology, impeccable machinery and fast supply chains, our society is spoiled with an almost immediate entitlement to clothing. It is important to understand the relationship between consumer choice and the fashion industry as it affects our planet. As consumers, we dictate the way in which fashion companies conduct business through our demands, wants and needs. Therein lies a danger in this behavior, as it has led the industry to trail behind a detrimental environmental footprint. B. Background Fashion is not only an essential, but an art form. Clothing, shoes, jew-elry and accessories allow a person to display to the world who they are and what they stand for. It is not only a need, but a desire.2 Trends have always come and go, but lately, at a great pace. The fashion industry has been skating past environmental regulation for quite some time. For an industry valued roughly at $2.5 trillion dollars, it cannot hide in the dark much longer.3 Its power has been truly underesti-mated. With heavy government focus on industries such as energy, food, and transportation, it has been easy to turn a blind eye as the fashion indus-try produces for aesthetic and materialistic value. Fashion has less of a “per-sonal investment” in comparison to these other industries, as we outrightly see their effects in our air, water ways and land use.4 The environmental effects of the fast fashion supply chain are not only invisible in some 1.Hilary George-Parkin, The Most Influential Fashion Trends, Decade by Decade, YAHOO!: ENT. (Feb. 16, 2021), https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/most-influential-fash-ion-trends-decade-053000327.html [https://perma.cc/Y85P-3643]. 2.Francesca M. Witzburg, Fashion Forward: Fashion Innovation in the Era of Disruption, 39 CARDOZO ARTS & ENT. L.J. 705, 706 (2021). 3.Julia Gall, How Fashion’s Boldest Legislation Came to Be, MARIE CLAIRE (Jan. 11, 2022), https://www.marieclaire.com/fashion/fashion-act-new-york-state/ [https://perma.cc/CC6V-59NQ]; The Fashion Sustainability and Accountability Act, LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUNDER, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bfdbd37710699f8ca47af1f/t/6193da0430b59a65966db18f/1637079558255/Legislative+Backgrounder+%E2%80%94+The+Fashion+Sustaina-bility+and+Social+Accountability+Act.pdf [https://perma.cc/3TMM-T6S7]. 4.Andrea Cheng, The Problem with Fashion Brands that Call Themselves ‘Sustainable,’ FASHIONISTA (Oct. 18, 2018), https://fashionista.com/2017/04/sustainable-fashion-brands-problems [https://perma.cc/GAB3-99GD]. 3

140 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 respects, but are also purposely hidden. These harmful impacts can mainly be seen in underdeveloped parts of the world.5 C. The Importance The primary concerns that arise out of the fast fashion industry are so-cial and environmental. The industry is transnational, connecting many countries and their unique markets. The fashion chain is of high global im-portance, as it provides millions of jobs, generates foreign exchange reve-nue, and provides goods that are essential for human welfare.6 Fast fashion is a money hungry business. With soaring demand, almost all companies transfer manufacturing to undeveloped countries.7 These fa-cilities pump out merchandise as fast as possible, often underpaying their laborers who are already working in highly dangerous and unsanitary con-ditions.8 Production at high rates keeps the brand’s promise to consumers that they can have what they want, when they want it. This type of large-scale production is typically in locations that lack any sort of formal regula-tion, let alone social or environmental standards.9 The clothing and textile industry employs 300 million people globally, many of them women.10 These jobs are on the bottom tier of textile pro-ductions, exposing them to hazardous conditions and next-to-nothing pay.11 Abuse through labor has been an outstanding topic within the past few dec-ades, exposing popular brand names for their exploitation of workers. One popular example can be seen through the athletic company, Nike. In the 1990s, Nike was exposed for underpayment, exploitation and abuse of their laborers.12 As many large retailers do, Nike outsourced production 5.Guilherme Barroca & Madalena Andrade, Fast Fashion: What We are not Seeing, AWARENESS NEWS (Mar. 25, 2021), https://theawarenessnews.com/2021/03/25/fast-fashion-what-we-are-not-seeing/ [https://perma.cc/K44Z-4ZJK]. 6.LEONIE MEIER, U.N. ALL. FOR SUSTAINABLE FASHION, SYNTHESIS REPORT ON UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM-WIDE INITIATIVES RELATED TO FASHION 4 (2021). 7.Barroca & Andrade, supra note 5. 8.Id. 9.Manon Huckle, When it Comes to Cleaning up its Act, Fast Fashion is No Fast Fix, THE FASHION L. (Sept. 6, 2021), https://www.thefashionlaw.com/when-it-comes-to-cleaning-up-its-act-fast-fashion-is-no-fast-fix/ [https://perma.cc/7N73-XUA7]. 10.The Clothing and Textile Industry Today, U.N. ALL. FOR SUSTAINABLE FASHION, https://unfashionalliance.org/ [https://perma.cc/7GG7-HXMB] [hereinafter Textile Indus-try]. 11.MEIER, supra note 6, at 5. 12.Rhys McKay, The Truth Behind the Alleged Nike Sweatshops, WHO MAG. (Aug. 21, 2019), https://www.who.com.au/nike-sweatshops-does-nike-use-sweatshops [https://perma.cc/DQD6-ZRYV]. 4https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 141 to a plethora of underdeveloped countries.13 It was revealed that pay was as little as 14 cents an hour, laborers suffered as employers paid them slave wages and forced overtime.14 Horror stories of the working conditions sur-faced, disclosing exposure to harsh chemicals, limited breaks, as well as physical and verbal abuse.15 Consumers in the United States quickly began to protest the company.16 For a few years, Nike did not address the allega-tions, eventually stating they were going to reconstruct their employment practices in 1998.17 Prior to stating their intention to reconstruct, Nike at-tempted to place the blame on subcontractors. Nike claimed they did not have direct supervision over the events occurring in the subcontracted fac-tories.18 This Nike story is a prime example of the lack of supply-chain over-sight across the fast fashion industry. Yet, among these social issues, fast fashion practices also account for a massive amount of greenhouse gases and environmental pollution. The overall impact on the climate due to fast fashion alone has increased by 35 percent between 2005 and 2016.19 The industry’s emissions continue to rise, accounting for 8.6 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, some even estimating a higher rate of 10 percent.20 Experts predict that global clothing consumption will rise 63 percent by 2030.21 This consumption is fueled by an increasing demand for trendy fash-ion that is made readily available to “a growing middle class population with disposable income.”22 This demand fuels fast fashion companies to produce at a large-scale level. What is the danger of this? “One global fashion retailer supply chain map can reveal 750 suppliers that manufacture for eight global 13.Id. 14.Ashley Lutz, How Nike Shed its Sweatshop Image to Dominate the Shoe Industry, BUS. INSIDER (June 6, 2015), https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nike-fixed-its-sweatshop-image-2015-6 [https://perma.cc/4UBL-G8WX]. 15.McKay, supra note 12. 16.Lutz, supra note 14. 17.McKay, supra note 12. 18.Id. 19.Elizabeth Jane Poland, Fashioning Compliance: The Fashion Charter for Climate Ac-tion and Strategies for Forming a More Effective Fashion Industry Agreement, 49 GA. J. INT’L & COMP. L. 407, 414 (2021). 20.Stephanie Alzate, America May Get the First Fashion Sustainability Law, IMPAKTER (Jan. 20, 2022), https://impakter.com/america-first-fashion-sustainability-law/ [https://perma.cc/6JBU-XELU]; Jason M. Halper et al., Is Sustainability En Vogue or the New-est Staple? What New York’s Proposed Fashion Sustainability and Accountability Act Could Mean for the Fashion and Other Industries, NAT’L L. REV. (Feb. 11, 2022), https://www.natlaw-review.com/article/sustainability-en-vogue-or-newest-staple-what-new-york-s-proposed-fashion [https://perma.cc/GQD5-SE6R]. 21.Huckle, supra note 9. 22.Id. 5

142 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 brands at 1,400 factories across 41 countries, selling in 5,000 stores in 75 different markets across 52 markets online.”23 The chain is vast. Most com-panies do not truly know where their products are coming from, many “‘[do not] have visibility on suppliers more than one degree removed.’”24 Compa-nies may think they only have roughly 1,000 suppliers, but have closer to 50,000 sub-suppliers.25 With gaining complexity, the process becomes more vulnerable to fraud and error.26 If this industry is left unregulated, “[it] will be responsible for more than ¼ of the world’s global carbon budget by 2050.”27 The industry must drasti-cally reduce its emissions in the next five to ten years or else the damage will be too far gone.28 Reducing annual emissions by half (around 1.1 billion tons) requires transparency across the entire supply chain “from upstream production and processing, through retail operations, to the consumers themselves.”29 D. Scope and Purpose A note analyzing the vast supply chain at every intimate detail is far too expansive, as one minute detail has many particulars. As many different harms brew out of the fashion industry, particularly social and labor related, the environmental aspects are rapidly destroying our planet as we know it. The purpose of this note is to explore, analyze, and compare current and potential regulation, domestically and internationally, that can diminish the industry’s harsh environmental impact. In Part II, the note will discuss the history behind fast fashion’s unfold-ing. It will explore how the industry expanded its supply chain process due to consumer demand. In Part III, the note will focus on the industry’s detri-mental environmental impacts, particularly plastic polluting the globe’s wa-ter supply. It will touch on the human right to water and how legislative ef-forts can protect against plastic pollution. It will also explore one fashion 23.MEIER, supra note 6, at 4. 24.AMED ET AL., THE STATE OF FASHION 2019 65 (THE BUS. OF FASHION & MCKINSEY & CO., 2019). 25.Id. at 63, 65 (summarizing that a factory could take an order, then realize that they do not have the full capacity to complete it; thus, delegating the work out to other factories, which could be unregistered and allow for unsafe conditions to occur for the laborers and environment). 26.Id. at 63. 27.LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUNDER, supra note 3. 28.See generally Rachel Cernansky, Deconstructing New York’s Fashion Act, VOGUE BUS. (Jan. 13, 2022), https://www.voguebusiness.com/sustainability/deconstructing-new-yorks-fashion-act [https://perma.cc/ZWQ5-PPZJ] (discussing the link between brand accountability and measurable reductions of environmental harm). 29.MEIER, supra note 6, at 34. 6https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 143 brand who has taken extensive and impressive initiative to help combat wa-ter pollution and waste in the industry. In Part IV, the note will describe the issues in defining and interpreting “sustainability” in the realm of fashion. It will explore the term “greenwash-ing” and provide examples of how deceptive many fast fashion retailers can be. Part V explores the various regulatory and non-regulatory actors who have played a part in putting forward transparency and supply chain stand-ards. Domestically, New York and California are the two largest jurisdictions that have acted, or have begun to act, on the issues the fast fashion industry presents. As states with influential power, they are leaders in effectuating change since there is no federal legislation in the United States effecting the fashion industry directly. Internationally, countries such as France and Ger-many have taken their own regulatory initiatives through due diligence re-porting. Such reporting has set the tone for the European Union to put the transparency issue of the fashion industry on their agenda. Although volun-tary organizations may lack legal power to enforce, their behind-the-scenes work has created collaborative efforts, standards, and measuring tools that are vital for legislators drafting laws to regulate this industry. Part VI describes a combination of factors that will be powerful moving forward to bring change. First, focusing on the caliber used in future legisla-tive initiatives. Second, exploring consumers’ role in effectuating change, as they are the leading force of profit for the industry. Lastly, recognizing growth of investment in companies who value environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards and a circular economy. People want to invest in spaces they know are working towards a better future, in all aspects. To combat the environmental impacts of the fast fashion industry, change must start now. Four components need to be formulated to create this change: compliance, caliber, consumers, and circularity. II. HISTORY: FAST FASHION’S UNFOLDING What makes fashion “fast”? An accelerated supply chain cycle. Fast fashion is defined as, “the practice of rapidly translating high fashion design trends into low-priced garments and accessories by mass-market retailers at low costs.”30 Its elements include: low price point, method, timeline, trend-based nature, and quick disposability.31 Fast fashion began to emerge with change in industrial and consumer behavior. Industrial changes of rapid producing machinery allowed for the 30.Poland, supra note 19, at 410. 31.Id. 7

144 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 price of clothing to drop after World War II, leading consumers to believe clothing was now next to disposable.32 Clothing was a significant purchase up until the 1950s, it was “pricey and precious enough that [it was] mended and cared for and reimagine[d] countless times.”33 In the 1960s, consumers began to step away from their traditional tailors, expanding to larger retail-ers who carried new, trendy pieces.34 In the United States alone, people have purchased “400% more cloth-ing than they did thirty years ago.”35 Seasonal trends now allow for pieces of clothing to be thrown away within a couple of months.36 It is projected that a piece is worn only seven times before being disposed.37 According to the Circular Fibres Initiative, there exists at least 100 billion dollars worth of material loss due to underutilization of these pieces;38 it is in the nature of the industry to sell and get consumers to buy more, leading to great rates of overproduction.39 This underutilization is due to the lack of environmen-tally conscious life cycle practices.40 The main markets of the fashion industry dwell in Europe and the United States.41 Due to the increasing demand in these locations, retailers have shifted their domestic production overseas to economically develop-ing countries, particularly to countries in Asia.42 This transition has allowed retailers to reduce their costs immensely with the return promise of great profit.43 Few brands own the assets of their factories, most outsource final production, not knowing where their supplies directly derive from.44 With an almost immediate consumer demand, these pieces are produced at an 32.Id. at 411–12. 33.Id. at 411. 34.Id.; see also Sara Idacavage, Fashion History Lesson: The Origins of Fast Fashion, FASHIONISTA (Oct. 17, 2018), https://fashionista.com/2016/06/what-is-fast-fashion [https://perma.cc/S2AU-PUDW]. 35.Poland, supra note 19, at 412. 36.Press Release, UNEP, UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion Addresses Damage of ‘Fast Fashion’ (updated June 21, 2022) [hereinafter UNEP Press Release]. 37.Eleanor Beardsley, COVID-19 is Turning the Fashion Industry on its Head, NPR (Oct. 11, 2020), https://www.npr.org/2020/10/11/922756218/covid-19-is-turning-the-fashion-in-dustry-on-its-head [https://perma.cc/DR5F-6WRD]. 38.AMED ET AL., supra note 24, at 65; https://emf.thirdlight.com/file/24/IwnEDbfI5JTFoAIw_2QI2Yg-6y/A-New-Textiles-Economy_Summary-of-Findings_Updated_1-12-17.pdf (in citation 14) 39.Kenneth P. Pucker, The Myth of Sustainable Fashion, HARV. BUS. REV. (Jan. 13, 2022), https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-myth-of-sustainable-fashion [https://perma.cc/E8UC-Z9JE]. 40.Id. 41.MEIER, supra note 6, at 5. 42.Id. 43.Poland, supra note 19, at 412. 44.Pucker, supra note 39. 8https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 145 alarming rate. Due to the necessity of a quick turnaround time, the materials used in production are cheap, readily available, and far from “environmen-tally friendly.”45 To combat the traditionally slow turnaround time between runway shows and item availability, fast fashion retailers grew by extending the number of fashion “seasons” to every four to six weeks.46 In comparison, a traditional cycle of new clothing comes out every season, four times a year.47 Brands now produce dozens of clothing collections in a single year, specifically designed to draw consumers in, coming back for more.48 For ex-ample, “‘Zara offers 24 new clothing collections each year; H&M offers 12 to 16 and refreshes them weekly.’”49 Many of these brands function primar-ily online to skip the obstacle of brick-and-mortar overhead.50 Fast fashion stores began to pop up around the late 1990s/early 2000s as flaunting low-cost, savvy fashion slowly became more acceptable and de-sirable.51 The first company to become a “fast fashion” retailer is up for de-bate. Some say it was Zara, as it was the first to be coined by the New York Times in the 1990s.52 Zara announced it could take only 15 days for a gar-ment to go from the design table to hanging on the rack.53 This pace shook traditional retail and department stores as they began to fall behind.54 Tra-ditional stores struggled to stay stocked with new merchandise every few weeks, which led to intense competition.55 45.See id.; see, e.g., Lucielle Salomon, Can You Compost Your Clothing? Here’s Why Most Fashion Isn’t Biodegradable, ECOCULT (Jan. 28, 2021), https://ecocult.com/can-you-com-post-your-clothing/ [https://perma.cc/PN9C-MHDW]. 46.Poland, supra note 19, at 413; see also Witzburg, supra note 2, at 727. 47.Poland, supra note 19, at 413. 48.Emma Bryce, Are Clothes Made from Recycled Materials Really More Sustainable?, THE GUARDIAN (Nov. 6, 2021), https://www.theguardian.com/environ-ment/2021/nov/06/clothes-made-from-recycled-materials-sustainable-plastic-cli-mate?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-thesustainablefashionforum&utm_content=later-22261733&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio [https://perma.cc/V27M-6DHG]. 49.Pucker, supra note 39. 50.Witzburg, supra note 2, at 727. 51.Idacavage, supra note 34. 52.Rashmila Maiti, Fast Fashion and its Environmental Impact, EARTH.ORG (June 12, 2022), https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/ [https://perma.cc/8YJH-7KRL]. 53.Id. 54.Idacavage, supra note 34. 55.Id. 9

146 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 III. FAST FASHION’S ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT Think about your favorite pair of jeans. Have you ever wondered what it took to create them? Probably not. One pair can require nearly 2,000 gal-lons of water, 400 megajoules of energy, and emit more than 30 kilograms of carbon dioxide in its “lifetime.”56 Would you feel better knowing your favorite jeans released toxic chemicals and microplastics into our waterways too?57 This is just a tiny example of how the fast fashion industry impacts a vital human resource. Of the world’s wastewater, 20 percent stems from the life cycle processes of the fashion industry.58 The industry also con-sumes around 215 trillion liters of water per year, holding second place as the largest consumer of water.59 Material production of fibers used in the supply chain process has had the largest impact on freshwater withdrawal, causing extensive damage to our drinking supply.60 A. Our Human Right i. United Nations In 2010, the United Nations officially recognized the human right to water.61 Resolution 64/292 acknowledged clean drinking water and sanita-tion as essentials for leading a human life in dignity.62 The right to water entitles everyone access to safe, sufficient, physically accessible and afford-able water for personal and domestic use.63 The government has an obliga-tion to respect, protect and fulfill this right.64 If the government has an ob-ligation to do so, legislation should exist to enforce and protect this right in all participating jurisdictions. However, the standard exists as “progressive 56.Higg Facility Tools: Standardizing the Measurement of Social and Environmental Im-pacts in Facilities, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoalition.org/higg-facility-tools/ [https://perma.cc/SC98-EKZX]. 57.Beardsley, supra note 37. 58.María Fleischmann, How Much Do Our Wardrobes Cost to the Environment?, WORLD BANK (Sept. 23, 2019), https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2019/09/23/costo-moda-medio-ambiente [https://perma.cc/F3KP-A3RJ]. 59.Textile Industry, supra note 10. 60.Maiti, supra note 52. 61.G.A. Res. 64/292, ¶ 1 (July 28, 2010). 62.Id. 63.Human Rights to Water and Sanitation, U.N. WATER, https://www.unwater.org/wa-ter-facts/human-rights/ [https://perma.cc/T2C7-J7GJ]. 64.See Human Rights, SAFE DRINKING WATER FOUND., https://www.safewater.org/fact-sheets-1/2017/1/23/human-rights [https://perma.cc/R87L-B4YS]. 10https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 147 realization.”65 There is no human rights violation if governments are making strides to provide such.66 There is a large gray area when it comes to deter-mining what is effective enough in providing governmental assistance to the right to water. The question becomes: How broad does this power reach? ii. The United States: California and New York There exists no American right to water. It is not stated in the Bill of Rights or Constitution.67 However, the existence of the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act alludes to the fundamental importance and right, without concretely stating it.68 California was the first state to recognize the human right to water in 2012,69 stating “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable and accessible water adequate for human consump-tion, cooking and sanitary purposes.”70 In 2019, the state set aside $1.4 bil-lion dollars to ensure, over the next 11 years, residents have access to af-fordable, clean water.71 As of November 2021, New Yorkers voted to amend the state’s consti-tution to include the right “to clean air and water, and a healthful environ-ment.”72 What this signifies is not necessarily clear, especially regarding leg-islation and court decisions going forward.73 However, it provides an opportunity to hold the state government accountable to consider our en-vironment when acting.74 This amendment now allows New Yorker’s to bring a legal cause of action to protect their water rights.75 65.Brian Palmer, Is Water a Human Right?, NRDC (Mar. 3, 2016), https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/water-human-right [https://perma.cc/4VCF-8FXE]. 66.Id. 67.Wilfredo Lopez, Access to Water is an American Human Right, PACE INT’L L. REV. BLOG (Aug. 14, 2017), https://pilr.blogs.pace.edu/2017/08/14/access-to-water-is-an-american-human-right/ [https://perma.cc/LP3W-VLCW]. 68.Palmer, supra note 65. 69.Lopez, supra note 67. 70.CAL. WATER CODE § 106.3(a) (West 2022). 71.See Alesandra Nájera & Juliet Christian-Smith, California Becomes First State to Fund Human Right to Water, WATER FOUND. (July 24, 2019), https://waterfdn.org/california-becomes-first-state-to-fund-human-right-to-water/ [https://perma.cc/ZRS8-XYZJ]. 72.Press Release, Earthjustice, Environmental Rights Amendment Passes in New York (Nov. 3, 2021), https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2021/environmental-rights-amend-ment-passes-in-new-york [https://perma.cc/N4E5-CK4W]. 73.Rachel Hellman, What the Right to Clean Air and Water Will Mean for New Yorkers, THE RIVER (Nov. 11, 2021), https://therivernewsroom.com/environmental-rights-amend-ment-prop-2-new-york/ [https://perma.cc/B92W-V3B8]. 74.See New York Proposal 2, Environmental Rights Amendment (2021), BALLOTPEDIA, https://ballotpedia.org/New_York_Proposal_2,_Environmental_Rights_Amend-ment_(2021) [https://perma.cc/QA9G-XVC9]. 75.Id. 11

148 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 B. Microplastics A leading environmental harm of the fast fashion industry on our water rights stems from microplastics. The world consumes nearly “80 billion new pieces of clothing every year.”76 Globally, the industry uses 82 million tons of fiber just in the manufacturing process of clothing.77 Each type of fiber has its own specific way of affecting our water usage; however, together, fiber accounts for “9% of annual microplastic losses to the oceans.”78 Syn-thetic fibers such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, make up about 69 percent of clothing.79 These man-made fibers shed microplastics into water every time they are washed.80 There are 1.5 million tons of microplastics entering our oceans each year, 34.8 percent of which stem from these synthetic ma-terials.81 The more plastic produced the more fossil fuel usage increases, leading to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, directly impacting global warming.82 The full effects of microplastics are not yet known, but so far do not sound promising. They have been found “in everything from beer and table salt to seafood and drinking water.”83 Microplastics are believed to have an extreme effect on the human body. Research has shown microplastic can be inhaled, consumed through food and water and absorbed through our skin.84 Even more disturbing, plastic has been found in our lungs, livers, spleens, kidneys and even in the placenta of newborns.85 It is believed that such exposure to microplastics can impact fertility, hormones, metabolism, and our neurological systems.86 Not only is plastic detrimental to our bodies, but also to biodiversity. Plastic pollution disrupts the ecosystem’s natural processes and ability to 76.Maiti, supra note 52. 77.Poland, supra note 19, at 413–14. 78.Textile Industry, supra note 10. 79.Bryce, supra note 48. 80.Poland, supra note 19, at 415–16. 81.Id. at 416. 82.From Pollution to Solution, UNEP, https://www.unep.org/interactive/pollution-to-solution/ [https://perma.cc/DVD3-SRXF] [hereinafter Pollution to Solution]. 83.Poland, supra note 19, at 416. 84.Pollution to Solution, supra note 83. 85.Id. 86.Press Release, UNEP, Historic Day in the Campaign to Beat Plastic Pollution: Nations Commit to Develop a Legally Binding Agreement (Mar. 2, 2022). 12https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 149 adapt.87 It also interrupts food production capabilities, affecting millions of people and their livelihood.88 The United States has not enacted any fashion specific legislation re-garding microplastics, but has done something similar in the cosmetics in-dustry.89 Microbeads, which are made of plastic, were a large part of cos-metic and personal care items prior to 2015.90 In 2015, the United States banned microbeads as ingredients in these products.91 This action suggests there may be similar legislation passed in the future for microplastics of the fashion industry. i. UNEA-5’s Draft Resolution In March 2022, the United Nations Environmental Assembly-5 (UNEA-5) met in Nairobi to discuss issues following the theme of “Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”92 UNEA-5 aimed to “create momentum for governments to build on and catalyze impact on multilateral environmental efforts to protect and restore the nat-ural world on which our economies and societies depend.”93 In relation to the earth’s water supply, UNEA-5 initiated a historic draft resolution to end plastic pollution through a formal, binding agreement.94 As the fast fashion industry is a large contributor to the amount of microplastic in our water ways, it will be impacted by this resolution. The resolution specifically acknowledges that plastic pollution includes microplastics.95 The draft stresses: The urgent need to strengthen science-policy interface at all levels, improve understanding of the global impact of plastic pollution on the environment, 87.Plastic Pollution, UNEP, https://www.unep.org/plastic-pollution [https://perma.cc/UL3F-4FXM]. 88.Id. 89.See What are Microplastics?, NOAA (Feb. 26, 2021), https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html [https://perma.cc/2N8E-8AZG] (stating that the U.S. signed a ban on plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal care prod-ucts into law that does not apply to fashion products). 90.Id. 91.Id.; see also H.R. 1321, 114th Cong. (1st Sess. 2015) (enacted). 92.Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, U.N. ENV’T ASSEMBLY, https://www.unep.org/environmentassembly/unea5 [https://perma.cc/V9X9-D5HE]. 93.Id. 94.See What You Need to Know About the Plastic Pollution Resolution, UNEP (Mar. 2, 2022), https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/what-you-need-know-about-plastic-pollution-resolution [https://perma.cc/HB6K-P678]. 95.UNEP Res. EA.5/L.23/Rev.1, at 1 (Mar. 2, 2022) (representing the first draft of the plastic pollution resolution). 13

150 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 and promote effective and progressive actions at the local, regional and global level, recognizing the important role of plastics for society . . . .96 The draft speaks to the importance of pushing forward sustainable ma-terials and products to promote a no-waste supply chain cycle.97 Products and materials “[should be] retained in the economy for as long as possible along with the resources they are made of . . . [to] minimiz[e] the generation of waste. . . .”98 The draft emphasizes the importance of starting local and expanding outwards.99 It recognizes every country has their own particular set of circumstances that relate to their contribution of microplastics, there-fore, they are in the best position to decide how to tackle plastic pollution in their jurisdiction.100 Further, the draft states international action is nec-essary by developing a specific binding instrument regarding plastic pollu-tion.101 The intergovernmental negotiating committee is set to lay out pro-visions of a binding instrument that include various ways to specify, promote, develop and assess plastic pollution.102 Similar provisions that have been seen elsewhere in fashion-based legislation include: circular economy approaches, resource efficiency, country-driven approaches, sup-porting of regional cooperation, reporting of progress of implementation of instruments, scientific and socio-economic assessments, addressing compli-ance, and creating financial mechanisms to support implementation.103 While there is no singular solution, the goal remains the same: to re-duce the use of plastics and stop their flow into our water sources.104 This draft is a large steppingstone to international collaboration regarding plastic pollution to our water, not just in the fashion industry, but beyond. C. Levi’s: Water<Less Remember your favorite pair of jeans? Hopefully they are Levi’s, as the brand has been a significant leader in not only the jeans industry, but the fashion industry as a whole. Levi’s has done its own due diligence by taking steps towards transparency and responsibility, environmentally and 96.Id. 97.Id. 98.Id. 99.Id. 100.UNEP Res. EA.5/L/23/Rev.1, at 2 (Mar. 2, 2022) (representing the first draft of the plastic pollution resolution). 101.Id. 102.Id. ¶ 3(a)–(d). 103.Id. ¶¶ 3(a), 3(d)–(e), 3(i), 3(k), 3(p), 4(b). 104.See generally Pollution to Solution, supra note 82. 14https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 151 socially. Levi’s has acted ahead of regulatory measures by taking matters into their own hands to initiate important trends in corporate responsibility. Levi’s has committed to reducing supply chain emissions by 40 percent at a 2025 target through their Climate Action Strategy.105 This strategy scales water recycling and reusage in the manufacturing process by using only as much it would naturally replenish, wherever they operate.106 Their commitments include reducing their manufacturing use of water by 50 per-cent and having their fabric and garment suppliers comply with their Wa-ter<Less targets.107 Levi’s initiative sets realistic goals through their Wa-ter<Less program, allowing for collective action from other retailers in the industry to join in. Levi’s was the first apparel company to do a comprehensive analysis of a garment’s “cradle-to-grave” environmental impact in 2007.108 This analy-sis highlighted their own contribution, but could also be used to predict other brand’s output in the industry.109 Levi’s measured the percentage of lifecycle water consumption by phase in the process of making a single pair of jeans. The results concluded: 68 percent was from the textile itself (the fiber); 23 percent from consumer care (the washing and drying of the jeans), and 9 percent for fabric production, packaging and sewing.110 To combat the considerable textile consumption, Levi’s partnered with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) in 2010.111 BCI educates cotton farmers on how to yield their cotton supply while drawing back their water and chemi-cal usage.112 As of 2018, BCI has contributed to 67 percent of Levi’s cotton supply in the use of their apparel.113 Levi’s continues to support the move-ment by setting a target of using 100 percent BCI cotton in the near fu-ture.114 In terms of manufacturing, Levi’s created the Water<Less program in 2011 to help combat the excessive use of water during the creation pro-cess.115 Water<Less is a program based on various technological innovations that helped reduce water consumption during the manufacturing process in 105.LEVI STRAUSS & CO., CLIMATE ACTION STRATEGY 2025 2 (2018). 106.LEVI STRAUSS & CO., 2025 WATER ACTION STRATEGY 2 (2019). 107.Id. 108.Id. at 4. 109.Id. at 9. 110.LEVI STRAUSS & CO., supra note 107, at 4 fig.. 111.Id. at 4. 112.Id. 113.Id. 114.Id. at 8. 115.LEVI STRAUSS & CO., supra note 107, at 5. 15

152 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 comparison to traditional methods.116 One large focus is the removal of haz-ardous chemicals in the process of dying, contributing to the reduction of pollution into our water streams caused by such activity.117 Water<Less is a program Levi’s has been open about with its competitors, showcasing their true commitment to have a larger impact, not just focusing on profit.118 Since the initiation of Water<Less, Levi’s has saved over four billion liters of water.119 As a large and profitable company, Levi’s has been a figurehead in re-vamping the way retailers produce clothing. They are a prime example of how sustainable measures can be achievable with focus and genuine inten-tion of change. IV. SUSTAINABILITY: ACCORDING TO WHO? A. Sustainability Defined In 1987, Our Common Future, a report created by the World Commis-sion on Environment and Development with the United Nations, defined sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”120 This definition is ambiguous as the Environmental Law Institute stated it “must be overcome if governmental and private-sector decision-makers are to optimize the concept’s potential.”121 Lack of concrete definition also arises with environmental “buzzwords” such as: green, eco-friendly, sustain-able, responsibly-made, etc.122 There is no single legal definition for these words. Therein the definition lies subjectiveness, creating a lack of overall standard, allowing companies to create their own definitions. 116.Id. 117.See, e.g., id. 118.See id. 119.Brooke Bryant, Circularity Comes to Life Through Water Recycling, LEVI STRAUSS & CO.: UNZIPPED BLOG (Mar. 22, 2021), https://www.levistrauss.com/2021/03/22/circularity-comes-to-life-through-water-recycling/ [https://perma.cc/2YK4-KNYX]. 120.The Problem with Sustainability? It Doesn’t Really Mean Anything, THE FASHION L. (Aug. 12, 2019), https://www.thefashionlaw.com/the-problem-with-sustainability-it-doesnt-really-mean-anythingnbsp/ [https://perma.cc/2WPU-ULXW] [hereinafter TFL Prob-lem]. 121.Id. 122.Id. 16https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 153 B. Greenwashing Greenwashing is defined as “the corporate practice of making diverting sustainability claims to cover a questionable environmental record.”123 Greenwashing was popularized in the late 1980s when consumers received their information from the same media sources that retailers ran slick, bor-derline false advertising through.124 It is a “harmful and deceitful way of ad-vertising that a company is more sustainable than it actually is.”125 To-gether, the limited access to correct information has allowed retailers to be hypocritical as they engage in unsustainable practices by default of these misleading advertisements.126 It is hard to decipher whether a fashion brand is actually taking the steps to initiate change or if they are just slapping a few environmentally pleasing words to their advertisements. The ways in which fashion compa-nies greenwash include: “outright deception, subtle advertising, and . . . am-bitious claims without full transparency around the actual impacts.”127 Spe-cifically, retailers may state grand energy efficient initiatives at their office space, mention eco-friendly packaging, and creation of “sustainable” collec-tions, yet, fail to state any method of tracking initiatives to meet these sus-tainable goals.128 As the industry accounts for a high volume of trade in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission released a guide for Use of Environ-mental Marketing Claims in 2012.129 The guide provides information about how to not deceive customers when making claims about fashion brands’ environmental efforts.130 As useful as it may sound, it again holds the com-mon trend of lacking in any degree of specificity.131 Broad definitions and 123.Bruce Watson, The Troubling Evolution of Corporate Greenwashing, THE GUARDIAN (Aug. 20, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/20/green-washing-environmentalism-lies-companies [https://perma.cc/G9KF-Z2J8]. 124.Id. 125.Deena Robinson, 10 Companies Called Out For Greenwashing, EARTH.ORG (July 17, 2022), https://earth.org/greenwashing-companies-corpora-tions/#:~:text=H%26M%2C%20Zara%20and%20Uniqlo%20are,caused%20by%20the%20clothing%20industry [https://perma.cc/PM94-JHB2]. 126.See, e.g., Watson, supra note 123. 127.Solene Rauturier, Greenwashing Examples: 8 Notorious Fast Fashion Claims and Campaigns, GOOD ON YOU (Jan. 21, 2022), https://goodonyou.eco/greenwashing-exam-ples/#:~:text=H%26M’s%20Looop%20campaign&text=Recy-cling%20a%20few%20items%20and,greater%20accountability%20for%20its%20actions [https://perma.cc/NBD5-WN2D]. 128.See id. (describing use of these practices across various “greenwashed” brands). 129.16 C.F.R. § 260 (2012). 130.TFL Problem, supra note 120. 131.Id. 17

154 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 explanations are one of many reasons why fast fashion retailers have not been held accountable for false advertising, despite the clear violations they have committed.132 There is a critical need for concrete legislative defini-tions to be implemented and tested against retailers’ environmental poli-cies. If a higher standard is applied, many companies will be forced to amend and rebuild their policies to withstand these definitions.133 C. Examples of Greenwashing “Sustainable” clothing collections are often used to disguise the fact that these collections account for a very small portion of the production re-tailers actually do.134 United Kingdom fast fashion brand, Boohoo, offers a “sustainable” collection, yet the materials used include acrylic (a harsh plas-tic known for its detrimental environmental effects).135 H&M released a “Conscious” collection that wound up having a higher amount of synthetic fiber than their regular fast fashion collections.136 Zara launched a “Join Life” collection and pledged to eliminate the use of toxic chemicals in 2020.137 However, the reduction in use of harmful materials is not enough to be sus-tainable in the big picture. The activities used to create and process these collections are still causing major environmental damage.138 V. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? Home to the elite fashion capitals of the world, the United States and Europe are the two superpowers to analyze first. In the United States, the federal legislative system lacks any fashion industry specific regulation. This leaves the states with an opportunity to influence the federal government by creating their own legislation. Europe is a prime example of this as Ger-many and France have both impacted the European Union to investigate the 132.Id.; see, e.g., H&M Accused of Destroying 60 Tons of Recyclable Garments in Dan-ish TV Investigation, THE FASHION L. (Nov. 25, 2017), https://www.thefashionlaw.com/hm-ac-cused-of-destroying-over-60-tons-of-recyclable-garments-in-danish-tv-investigation/ [https://perma.cc/D6CH-VNTY]. 133.TFL Problem, supra note 120. 134.See, e.g., Rauturier, supra note 127 (describing ASOS’ circular line example). 135.Id. 136.Sally Ho, Nearly 60% of Sustainable Fashion Claims Are Greenwashing, Report Finds, GREEN QUEEN (July 10, 2021), https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/fashion-brands-sus-tainability-claims-greenwashing/ [https://perma.cc/84RV-XG4P]. 137.Alex Assoune, Fast Fashion Brand Accused of Greenwashing, PANAPRIUM https://www.panaprium.com/blogs/i/fast-fashion-brands-accused-of-greenwashing [https://perma.cc/69GU-ZRGX]. 138.Id. 18https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 155 matter of supply chain transparency further.139 If a member, or a few mem-bers, are putting forth legislation in the realm of fashion, it should draw at-tention of higher authority to consider its own regulatory enactment. A. The United States: State Action i. New York’s Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act New York City is one of the fashion capitals of the world. As a highly influential actor in the industry, it has the utmost power to launch change. New York has recently taken the first step out of all states to implement fashion specific legislation to combat the industry’s harmful environmental and social effects. The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act was sponsored by New York State Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assembly Member Dr. Anna Kelles, and drafted with the help of various nonprofit or-ganizations and key actors of the industry.140 Biaggi states that this bill “. . . ties together all of these components that we’ve seen [exist separately] in other places.”141 Introduced in October 2021, the proposed Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (“Act”) would “[require] fashion retail sellers and manufacturers to disclose environmental and social due diligence policies . . . .”142 These due diligence policies are described as “identify[ing], pre-vent[ing], [mitigating] and account[ing] for how [companies] address actual and potential adverse impacts in their own operations, their supply chain and other business relationships . . . .”143 Noncompliance with the Act would result in civil liability or heavy fines which would be placed in a benefit 139.See sources cited infra note 192 and note 206. 140.Alzate, supra note 20; Halper et al., supra note 20 (listing industry actors, includ-ing: the New Standard Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York City Environ-mental Justice Alliance, and designer Stella McCarthy). 141.Cernansky, supra note 28. 142.Assemb. B. 8352, 245th Leg., Reg. Sess. (N.Y. 2021) (in committee); Mackenzie S. Schoonmaker et al., New York Proposes to Require Sustainability Reporting for the Fashion Industry, NAT’L LAW REV. (Jan. 12, 2022), https://www.natlawreview.com/article/new-york-proposes-to-require-sustainability-reporting-fashion-industry#:~:text=On%20Janu-ary%207%2C%202022%2C%20Senator,going%20towards%20a%20fund%20to [https://perma.cc/B4EP-JWD8]; see generally Roxanne Robinson, Fashion Industry Reacts To New York Sustainability Legislation That Could Upend Transparency Practices, FORBES (Jan. 11, 2022), https://www.forbes.com/sites/roxannerobinson/2022/01/11/fashion-industry-re-acts-to-new-york-sustainability-legislation-that-could-upend-transparency-prac-tices/?sh=1a6f381739b3 [https://perma.cc/XB4Q-64EG]. 143.N.Y. Assemb. B. 8352 § 2. 19

156 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 fund for the state’s environmental justice community.144 It is the first, groundbreaking piece of legislation in the United States that would require companies to set and achieve targets backed by science and not company standards.145 This Act would be setting a wave of precedent, denoting the lack of transparency in the industry. The Act would apply to global apparel and footwear companies doing principal business in New York who earn more than 100 million dollars in worldwide gross revenue.146 Several luxury companies would be amongst the first entitled to report. Kering, parent company of Gucci, Bottega Ve-neta, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and other high fashion designers, has already begun similar reporting, having announced a 2025 Sustainability Strategy in 2017 (first reporting in 2020.)147 Since they have already begun reporting, complying in New York does not seem like an outrageous burden. Disclosure under the Act is to be provided in various ways. The specifics ask for due diligence and corporate responsibility measures and solutions, including supply chain mapping and environmental impact reporting.148 Companies, in good faith, must map at least 50 percent of their suppliers, from beginning to end of their supply chain, specifically identifying names.149 They would also be required to develop and disclose figures that relate to their social and environmental impact, further implementing and describing solid plans to combat their impact and reach sustainable tar-gets.150 Disclosure will be shared on the company website within 18 months of initiation of these policies and processes.151 There must also be a tracking mechanism in place for areas of significant risk to keep companies respon-sible in preventing or mitigating such.152 With this, New York is requiring companies to recognize, reflect and revamp. Current company reports, when they exist, stem from inconsistent, in-compatible standards that are not factually checked.153 The standards of 144.Id. (The “community” the bill refers to here is to be determined by the Comptroller with the consultation from the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Labor and relevant stakeholders). 145.Robinson, supra note 142. 146.Id.; N.Y. Assemb. B. 8352 § 2 (requiring a high level of revenue for the Act to apply to certain businesses, which is standard in other legislation internationally). 147.Halper et al., supra note 20. 148.Robinson, supra note 142. 149.N.Y. Assemb. B. 8352 § 2. 150.Id. 151.Id. 152.Id. 153.LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUNDER, supra note 3; Pucker, supra note 39 (statement from Business of Fashion report) (“With no standardized language or related frameworks, deci-phering what companies are actually doing is extremely challenging.”). Most CSR reports do 20https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 157 reporting under this Act are held to align with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard, International Labor Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.154 The goals of the Paris Agreement are in line with Science Based Targets, a part-nership between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),155 working towards the goal of limiting global warming to a temperature of 1.5°C.156 These standards would allow for a uniform measure, leveling the playing field to avoid competitive advantage. The Act provides for a periodic check-in after 18 months on prioritized adverse environmental and social impacts.157 This includes emissions re-porting on climate reduction targets (estimating timelines and benchmarks), volume of materials produced, production of recycled materials, and labor rights.158 In terms of labor reporting, companies must show median wages and how theirs compare to other local minimum and living wages.159 Emis-sions reporting will be independently verified and must meet the standards of the World Resources Institute.160 The Attorney General is the governmental authority that would en-force disclosure, making public a list of companies in compliance and viola-tion.161 Companies who appear on this list risk facing hardship from stake-holders in terms of how they are handling the environmental challenges.162 Pressure can also come from their consumer base.163 The Attorney General, as well as the public, can bring an action for civil liability against companies who are in violation.164 Companies have a three-month period to meet their not accurately quantify the full carbon emissions profile of fashion brands and remain unau-dited by external parties. 154.LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUNDER, supra note 3; Gall, supra note 3. 155.See generally About Us, SCI. BASED TARGETS, https://sciencebasedtargets.org/about-us [https://perma.cc/9P3J-4XVC] (last visited Oct. 24, 2022). 156.LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUNDER, supra note 3; see Cernansky, supra note 28; The Paris Agreement, UNFCCC, https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement [https://perma.cc/5R8R-ZZHW] (last visited Oct. 24, 2022) (explaining that the Paris Agreement is the first legally binding international treaty on climate change entered into force in 2016. To implement the agreement, countries submit Nationally Determined Contributions, which are plans to reduce their Greenhouse Gas Emissions.). 157.N.Y. Assemb. B. 8352 § 2. 158.Id. 159.Id. 160.Id. 161.N.Y. Assemb. B. 8352 § 2. 162.Halper et al., supra note 20. 163.Id. 164.Id. 21

158 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 obligations if in violation, and if they do not, they can be charged a fine up to 2 percent of their annual global revenue.165 These fines would be placed in an environmental justice community fund for various uses as seen fit.166 Any citizen of the state is also allowed to commence a civil action against any person who is alleged to have violated this Act, and against the Attorney General, either to urge them to investigate an entity’s compliance or for fail-ing to investigate and impose penalties on an entity.167 New York State itself has a target to reduce its’ own environmental emissions by 85 percent by 2050.168 This legislation will become a tell-tale sign of which companies are willing and passionate about change and which were just cutting corners to please the new sustainability “hype.” This Act could make influential change in other industries as well, taking steps to-wards a circular economy. a. Critiques One critique of the Act is that it does not apply to small businesses, only to large retailers with immense global revenue. However, the Act in and of itself should influence smaller businesses to consider their own supply chain transparency. The Act should be expanded onto smaller businesses with less revenue in a reasonable amount of time after initial enactment, mimicking a tier like system.169 Another critique is whether the Act’s transparency requirements will result in significant change.170 One worry is that “companies will simply re-port more publicly on problems that continue to go unsolved,” causing more concern and no real solution since there are no real requirements to fix them.171 “It is a great step forward . . . because the bar is so low . . . the devil is in the details, and the enforcement . . .” shares Semaan, founder of the Slow Factory Foundation.172 In terms of transparency, the Act does not specify which 50 percent of the supply chain to report. Therefore, compa-nies could be dishonest in reporting. It leaves it up to the companies “to use ‘good faith efforts’ to focus on ‘the suppliers and associated supply chains relevant to [their] prioritized risk.’”173 It becomes an issue of trust. However, 165.Id.; Robinson, supra note 142; N.Y. Assemb. B. 8352 § 2. 166.N.Y. Assemb. B. 8352 § 3. 167.Id. § 2. 168.LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUNDER, supra note 3. 169.See discussion infra Part V.B.i-ii. 170.Cernansky, supra note 28. 171.Id. 172.Id. 173.Halper et al., supra note 20. 22https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 159 how are we supposed to know what works if no one even attempts to report potential issues? A large actor in the drafting of this Act has been Maxine Bédat, director of the New Standard Institute.174 Bédat shares “[i]t’s not just about report-ing. It’s about the setting and meeting of these targets . . . [the] language [is] crystal clear within the Science Based Targets component, and we’re looking at amendments to further clarify that . . . .”175 Details around imple-mentation are important because they will ensure reparations and equita-ble benefits will arise from legislative change.176 Competition is another concern. Businesses have always wanted to keep their suppliers and manufacturers confidential, so competitors do not know where products are being sourced from and at what price, thus mak-ing it difficult for them to create identical apparel.177 However, the bill is “pro-business” because competition within businesses would be reduced if they are all dutifully reporting.178 Reporting and standards will allow all companies to compete fairly. Collaborators and drafters of this Act researched, discussed, and brain-stormed with various organizations, academics, and legislators to decide what was the most realistic approach in drafting. In doing so, there was no real fashion standard in the United States law to weigh in on. However, one influential piece of legislation they turned to was California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act.179 ii. California: Transparency in Supply Chains Act California is an example of one of the few jurisdictions that holds ex-tended producer responsibility legislation for their businesses.180 California passed the Transparency in Supply Chains Act in 2012 (“Transparency Act”).181 Although not an environmentally centered piece of legislation, it focuses on labor, one of the social issues revolving around the fashion 174.Cernansky, supra note 28. 175.Id. 176.Id. 177.AMED ET AL., supra note 24, at 64. 178.Halper et al., supra note 20. 179.Zach Lemaster, Human Right in Vogue: How New York’s Proposed Fashion Sustain-ability and Social Accountability Act Could Change the Fashion Industry, IMMIGR. & HUM. RTS. L. REV: THE BLOG (Apr. 24, 2022), https://lawblogs.uc.edu/ihrlr/2022/04/24/human-rights-in-vogue-how-new-yorks-proposed-fashion-sustainability-and-social-accountability-act-could-change-the-fashion-industry/ [https://perma.cc/SAC3-2NSU]. 180.Pucker, supra note 39. 181. KAMALA D. HARRIS, CAL. DEP’T OF JUST., THE CALIFORNIA TRANSPARENCY IN SUPPLY CHAINS ACT: A RESOURCE GUIDE 1 (2015). 23

160 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 industry. The Transparency Act asks retailers and manufacturers to provide information regarding their supply chain so consumers can be alert to who is acting responsibly and who cares about the risks of human trafficking known to occur in the industry.182 The Transparency Act applies to any company with more than 100 mil-lion dollars in annual worldwide gross receipts.183 Disclosure is required for five specific areas: verification, audits, certification, internal accountability, and training.184 Such information is to be posted on the company’s website in a conspicuous way so consumers can have this information readily avail-able.185 The disclosure does not mandate any specific statements about trade secrets or confidential information, but has a standard of providing enough information to inform consumers about their own supply chain pro-cesses.186 The Attorney General can bring an action if a company were to violate the Transparency Act, seeking injunction as a remedy.187 Although not environmentally related, this was the first piece of trans-parency legislation in the United States to directly impact the fashion indus-try, making it a quality starting point in drafting New York’s Act. B. Europe i. France: Duty of Vigilance France is on a path to upholding all industries in its jurisdiction to sup-ply chain transparency. It is working towards a no-waste, circular economy to meet its climate goals.188 This fast implementation and dedication has sparked other jurisdictions, in Europe and beyond, to follow suit. Home to Paris, another fashion capital of the world, France recognizes the impact the fashion industry has on the environment. This proposed sup-ply chain legislation, titled “Projet de loi relati à la lutte contre le gaspillage et à l’éconmoie circulaire” or the “Bill on the fight against waste and the 182.California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, PILLSBURY WINTHROP SHAW PITTMAN LLP 1, https://www.pillsburylaw.com/en/services/california-transparency-in-supply-chains-act.html [https://perma.cc/9EER-EAAL] [hereinafter California Transparency Act]. 183.HARRIS, supra note 181, at 3. 184.Id. at 4. 185.Id. at 5. 186.Id. at 9. 187.California Transparency Act, supra note 182, at 2. 188.New French Legislation Prohibits the Destruction of Unsold Goods, Including Cloth-ing, THE FASHION L. (Feb. 11, 2020), https://www.thefashionlaw.com/new-french-legislation-prohibits-the-destruction-of-unsold-goods-including-clothing/ [https://perma.cc/Q9F7-TZWS] [hereinafter New French Legislation]. 24https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 161 circular economy,” particularly targets the wasteful behavior the industry is guilty of as it constantly renews inventory with a large amount of unsold stock still lying around.189 Unfortunately, it is a popular practice for compa-nies to destroy unsold merchandise in an effort to avoid selling at a dis-counted price.190 It is estimated that roughly 710 million dollars worth of product is destroyed yearly in France alone due to this practice.191 In 2017, the corporate duty of vigilance law was created, placing a legal obligation upon French businesses to implement and publish their own vig-ilance plan to improve corporate social responsibility programs.192 The law applies to: Any company that at the end of two consecutive financial years, employs at least five thousand employees within the company and its direct and indi-rect subsidiaries, whose head office is located on French territory, or that has at least ten thousand employees in its service and in its direct or indirect subsidiaries, whose head office is located on French territory or abroad.193 It is important to recognize that this law holds not only the company accountable, but their agents under their direct and indirect control. This allows for more accountability not just in France, but beyond. The vigilance plan must include reasonable measures on how to iden-tify, prevent and diminish any potential risk of human rights or environmen-tal damage.194 There must be assessment means for risk mapping, planned actions for compliance when risks occur, and monitoring measures to calcu-late efficiency of the measures being taken.195 The plan and its corporate minutes must be available to the public.196 189.Id. 190.Id. 191.Id. 192.France’s Duty of Vigilance Law, BUS. & HUM. RTS. RES. CTR., https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/big-issues/corporate-legal-accountability/frances-duty-of-vigilance-law/ [https://perma.cc/R6FK-YTMR] [hereinafter France Vigilance Law]; What Is the French Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law?, ASSENT, https://www.assent.com/resources/knowledge-article/what-is-the-french-corporate-duty-of-vigilance-law/#:~:text=The%20French%20Cor-porate%20Duty%20of%20Vigilance%20Law%20places%20the%20onus,re-sult%20of%20their%20business%20activities [https://perma.cc/LAA6-JUEK] [hereinafter French Corporate Vigilance Duty]. 193.Eur. Coal. for Corp. Just., French Duty of Vigilance Law – English Translation, BUS. & HUM. RTS. RES. CTR. (Dec. 14, 2016), https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/french-duty-of-vigilance-law-english-translation/ [https://perma.cc/7LKW-JSP4]. 194.French Corporate Vigilance Duty, supra note 192. 195.France Vigilance Law, supra note 192; see also French Corporate Vigilance Duty, supra note 192. 196.See Sarah A. Altschuller & Amy K. Lehr, The French Duty of Vigilance Law: What You Need to Know, FOLEY HOAG LLP: GLOB. BUS. & HUM. RTS. BLOG (Aug. 3, 2017), 25

162 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 In terms of non-compliance, the duty of vigilance law allows for court enforcement, sanctions and civil liability.197 Court enforcement will allow the company three months to comply;198 if not, they could be charged up to 10 million euros for non-compliance and upwards of 30 million euros for harmful effects that could have been prevented had there existed a plan.199 How effective has the duty of vigilance law been since 2017? According to a February 2022 Report by the French Parliament, there lies some ambi-guity and need for stricter standards.200 The Report speaks of a few critiques and recommendations that could be helpful in revising this legislation and the formation of legislation in other jurisdictions. The first lies in terms of standards: What standards should companies refer to? What triggers a company to investigate their agents? What are “serious” enough violations? What is adequate in a company’s internal vig-ilance system?201 Due to subjectiveness, French case law has not yet deter-mined these answers.202 The Report seeks to maintain broad definitions so pressure is placed on large companies to comply and to avoid the risk of companies just acting in a “purely procedural” manner “by which companies would simply check predetermined boxes to comply . . . without effectively considering the scope of potential . . . risks that their activities may entail.”203 In terms of broadening the law, the Report suggests both lowering the employee re-quirement of companies and requiring company turnover to be a factor.204 In suggestion for better implementation, the Report provides ways in which harmonized vigilance plans can be created and proposes having a govern-mental authority overlook the application of the vigilance statute.205 https://www.globalbusinessandhumanrights.com/2017/08/03/the-french-duty-of-vigi-lance-law-what-you-need-to-know/ [https://perma.cc/PD2B-YJXS]. 197.France Vigilance Law, supra note 192. 198.French Corporate Vigilance Duty, supra note 192. 199.EUR. COAL. FOR CORP. JUST., FRENCH CORPORATE DUTY OF VIGILANCE LAW: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (2017), http://corporatejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/french-corpo-rate-duty-of-vigilance-law-faq-1.pdf [https://perma.cc/5PYG-C4HA]. 200.Elise Auvray et al., French Parliament Publishes Evaluation Report on Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law, LATHAM & WATKINS LLP (Mar. 18, 2022), https://www.jdsupra.com/le-galnews/french-parliament-publishes-evaluation-4234155/ [https://perma.cc/MZ5L-WB67]. 201.Id. 202.Id. 203.Id. 204.Id. (explaining that large companies under French law are entities with at least 1.5 billion euros or a balance sheet total of at least 2 billion euros). 205.Auvray et al., supra note 200. 26https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 163 ii. Germany: Supply Chain Due Diligence Act Germany has its own supply chain compliance law set to take full effect in January 2023.206 The legislation is meant to “prevent or minimize risks related to human rights or the environment or end the violation of duties related to human rights or the environment.”207 The law is set to impact companies with a head office in Germany, with over 3,000 employees;208 then after two years, it will apply to companies with more than 1,000 employees.209 The law focuses on supply chain trans-parency for the company itself and their direct suppliers, but not its indirect agents.210 Indirect agents would be included on a case-by-case basis de-pending on the amount of substantial knowledge the head company had of the violation.211 Compliance is to be submitted to the Federal Office for Eco-nomic Affairs and Export Control.212 Environmental related risks are defined in the legislation as “a situation in which there is a sufficient degree of probability based on factual indica-tions that a violation of [the following provisions occurred].”213 Such provi-sions look to various conventions that have introduced harms and estab-lished standards: the Minamata Convention (spoke on mercury added products), the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollution (refer-enced production and use of chemicals), and the Basel Convention (dis-cussed hazardous waste).214 206.See Paul A. Davies, Stefan Bartz & Alexander Wilhelm, New German Law Aims To Strengthen Global Human and Environmental Rights, LATHAM & WATKINS LLP: ENV’T, SOC. & GOVERNANCE (June 30, 2021), https://www.globalelr.com/2021/06/new-german-law-aims-to-strengthen-global-human-and-environmental-rights/ [https://perma.cc/F5W3-Z7KR]. 207.Germany: New Law Obligates Companies to Establish Due Diligence Procedures in Global Supply Chains to Safeguard Human Rights and the Environment, LIBR. OF CONG. (Aug. 17, 2021), https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2021-08-17/germany-new-law-obligates-companies-to-establish-due-diligence-procedures-in-global-supply-chains-to-safe-guard-human-rights-and-the-environment/#:~:text=Germany%3A%20New%20Law%20Ob-ligates%20Companies,the%20Environment%20%7C%20Library%20of%20Congress [https://perma.cc/8QTM-ZUCG] [hereinafter Germany New Law]. 208.Id. 209.Id.; Press Release, Int’l Fed’n for Hum. Rts,, Germany: Call for an Improvement of the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (Nov. 15, 2021), https://www.fidh.org/en/issues/global-isation-human-rights/germany-call-for-an-improvement-of-the-supply-chain-due-diligence-act [https://perma.cc/W7MA-3QJV]. 210.Davies, Bartz & Wilhelm, supra note 206. 211.Id. 212.German Parliament Passes Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence Law, BUS. & HUM. RTS. RES. CTR. (June 16, 2021), https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/german-due-diligence-law/ [https://perma.cc/2CVA-AYW7]. 213.Germany New Law, supra note 207. 214.Id. 27

164 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 There is no civil liability imputed upon these companies if in viola-tion.215 If one wants to sue a company, they must meet a legal interest level of “paramount importance,” then reach out to a non-government agency or trade union to bring forward a suit on their behalf.216 This procedure leaves damages and remedies unaccounted for, only the threat of fines and possi-bly public procurement.217 Fines can range from two percent of global rev-enue for companies that make over 400 million euros annually.218 In com-parison to France, Germany’s due diligence law seems to be held to a lower standard, indicating a slower approach to implementation of true supply chain transparency. iii. European Union As of February 2022, the European Commission has pushed this lack of transparency issue to the head of its agenda. Following in the footsteps of France and Germany, the Commission is looking to target large companies operating within their realm by enacting disclosure laws for environmental violations and human right abuses related to supply chains.219 The proposal announced was entitled “Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Dili-gence.”220 The draft applies to companies with over 500 employees that have an annual revenue of over 150 million euros.221 The plan is to be im-plemented at a high gross level and after two years, start implementation to smaller business in “high-impact sectors.”222 The due diligence includes similarities to New York’s Act and France’s Duty of Vigilance, requiring “[public identification of] ‘actual and potential’ adverse impacts on the en-vironment and/or human rights of the operations of not only the company itself and its subsidiaries, but also ‘value chain operations carried out by 215.Davies, Bartz & Wilhelm, supra note 206. 216.Germany New Law, supra note 207. 217.Id. 218.Id. 219.Monika Pronczuk, Companies in the E.U. Could Be Held Liable for Violations Along Their Supply Chain, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 23, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/busi-ness/economy/eu-supply-chain-violations.html [https://perma.cc/R495-W94E]; Paul A. Da-vies, Michael D. Green & James Bee, European Commission Proposes New Supply Chain Due Diligence Rules for Large Companies, LATHAM & WATKINS LLP: ENV’T, SOC. & GOVERNANCE (Feb. 24, 2022), https://www.globalelr.com/2022/02/european-commission-proposes-new-supply-chain-due-diligence-rules-for-large-companies/ [https://perma.cc/H8H3-UXLB]. 220.Davies, Green & Bee, supra note 219. 221.Pronczuk, supra note 219. 222.Id.; see Davies, Green & Bee, supra note 219, tbl. (discussing the types of compa-nies that fall into the scope of the Directive). 28https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 165 entities with which the company has an established business relation-ship.’”223 It also includes typical implementation of protective measures to prevent and mitigate potential risks, as well as a list of procedures the com-pany would need to take when acting in regard to their supply chain.224 The Commission would give member states two years to create national legisla-tion that would allow for implementation of this plan.225 On March 30th, 2022, the Commission announced further strategies on how to make a circular economy the norm through the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation.226 The goal is to create a common ap-proach with set standards to “level [the] playing field” for all members.227 The proposal “[sets] minimum criteria not only for energy efficiency but also for circularity and an overall reduction of the environmental and climate footprint of products.”228 The requirements include life-cycle environmen-tal impact, restrictions on certain substances, energy use and efficiency in creation, product durability, reusability, minimum recycled content in prod-ucts, amongst more.229 An interesting component of the proposal includes a Digital Product Passport that would allow for products to be “tagged, iden-tified and linked to data relevant to their circularity and sustainability.”230 Specifically regarding textiles, the Commission plans to use this passport and labeling to help confront the issues textiles bring to the picture.231 The Com-mission recognizes that “[a] clear and harmonized regulatory framework on product environmental sustainability will provide the conditions for this ap-proach to become mainstream and drive companies . . . to innovate and in-vest in circular business models and the products of tomorrow.”232 There-fore, they speak to aligning with existing and future legislation and policies member states have created, as well as promoting their ideas globally through the UN.233 223.Davies, Green & Bee, supra note 219. 224.Id. 225.Id. 226.Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions on Making Sus-tainable Products the Norm, at 10, COM (2022) 140 final (Mar. 30, 2022) [hereinafter Com-munication on Sustainable Products]. 227.Id. at 2. 228.Id. 229.Id. at 5. 230.Id. 231.Communication on Sustainable Products, supra note 226, at 5. 232.Id. at 3. 233.Id. at 6, 13. 29

166 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 C. Non-Regulatory Actors While many non-regulatory organizations and their initiatives for sup-ply chain transparency exist, two rise above the rest. At an international level, the United Nations is a powerful actor in impacting change and setting the tone for how the world works collaboratively. The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is a notable non-regulatory organization that also functions at an international level. It has created a brilliant method of measurement for transparency and sustainability in the industry through its Higgs Index tool.234 One downfall of non-regulatory actors is that while a large set of play-ers are brought to the table, and collaborative pushed initiatives are being put forward, membership remains voluntary. There lies no legal conse-quences or obligation for actors in this industry to be reprimanded or par-ticipate. However, an upside is that such collaboration brings forward ideas and initiatives that can aid regulatory actors in researching what works best when it comes to drafting and enforcing legislation. i. UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion Within the past several years, the UN has taken steps to help combat the growing environmental threats the fast fashion industry produces. In early 2018, several UN organizations discussed the lack of coherence and knowledge on the many ways in which the UN was addressing social and environmental sustainability issues in the fashion industry.235 In 2019, the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion (“Alliance”) was created.236 Comprised of various task-forces, a collaborative effort was created to eliminate envi-ronmental consequences by identifying solutions and gaps in actions, then presenting these findings to generate governmental policy.237 Its scope extends from production of raw materials and manufacturing of garments to their distribution, consumption, and disposal.238 It captivates the whole life cycle. The Alliance’s objectives include: promoting active col-laboration, knowledge sharing, strengthening of synergies, as well as out-reach and advocacy.239 The goals of this Alliance are a part of the UN’s 234.Sustainable Apparel Coalition, The Higg Index, YOUTUBE (Apr. 5, 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK-Or8yIffU [https://perma.cc/2WXV-JEPS] [hereinaf-ter Higg Index Video]. 235.MEIER, supra note 6, at 4. 236.Id. 237.UNEP Press Release, supra note 36. 238.MEIER, supra note 6, at 4. 239.Id. 30https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 167 overall 17 Sustainable Development Goals as all interconnect at a transna-tional level.240 This Alliance creates a common platform allowing UN agen-cies to work collaboratively, utilizing each other’s resources.241 President of the UN Environmental Assembly stated this collaboration is not a “limitation . . . but rather a trigger for bringing real creativity and passion into the in-dustry.”242 In 2021, the Alliance set forth a synthesis report of more than 50 of their fashion related initiatives from 10 member alliances and 19 with non-members alliances.243 The report makes recommendations and brainstorms how to possibly address future issues. The three largest issues being: “[s]tronger governance and policies to drive change, [c]ollaboration and fi-nancing to implement solutions [and] [c]hange in consumption habits.”244 Looking forward, the Alliance will continue to work with other UN groups and members in goals that will also impact the fashion industry. An example of a collaborative initiative to be taken is with the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration which will aim to prevent, halt, and reverse degradation of the ecosystem on land and sea.245 This will impact the fashion industry in terms of raw materials like cotton cultivation, agricultural residues, and microbial fibers.246 ii. Sustainable Apparel Coalition The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is a global, multi-stakeholder, non-profit alliance for the consumer goods industry.247 At creation in 2009, its mission was to transform business for exponential impact through groundbreaking tools, collaborative partnerships and trusted leadership for 240.See United Nations Releases Special 2020 Broadcast Calling for Collective Action, U.N. (Sept. 18, 2020), https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2020/09/united-nations-releases-special-2020-broadcast-calling-for-collective-action/ [https://perma.cc/RH46-7ED8] (listing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals); see also MEIER, supra note 6, at 7. 241.UNEP Press Release, supra note 36. 242.Id. 243.MEIER, supra note 6, at 6 (demonstrating some of the initiatives, including: com-munications campaigns, knowledge repositories, multi-stakeholder initiatives, private sector partnerships, corporate responsibility campaigns, development cooperation projects, value chain development projects, labeling schemes and tools). 244.Id. at 33–34 tbl. (providing the key needs with various bullet points on how there is opportunity for the UN agency to share expertise amongst the industry). 245.Id. at 35. 246.Id. 247.The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoali-tion.org/the-sac/# [https://perma.cc/4ELW-B4AC ] (last visited Oct. 28, 2022) [hereinafter Apparel Coalition]. 31

168 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 industry sustainability.248 SAC has more than 250 global members spanning from retailers, manufacturers, academic institutions, affiliates, govern-ments and non-governmental organizations.249 Some major member names include: Amazon, Crocs, Disney, H&M, Levi’s, Macy’s, and Nike.250 SAC “pro-vides a framework for sustainable production by which companies can measure their social and environmental impact[s].”251 In 2011, SAC created a tool called the “Higg Index” that generates a value of standardized meas-urement for chain sustainability for brands, retailers, and manufacturers.252 The Higgs Index is composed of five different tools. The Brand and Re-tail Module assesses the social and environmental performance at the cor-porate level.253 This module assesses the “life cycle stages of a product as it goes through a company’s operations, identifying sustainability risks and im-pacts . . . .”254 Identification is determined through management systems, supply chain, packaging, use and end of use, retail stores, offices, transpor-tation and distribution centers.255 This in turn allows corporate retailers to institute firm social responsibility strategies and practices.256 The Materials Sustainability Index (MSI) measures the environmental impact of the materials being used, helping actors make environmentally conscious decisions.257 The index covers inception at raw material extrac-tion, raw material processing, and material production.258 The index con-sists of 90-plus example materials which can be compared to one an-other.259 Following MSI, the Product Module (PM) determines the overall envi-ronmental impact from the inception of the product to the end of its life; 248.See generally Our Origins, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoali-tion.org/origins/ [https://perma.cc/N8XJ-6VJ9]. 249.Our Members, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoalition.org/members/ [https://perma.cc/265Y-3TEM]. 250.Id. 251.Huckle, supra note 9. 252.See Apparel Coalition, supra note 247. 253.See Higg Index Video, supra note 234. 254.Higg Brand & Retail Module, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoali-tion.org/higg-brand-tool/ [https://perma.cc/5UTJ-VM7U]. 255.Id. 256.Id. 257.See Higg Index Video, supra note 234. 258.Press Release, Sustainable Apparel Coal., Completed Product Module Marks a Ma-jor Milestone for the Higg Index, Delivering a Comprehensive Tool for the Consumer Goods Industry to Assess Sustainability (June 15, 2021) (on file with author) (displaying in chart form the full lifecycle) [hereinafter SAC Press Release]. 259.Higg Product Tools, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoalition.org/higg-product-tools/ [https://perma.cc/7BZ9-YRFT] (last visited Nov. 2, 2022) [hereinafter Higg Product Tools]. 32https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 169 thus, expanding the “cradle to grave” approach.260 It can assess the prod-uct’s global warming potential, nutrient pollution in water, water scarcity, fossil fuel depletion, and chemistry.261 This module covers the finished product assembly, brand and retail space, consumer use and end of life.262 This tool was initially created to help retailers prepare for any litigation re-volving around the development of products, especially concerning coun-tries subject to the European Union.263 As commitment to science-based corporate goals increases, PM will be able to provide brand’s ESG depart-ments with a better understanding of how they can obtain sustainability performance and reach circulatory goals.264 The Facility Environmental Module calculates the environmental per-formance of individual facilities to help manufacturers find room for im-provement.265 It includes assessment of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, water use, wastewater, emissions to air, and waste and chemical management.266 There is a Social and Labor Module to assess the conditions of employ-ees and the environment in which they are working in.267 Some of this mod-ule’s information is based upon: recruitment and hiring, hours, wage/bene-fits, employee treatment and involvement, and health and safety.268 This evaluation allows retailers to see how their corporate policies work out in reality, also giving them the opportunity to make “lasting systemic changes.”269 Since many large companies are already utilizing this measuring tool,270 it could act as a standard system of measurement in legislative due diligence reporting. 260.Id. 261.Id. 262.SAC Press Release, supra note 258, at fig. 263.Higg Product Tools, supra note 259. 264.SAC Press Release, supra note 258 (“For any company planning to track their Scope 3 emissions [from Paris Agreement and Science Based Targets Initiative standards], Higg MSI and Higg PM would be the best starting point . . . .”) (quoting Dhanujie Jayapala, Environmental Sustainability Manager for MAS Holdings). 265.Higg Facility Tools: Standardizing the Measurement of Social and Environmental Impacts in Facilities, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoalition.org/higg-facility-tools/ [https://perma.cc/R4HD-E7AH]. 266.Id. 267.Id. 268.Id. 269.Id. 270.Our Members: Brands & Retailers, SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COAL., https://apparelcoali-tion.org/brands-retailers/ [https://perma.cc/C4CL-JGAV]. 33

170 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 VI. MOVING FORWARD A. Sustainability as the Caliber Compliance and caliber go hand-in-hand. Transparency is key to change because voluntary action is not enough.271 Starting at the domestic level, supply chain transparency legislation must incorporate science-based standards, a high caliber, in drafting. Science needs to dictate the degrees and methods on how the fashion industry will combat climate change;272 not a brand’s “sustainable” marketing language. Successful policy needs to be built upon existing initiatives with science-based targets, so there is no duplicity and unnecessary burdens. There must be legal and social consequences for not committing to or abiding by these requirements. “Without legislation, apparel companies that seek to do the right thing are put at a competitive disadvantage as their costs increase . . . .”273 Slowly but surely, local legislation will create a wave of change to meet growing, global environmental deadlines. International change will only be truly effective as the sum of local regulation begins to emerge and is challenged against this caliber. B. Conscious Consumers With younger generations comes different perspective. The fashion in-dustry is currently responding to a younger generation who thrives on “new-ness.”274 The best example to describe this: 1 in 7 of this younger generation consider being photographed in the same outfit twice a tragedy.275 Never-theless, this need for constant, “new” items is interestingly coupled with an interest in access versus ownership.276 Why? This generation is highly con-cerned about sustainability.277 Generation Z and Millennial consumers hold a ton of purchasing power, roughly 350 billion dollars.278 “Nine in ten Generation Z consumers believe companies have a responsibility to address environmental and social 271.Robinson, supra note 142. 272.See Cernansky, supra note 28. 273.LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUNDER, supra note 3. 274.AMED ET AL., supra note 24, at 39. 275.See id. 276.Id. at 40 (discussing “the successes of rental and pre-owned [luxury brands]”). 277.Id. at 45. 278.Imran Amed et al., The Influence of ‘Woke’ Consumers on Fashion, MCKINSEY & CO., (Feb. 12, 2019), https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-influence-of-woke-consumers-on-fashion [https://perma.cc/9HLP-AWLX]. 34https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

2023] THE FAST FASHION INDUSTRY 171 issues.”279 These consumers want to see integrity throughout ESG formali-ties and will question when they are not up to standard. Companies’ expec-tations should be attentive to consumers as they are closely examining the level of ESG continuity, from strategies to operational decisions.280 Consumer behavior is mirroring personal beliefs like never before.281 People want to know where their clothing is coming from. In the last decade, consumers have led to the fall of business revenue in that they did not know which brands to trust anymore.282 Luxury brands have been historically trusted due to high prices in the belief these products are made with high quality, sustainable materials.283 Yet, trust has been greatly depleted as news of luxury designers reveals the deliberate destruction of millions upon millions of dollars of unused merchandise.284 Consumers can get information at the touch of their fingertips through various social media platforms about what brands are “ethical” and “clean.” There are several apps and websites that list brand statistics, sharing their environmental footprint and labor usage, awarding an overall ethical rating in comparison to brands.285 With outright transparency from companies themselves, consumers will be empowered to make informed purchasing decisions and support those who abide by the eventual, collective standard. The fashion industry is one that relies heavily upon public investment. Consumers hold the power. Sensitive to public opinion, this sector of indus-trial change could be pushed to the forefront through public outcry. C. Rise of ESG Investment and Circularity It is human nature to want to invest in the future. With a growing trend for environmental sustainability, there calls for a need to stabilize expecta-tions to guide investment decisions. Investors are becoming more conscious 279.Id. 280.Id. 281.See, e.g., id. 282.AMED ET AL., supra note 24, at 64. 283.Id. 284.Id.; see also Alexa Maratos, How Committed Are You, Coach? Designer Brand Called Out For Shockingly Contradictory Policy, PACE ENV’T L. REV. BLOG (Nov. 15, 2021), https://pelr.blogs.pace.edu/2021/11/19/how-committed-are-you-coach-designer-brand-called-out-for-shockingly-contradictory-policy/ (on file with author); see also New French Legislation, supra note 188. 285.See, e.g., How We Rate Fashion Brands, GOOD ON YOU, https://goodonyou.eco/how-we-rate/?_ga=2.92697241.547200707.1663712834-1355883102.1663712834&_gl=1*4jdvhn*_ga*MTM1NTg4MzEwMi4xNjYzNzEyODM0*_ga_TTB1J3Q9MN*MTY2MzcxMjgzNC4xLjEuMTY2MzcxMzg0MC41OC4wLjA. [https://perma.cc/6N3Q-CZQH].. 35

172 PACE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 40 about where they are putting their money. With more crackdowns and reg-ulations, investing in companies that are doing large amounts of environ-mental harm is not sensible. “Activities on fashion should help address cli-mate change, biodiversity loss and pollution by taking a value chain approach to ensure the most impactful actions are being taken, informed by science-based evidence and stakeholder consultations.”286 Growth in this area revolves around a circular economy. The idea of engaging in a circular business model allows optimizing and limiting re-source use.287 Product requirements and transparency standards are essen-tial to encourage the use of circular business models in the industry.288 This not only helps environmentally, but also holds many financial benefits to companies engaging in a circular business model.289 However, if the major-ity of companies do not shift to a circular model there will be an uneven playing field leading to an increase in competition. We must move away from a linear “take, make, waste” model to a cir-cular model that encompasses the entire life cycle of a product.290 A circular supply chain cycle allows a “reduce, reuse, recycle” model to be put into action. VII. CONCLUSION It is time to shift to a mindset where sustainability equals the standard. “Less unsustainable is not sustainable.”291 Eco-friendly terminology should not be a choice, but a legislative requirement. Consumers must be put on notice so their habits can continue to be a powerful, collective voice fashion companies are forced to listen to. Advocating for circularity in fashion is an easy way to save resources, and most importantly our planet, going for-ward. To create change, there must be a formulation of compliance, caliber, consumers, and circularity. What once began as a fundamental commodity to society has now become the very epicenter of modern life as we know it. The profoundness in its capacity further exhibits the power the fashion in-dustry has on our planet. 286.MEIER, supra note 6, at 34. 287.Communication on Sustainable Products, supra note 226, at 10. 288.Id. 289.See id. at 1. 290.See generally Cernansky, supra note 28 (reporting on a proposed regulation with the goal of implementing this shift). 291.Pucker, supra note 39 (emphasis added). 36https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol40/iss2/5

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Open Access© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the mate-rial. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/.REVIEWDzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40691-023-00337-9Fashion and Textiles(Un)Sustainable transitions towards fast and ultra-fast fashionTulin Dzhengiz1* , Teresa Haukkala2 and Olli Sahimaa3 Abstract Due to pressing sustainability challenges, the fashion industry is undergoing tremen-dous change. Surprisingly, even though the unique context of fashion presents an opportunity for scholars to explore the (un)sustainable transitions, this context has yet to receive the attention of transition scholars. Our article explores fashion transitions and develops a conceptual framework demonstrating this transition’s multi-level and multi-dimensional interactions. We draw on three literature areas: multi-level perspec-tive (MLP) of sustainable transitions, institutional logics and framing contests. We then introduce a conceptual framework and illustrative examples from the industry and demonstrate the tensions between positive and negative environmental and social-sustainability developments at the niche, regime and landscape levels. We show that while many positive developments can be seen in the regime players through the adoption of corporate sustainability initiatives, new business models and collabora-tions, more attention should also be given to some adverse developments. Overall, we contribute to the literature by exploring fashion transitions, an under-explored context, and by demonstrating the complexity of interactions due to the diffusion of heteroge-neous institutional logics and framing contests between players.Keywords: Multi-level perspective, Sustainability transitions, Unsustainability, Institutional logics, Framing contests, Fashion industryIntroductionThe fashion1 industry is now considered the second most polluting after oil extraction and production (Diabat et al., 2014, p. 1713). Scholars highlighted the industry’s envi-ronmental impacts, such as excessive water use and water pollution (Abbas et al., 2020), GHG emissions from processing fossil fuels (Franco, 2017), and the use of hazardous chemicals (Khurana & Ricchetti, 2016). The industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, equalling international flights and maritime shipping emis-sions, and is estimated to surge more than 50% by 2030 (World Bank, 2019). Moreo-ver, scholars underlined the industry’s negative societal impacts, such as poor working conditions (Haug & Busch, 2015), health and safety issues (Cesar da Silva et al., 2021), *Correspondence: [email protected] Department of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University, BS5.32 Business School, All Saints, M15 6BH Manchester, UK2 Department of Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship (MIE)i³-CRG — Management Research Centre, Innovation Interdisciplinary Institute (UMR CNRS 9217) ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE Drahi Xnovation Center, Bureau 86.20.51 – 1er étageAvenue Coriolis, 91128 Palaiseau, France3 Aalto University School of Business, Ekonominaukio 1, 02150 Espoo / P.O. Box 21210, 00076 Aalto, Finland1 In this article, when we refer to the fashion industry, we generally mean an overarching sectoral area that includes the whole value chain from fibre production to yarn and fabric production and, finally, clothing production and retail. While we understand that Haute Couture is still a vital element in the fashion system, we focus on fast fashion since we con-sider it the dominant regime.

Page 2 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 abuses of human rights that include child labour and modern slavery (Peake & Kenner, 2020; Thorisdottir & Johannsdottir, 2020). The awareness of these environmental and social sustainability challenges triggered many changes in the industry towards sustain-able and ethical fashion (Alptekinoglu & Orsdemir, 2020; DiVito & Bohnsack, 2017; Goldsworthy et al., 2018; Mishra et al., 2020; Moorhouse & Moorhouse, 2017). Still, the historical development of the industry towards fast fashion and the recent developments towards ultra-fast fashion present negative unsustainable transition trends (Buchel et al., 2018; Maloku, 2020). Thus, it is possible to observe both pro-sustainability (positive) and unsustainable (negative) patterns in the transition journey of the fashion industry. We, therefore, conceptually explore these developments drawing on the sustainability transi-tions literature and a commonly used framework in that domain: the multi-level per-spective (MLP).MLP is one of the most influential frameworks to explain social transformations that elaborate both the bottom-up and top-down dynamics and the multi-level nature of change (El Bilali, 2019a; Geels, 2002, 2010, 2011, 2020; Hörisch, 2015; Markard & Truffer, 2008; Walrave et al., 2018). Several scholars investigated the conflicting relation-ships and resistance to change in transitions (Hess, 2016, 2018, 2019; Lee & Hess, 2019), often drawing on the broader literature of social movements and framing (Benford, 1993; Benford & Snow, 2000), institutional theory (Fuenfschilling & Truffer, 2014; Geels, 2020) and institutional logics (Franco-Torres et al., 2020; Runhaar et al., 2020; Smink et al., 2015a, 2015b). Scholars either studied how macro-level institutional structures have debilitated transition pathways; or focused on the micro- and meso-level framing efforts to change the institutional logics (Dobson, 2019; Strambach & Pflitsch, 2018). In recent years, scholars have emphasised the complementarity of institutional logics and framing and combined these lenses to understand and explain institutional inertia and change simultaneously (Ansari et al., 2013; Gray et al., 2015; Purdy et al., 2017).In this paper, to shed light on the fashion industry’s transition, we develop a frame-work that integrates institutional logics and framing with the interactions in MLP. Herein, drawing on Heinze (2020), we view the fashion system as a complex system that includes material elements (fabrics, factories and retailers), meanings (motivations and emotions) and competencies (capabilities for business, fashion design, and sustainability and responsibility). We specifically focus on the institutional logics and framings associ-ated with the meanings dimension of this fashion system to explain the complexities of multi-level interactions, and we provide various examples to demonstrate the intricacies of fashion transition. Therefore, theoretically, we join the recent scholarly conversation on the current research agenda of transitions (Köhler et al., 2019) by framing contests and logics (Gray et al., 2015; Purdy et al., 2017) into the transitions literature (Geels, 2010; Schot & Kanger, 2018; Welch & Yates, 2018; Zolfagharian et al., 2019). We under-line the lack of attention on unsustainable transitions and join others who problematised the sustainability assumption of transitions literature (Susur & Karakaya, 2021). There-fore, we answer the call of Antal et al. (2020), who invited transition scholars to study unsustainable trends, which have received scant attention thus far. Most importantly, we contribute to the literature by conceptually exploring fashion transitions. The fashion context has been largely ignored in transition studies and rarely explored using the lens of framing and institutional logics (Ozdamar Ertekin et al., 2020). By doing so, we start

Page 3 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 a meaningful conversation on unsustainable transitions in under-studied contexts like fashion.The remainder of this paper is as follows. In Theoretical Background, we briefly review the literature about MLP in sustainability transitions, institutional logics, and framing. The following section integrates these specific literature areas and builds a conceptual framework while showcasing examples from fashion. In the Discussion, we summarise our findings and compare them with extant research. In Conclusion, we summarise our contributions, offer future research guidance and outline how practitioners can utilise our framework in various ways.Literature Review(Un) Sustainability in FashionThe fashion industry “accounts for approximately $2 trillion in global revenue” (Hiller Connell & Kozar, 2017, p. 1). With the dominance of fast fashion, speed-to-market has increased tremendously over the last two decades (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010), and clothing production almost doubled over the last 15 years (Freudenreich & Schalteg-ger, 2020). While the industry’s economic contribution to our societies is significant, the industry also presents some unique challenges.In 2015, the fashion industry used 79 billion cubic water; to give further perspective, only a single T-shirt requires 2700 L of water to produce (European Parliament, 2021). Only textile dyeing and finishing are responsible for 20% of global water pollution, and 0.5 million tonnes of microplastics are released every year to the oceans due to washing clothes made of synthetic fibres (European Parliament, 2021). Therefore, many scholars indicated the environmental impacts of this industry as excessive water use, wastewa-ter and water pollution (Abbas et al., 2020; Cesar da Silva et al., 2021; de Oliveira Neto et al., 2019; Jia et al., 2020; Søndergård et al., 2004) and plastic pollution (Goldsworthy et al., 2018; Leal Filho et al., 2019; Moorhouse & Moorhouse, 2017). The industry is also responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions (European Parliament, 2021), thus the attention on air pollution (Jia et al., 2020; Niinimäki & Hassi, 2011). Due to the nature of fast fashion and increasing overconsumption (Jin & Shin, 2021), clothes are treated as disposable, and fast fashion is also responsible for tremendous waste and waste-related emissions and toxicity (Rossi et al., 2020; Stål & Corvellec, 2018).Fashion presents a context whereby the consumers play a tremendous role in deter-mining trends (Lee & Ha-Brookshire, 2018; Vehmas et al., 2018). However, due to glo-balisation and various trade agreements, material sourcing requires global vertically disintegrated value networks (Mellick et al., 2021; Taplin, 2014). It is known that a large portion of labour-intensive clothing production takes place in developing econ-omies (Morris & Barnes, 2009, p. 2). Thus, the end consumer is often far removed from the producers, making it difficult for the consumers to be aware of issues in this global value chain. These extended global value chains make transparency and trace-ability difficult for the end producer and consumers. Thus, many social sustainabil-ity issues in global textile and clothing value chains are unfortunately ignored. These issues include poor working conditions, labour rights, low wages, child labour, and modern slavery (Carrigan et al., 2013; Joergens & Barnes, 2006; Kennedy et al., 2017; Mair et al., 2016; Ozdamar Ertekin et al., 2020; Peake & Kenner, 2020; Pedersen &

Page 4 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 Gwozdz, 2013; Thorisdottir & Johannsdottir, 2020) and cancer risks due to carcino-genic human toxicity (Haug & Busch, 2015; Søndergård et al., 2004; UNEP, 2020).Some scholars highlighted sustainability as a megatrend affecting the landscape businesses operate (Park & Kim, 2016). Public attention to microplastics, climate change, and modern slavery has created waves of change in the industry. Depend-ing on their ethical and moral stance, consumers started to demand more environ-mentally and socially sustainable products, which affected the fashion incumbents’ approach to sustainability challenges (Blasi et al., 2020; Hong & Kang, 2019; Lee et al., 2015). Scholars argue that change in this industry would come “both from end-con-sumers who prefer sustainable offerings and from businesses (of all sizes) who need to offer products and services that will enable more sustainable consumption” (Turunen & Halme, 2021, p. 2). As a result of increasing consumer demand for more sustainable offerings, incumbents develop interventions in the “design, development, production, distribution, marketing, and consumption of goods may impact multiple stakeholders and simultaneously generate profit for individual companies” (Gaskill-Fox et al., 2014, p. 1). For instance, they develop and source sustainable fibre alternatives such as bam-boo (Muthu, 2017; Nayak & Mishra, 2016). Fast fashion incumbents integrate sustain-ability “in all levels of the business (products, technologies, services, new business models, organization model and relationship with stakeholders)” (Niinimäki, 2015, p. 4). They aim to move towards closed-loop supply chains to cooperate with their sup-pliers to avoid “damaged products, scraps, and unsold fashion products [going] to a landfill … to properly reuse, remanufacture, and recycle all of them so that some value can be re-generated” (Choi & Li, 2015, p. 15,401). They develop multi-disciplinary teams to design products drawing on specialist knowledge in various areas, includ-ing sustainability knowledge (Claxton & Kent, 2020). Still, these efforts are often cri-tiqued and not viewed as sufficient due to greenwashing concerns (Kennedy et al., 2017; Niinimäki, 2015).Many scholars hope that the true change in fashion will come from niche players and turn to sustainable entrepreneurship (DiVito & Bohnsack, 2017; Heinze, 2020; Kozlowski et al., 2018; Poldner et al., 2016). Here, the expectation is to see novel busi-ness models that integrate environmental and social sustainability principles into the core business. Often, such business models move their orientation from profit-making to triple-bottom-line principles (Choi & Li, 2015; Hockerts & Wüstenhagen, 2010), introducing social equity and nature preservation into organizational decision-making (Elkington, 2013).Developing a multi-level perspective of transitions in this changing and complex industry is beneficial. As our summary of the changes in the fashion above shows, the transition of the industry requires macro (landscape), meso (regime), and micro-level developments (niche). We, therefore, draw on the literature on the multi-level per-spective (MLP) in sustainability transitions.Multi‑level perspective (MLP) in sustainability transitionsTransition studies analyse large-scale sociotechnical changes such as technology and practice changes, policies, and relationships between different societal players and

Page 5 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 institutions (i.e. values and meaning systems) (Geels, 2002; Rip & Kemp, 1998). There are many different frameworks that transition scholars have developed over time (El Bilali, 2019a; Lachman, 2013); one has been very influential: the Multi-level Perspective (MLP). MLP consists of three analytical concepts: niche, regime, and landscape (Geels, 2002, 2005, 2010; Schot & Geels, 2008). According to Schot and Geels (2008, p. 545), “the core notion of MLP is that transitions come about through interactions between processes at different levels: (a) niche innovations build up internal momentum, (b) changes at the landscape level create pressure on the regime, (c) destabilisation of the regime creates windows of opportunity for niche innovations”.LandscapeThe landscape forms the macro-level of the MLP. It sets the scene as “the exogenous environment beyond the direct influence of niche and regime players (e.g. macro-eco-nomics, deep cultural patterns, macro-political developments)” (Schot & Geels, 2008, p. 545). The landscape is characterised by relatively slow developments that may take dec-ades of change (El Bilali, 2019a; Raven et al., 2010; Schot & Geels, 2008). A recent review clearly demonstrates that landscape is a “background—a scale with no activities”; thus, “it is difficult to define players at the landscape level since their definition in the MLP does not allow for it” (Fischer & Newig, 2016, p. 6). It is, however, important to empha-sise that changes at the landscape level inform the regime and niche players and shape their behaviours. Here, changes at the landscape level mean general technological and cultural trends that are exogenous to the players but shape how they think and behave by providing them with the dominant logics (Fischer & Newig, 2016).RegimeThe regime forms the meso-level in the MLP. Regimes refer to the dominant practices, technologies and rules that enable and constrain communities’ activities (Geels, 2002). Rip and Kemp (1998, p. 338) defined a technological regime “as the grammar or rule set comprised in the complex of scientific knowledge, engineering practices, production process technologies, product characteristics, skills and procedures, and institutions and infrastructures that make up the totality of a technology”. Geels (2002) proposed the term socio-technical regime, which underlines the incumbent sociotechnical system that the niche potentially affects or replaces.It is possible to identify two types of players in the regime. One is the dominant regime players, the incumbents of a particular industry (Fischer & Newig, 2016). The second type is a part of the regime to challenge these incumbents, such as societal pressure groups like NGOs interacting with dominant regime players (Fischer & Newig, 2016).NichesNiches form the micro-level in the MLP (Geels, 2005; Rip & Kemp, 1998). Accord-ing to Raven et al., (2010, p. 1), niches “ are a ’space’ or ’location’ that is protected from the dominant regime, enabling players to develop an innovation, (2) they form the micro-level of technological and social change, (3) they are a new and relatively

Page 6 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 unstable set of rules and institutions for innovative practices, (4) they are experi-mental projects, (5) they are a constellation of structures, culture and practices, and (6) they are the variation environment for radical innovations”.Niche players often replace regime practices and norms (Schot & Geels, 2008). The niche concept is often used positively and is a counterpart to regime problems (Raven et al., 2010). However, niche players may have diverging or conflicting expec-tations or even no expectations for regime change and, at times, become sites of dis-pute and consensus (Lazarevic & Valve, 2020; Smith et al., 2010). We problematise the overly optimistic framing of niches and propose a distinction between negative and positive impact niches.We define positive impact niches as locations where radical pro-social and pro-environmental innovations develop and, given the right incentives, can grow and replace the regime practices. Positive impact niches provide a breathing space for players who make path-breaking innovations and impact the regime to shift towards sustainability. Their innovations are deemed essential and thus need nurturing and protection from the dominating incumbents of the regime. An example of such niches is solar PV technology firms (Smith et al., 2014).On the contrary, we define negative impact niches as locations where radical inno-vations may develop and replace the regime practices towards unsustainability, leading to a negative environmental impact on the socio-ecological systems. While also aiming at regime shifts, negative impact niches hurt the sustainable transition agenda. Some may welcome such entrants due to their path-breaking innovations. However, they may create unintended consequences on the system if these negative niche players replace the regime (Farla et al., 2012). Similar to our negative impact niche, Næss and Vogel (2012) referred to ’unsustainable niches’ and emphasised that “the players promoting [unsustainable technologies] and the vested interests they represent seem to be somewhat overlooked in the transition theory literature” (Næss & Vogel, 2012, p. 43). Therefore, Koistinen et al. (2018) underlined the importance of regime players to keep such unsustainable niches outside the gate of regimes, high-lighting the multi-level interactions within the MLP. Similarly, Lazarevic and Valve (2020) question which niches should be nurtured and on what grounds.The MLP framework has received several criticisms to elaborate further on the idea of agency, politics and power (El Bilali, 2019a, 2019b; Svensson & Nikoleris, 2018). Here, one crucial item missing in common MLP frameworks is that niche and regime players are often portrayed as lacking the agency to change the structures that shape them (Fuenfschilling & Truffer, 2014). Here, we point to the literature on institutional logic and framing as helpful ways to integrate further with the MLP framework.Diffusion of institutional logicsInstitutional logics are a “socially constructed, historical pattern of material practices, assumptions, values, beliefs and rules by which individuals produce and reproduce their material subsistence, organise time and space and provide meaning to their social reality” (Thornton & Ocasio, 1999, p. 804). They shape societal structures, field-level practices, organizational forms, and the attentional focus of individuals

Page 7 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 (Laasch, 2018; Thornton & Ocasio, 1999; Thornton et al., 2012). The distinction between market and sustainability logic is most relevant for conceptualising sustain-ability transitions.Market logic drives players to maximise shareholder value (Ashraf et al., 2017; De Clercq & Voronov, 2011; Saz-Carranza & Longo, 2012). Dominated by market logic, players aim to maintain their legitimacy by avoiding fines, keeping in line with customer demands, complying with regulatory frameworks, and prioritising profit maximisation through cost reduction and operational improvements (Dahlmann & Grosvold, 2017). Some scholars describe these logics as “transaction-oriented, with profit, self-interest and shareholder value being key for the agency” (Weisenfeld & Hauerwaas, 2018, p. 912).Sustainability logic drives players to prioritise environmental and social value creation and preservation of the natural environment and societal well-being (Corbett et al., 2015; Dahlmann & Grosvold, 2017; Rousseau et al., 2014). Herein, by sustainability, we mean organizations’ combined efforts to achieve economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity simultaneously (Dyllick & Hockerts, 2002). Herein, when we say sus-tainability logic, we consider both the environmental and social aspects of sustainability. Generally, sustainability logic does not appear the same at for-profit firms as at non-profits. This is due to the institutional complexity created by the heterogonous exposure to multiple logics (i.e. market and sustainability logics simultaneously) (Laasch & Pinkse, 2019). Indeed, Haffar and Searcy (2019) demonstrate market-led (business case), value-based and holistic manifestations of sustainability logic in businesses, while Laasch and Pinkse (2019) use the metaphor of ’leopard’s spots’ to describe institutional complexity.Institutional logics are exogenous to the players and form the societal antecedents (macro-level) of individual and organizational behaviour (Friedland & Alford, 1991). In the MLP framework, the landscape, as the exogenous environment, would host the complex and multiple institutional logics guiding the regime and niche players’ meaning-making systems. On their own, however, institutional logics are “analytically removed from the more active struggles over meaning and resources” (Lounsbury et al., 2003, p. 72), which is why it is essential to explain the framing and framing con-tests in the MLP framework.Framing and framing contestsFraming is the act of meaning construction for a specific phenomenon and “involve[s] the ways in which individuals use language or other symbolic gestures in context either to reinforce existing interpretive frames or to call new frames into being” (Cor-nelissen & Werner, 2014, pp. 18–19). Framing is “effective in challenging dominant logics and legitimating new organizational forms” (Gurses & Ozcan, 2015, p. 1713) and, therefore, a way of driving institutional change (Litrico & David, 2017).When different players promote different framings, this may lead to framing con-tests (Gurses & Ozcan, 2015; Kaplan, 2008; Pesqueira et al., 2019), which is defined as a “struggle over meaning that attempts to influence the interpretative schemes of play-ers involved in a given situation” (Gurses & Ozcan, 2015, p. 1713). For instance, man-agers can actively try and shape organizational outcomes through framing contests, often evident when some ideas are vetted, and others are followed due to debates

Page 8 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 between members that promote different frames (Kaplan, 2008). Similarly, entrepre-neurs and incumbents also use framing contests as a mechanism through which they “can battle to enable or disable institutional change” (Gurses & Ozcan, 2015, p. 1704).Players aim to replace dominant logic through framing since it “involves deliberate communicative acts that shape how individuals perceive, understand, and attach mean-ing to a given issue” (Bach & Blake, 2015, p. 1). Players convey their perception of reality by using discursive strategies to promote an issue and engage others in taking action for this issue (Benford & Snow, 2000). They give sense to issues to influence others’ sense-making using framing strategies such as symbolic language, metaphors, stock phrases, and idioms (Logemann et al., 2019). For instance, entrepreneurs actively use various framing strategies in their interactions with communities, trade associations and net-works to push their solutions forward and convince incumbents and regulators toward their ends. Overall this causes a field-level effect and institutional change, sometimes not intentionally but through their battles of legitimation (Gurses & Ozcan, 2015).Framing, and more explicitly, framing contests, are interactional and dynamic; they reflect power relations and ongoing negotiations, thus addressing the need for the MLP framework to incorporate agency, politics and power (El Bilali, 2019a). Different players propose different frames, leading to framing contests which is a “politically charged pro-cess of meaning construction” (Kaplan, 2008, p. 730).Six new framings challenge the current fast fashion regime by going beyond eco-effi-ciency: consistency, degrowth-sufficiency, ethical, slow, circular and sharing, as shown in Table 1. While some pro-sustainability framings overlap, proponents of these different framings sign up for different actions to shift the regime.Table 1 Framing categories for sustainable fashion CategoryDefinitionConsistency framing“Aims to align the materials used in production with material flows that are common in nature” (Freudenreich & Schaltegger, 2020, p. 1)Degrowth-sufficiency framingHighlights that “clothing consumers [to] aim to meet their needs rather than fulfil all wants while avoiding (material) consumption as much as possible” (Freudenreich & Schaltegger, 2020, p. 4)Ethical framingUnderlines the necessity of “fashionable clothes that incorporate fair trade principles with sweatshop-free labour conditions while not harming the envi-ronment or workers” (Joergens & Barnes, 2006, p. 361)Slow framing“Aims to reduce the number of trends and seasons and encourages quality production in order to increase the value of garments, all in contrast to dispos-able fashion” (Ozdamar Ertekin & Atik, 2014, p. 57)Circular and zero-waste fashionAims to create closed-loop systems by bringing two strategies: “short-life closed-loop garments and long-life user engagement strategies both have an extending effect on materials in the value-chain, by either keeping products in use over multiple cycles in perpetuity or by extending the single-use cycle of a product over time” (Goldsworthy et al., 2018, pp. 49–50). This framing became more popular in recent years as both within academia and amongst fashion practitioners as the focus shifted to developing recycling, reusing, repurposing business models (Dzhengiz et al. 2023)Sharing framingIs about collaborative consumption, which is “ultimately about people sharing and collaborating to meet certain needs” through the creation of “fashion libraries [which] remain a niche activity, driven by enthusiastic entrepreneurs working on a voluntary basis” (Pedersen & Netter, 2015, pp. 258–273)

Page 9 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 The illustrative case of (un)sustainable fashion transitionsThis section combines all the concepts introduced in the previous sections in a single encompassing conceptual framework. Drawing on various examples from the fashion context, we conceptualise five interactions in the MLP framework which we further explain through institutional logics and framing contests. As, Fig. 1 shows, these inter-actions are between the landscape and regime, landscape and niche, regime and niche, between different regime players, and between niche players.Landscape‑regime interactionsLandscape‑Regime Interactions (1a)Currently, landscape change is occurring due to global trends such as demographic developments (population growth and increasing global wealth), the increased use of resources, the consumerist culture, digitalisation, and the urgency to respond to envi-ronmental problems and climate change (Buchel et al., 2018, pp. 12–13). We draw on these changes in fashion and explain how these landscape changes have affected the dominant regime and institutional logics.Before the nineteenth century, it was possible to characterise the clothing industry with general material scarcity and hand-made production, which meant highly-priced pieces of clothing that were expensive to purchase (Ozdamar Ertekin et al., 2020). The Industrial Revolution enabled a significant change. Thanks to the industrialisation wave, which led to the development of the first textile factories in Britain, an industry domi-nated by tailors and the logic of profession (tailoring) transitioned into the ready-made Fig. 1 Our conceptual framework 1a The impact of landscape on regime level. 2a The impact of landscape on niche level. 3a The impact of regime on niche level. 1b The impact of regime on landscape level. 2b The impact of niche on landscape level. 3b The impact of niche on regime level. 4 Regime interactions (between different regime actors). 5 Niche interactions (between different niche actors). Framing contest, Cooperative framing, Competitive framing. White arrow, Landscape developments for sustainability. Black arrow, Landscape developments for unsustainability. +, Positive impact niches. -, Negative impact niches. Solid arrow is used to describe cooperative framing, Dotted arrow is used to describe competitive framing, Z shaped arrow is used to describe the framing contests

Page 10 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 clothing industry with reduced costs, making clothes easier to access than before (God-ley, 2013).Still, Haute Couture defined the trends for a long time (Ozdamar Ertekin et al., 2020) even though the clothing industry’s industrialisation continued. Until the 1980s, the industry was organised to respond to customer demands forecasting their expectations for two seasons, a much slower market speed when compared to today (Bhardwaj & Fairhurst, 2010). Today’s giants, Zara and H&M, were considered regional niche players then. In this period, the regime was also a complex field whereby multiple logics such as the logics of the profession (tailoring), art/design and market competed. Amongst others, however, the logic of art/design was central, “mostly concerned with creating innovative and influential trends,” and was associated with “small-scale, labour-intensive production of artistic products” (Ozdamar Ertekin et al., 2020, p. 1451).Another wave of change in the industry increased market speed tremendously, starting as a niche and quickly gaining the fashion regime’s dominance: fast fashion. In the 80 s, fast fashion—“low-cost clothing collections based on current, high-cost luxury fashion trends” (Joy et al., 2015, p. 275)—gained dominance. This meant the “standard turna-round time from the catwalk to consumer of six months (…) [has been] compressed to a matter of mere weeks by such companies as H&M and Zara, with heightened profits to match” (Joy et al., 2015, p. 275). H&M and Zara developed business models aligned with the market logic, increased speed to market, reduced costs and improved price perfor-mance (Fuenfschilling & Truffer, 2014; Ozdamar Ertekin et al., 2020). They integrated the design and sales and outsourced production to low-wage suppliers in the developing world (Crofton & Dopico, 2007). The market logic dominated fast fashion model dif-fused as these models proved a financial success, forcing even the previous Haute Cou-ture players to integrate practices of market logic further to remain legitimate. Gradually, the regional niche players of the 60 s and 70 s—like Zara and H&M—became dominant regime players.Scholars suggest that “the salience of the influence of market logic, in particular, has risen over the last 30 years” (Thornton et al., 2012, p. 12). “Market logic spread over many socio-technical systems when neoliberal politics became popular in western coun-tries during the 1980s” (Franco-Torres et al., 2020, p. 36). Not surprisingly, this also cor-responded with the rise of fast fashion as the regime. As the trade quotas for textiles and clothing were removed in the 90 s, textile value chains changed fundamentally (Mair et al., 2016). Fast fashion utilised these global supply chains that provided cheap labour and access to markets, leading to “the exploitation of Third World labour for the benefit of the leading Western brands” (Simona Segre, 2015, p. 45).Unfortunately, the fast fashion transition brought societal and environmental prob-lems worth mentioning. The globalisation of the textile value chains came at a high societal price as workers in the developing world suffered poor conditions in unsafe sweatshops with long working hours and low pay (Heinze, 2020; Ozdamar Ertekin et al., 2020; Simona Segre, 2015). Fast fashion has been associated with child labour, modern slavery, and significant health and safety problems (Lueg et al., 2015; Peake & Kenner, 2020), as we listed earlier. Thus, these issues led to the rise of social sustainability logic in fashion, initially dominating the niche players and later also adopted by some regime players.

Page 11 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 Fast fashion has also created a system whereby disposability became favourable over durability (Joy et al., 2015), creating a throwaway culture resulting in mountains of waste (Freudenreich & Schaltegger, 2020; Niinimäki et al., 2020; Thorisdottir & Johannsdot-tir, 2020). Overall, the rise of fast fashion led to higher energy and water consumption levels, chemical pollution, soil degradation, and increased carbon footprint (Shirvani-moghaddam et al., 2020), thus leading to the rise of environmental sustainability logic in fashion, also initially dominating the niche players and later adopted by the regime players.The negative impacts of fast fashion came under the spotlight when a tragic field reconfiguring event occurred: the collapse of Rana Plaza, which killed 1129 workers and left 2,500 injured (Lohmeyer & Schüßler, 2017; Williamson & Lutz, 2019). Rana Plaza shook the grounds of the dominant market logic and reinforced the legitimacy of sus-tainability logic further. The workers who lost their lives were producing for well-known brands involved in fast fashion, such as Walmart and Primark (Reinecke & Donaghey, 2015). The Rana Plaza tragedy made it visible that the dominant fashion regime was built on the assumption of infinite growth, strengthened by the craze to buy affordable cloth-ing and the industry’s fragmented structure that was based on globalisation and power imbalance between the Global North and South (Buchel et al., 2018).The Rana Plaza tragedy, therefore, triggered regime changes. For instance, H&M implemented a Conscious Action sustainability initiative to use and promote ecological materials, cleaner production processes, and conduct consumer awareness campaigns (Shen, 2014). H&M’s sustainability manager Giorgina Waltier recently argued that “the fashion industry cannot continue to operate in the way it does currently; our planet does not have the resources” (Chan, 2019). However, most incumbents are yet to go beyond eco-efficiency framing, which “aims to either reduce resource use to produce the same output or produce more clothes with a given amount of resources as input” (Freudenre-ich & Schaltegger, 2020, p. 1).Post-Rana plaza, policy environment and the proactive regime players needed to enact sustainability logic to remain legitimate. Sustainability logic diffused into the regime through certification schemes and norm-setting institutions (Smink et al., 2015a, 2015b). To a greater degree, sustainability logic is also diffused thanks to policy and governance initiatives that affect regime reconfigurations (Roesler & Hassler, 2019). For instance, the Bangladesh Accord and the Sustainability Compact could be governance developments post-Rana Plaza (Bair et al., 2020; Siddiqui et al., 2020). Similarly, Fashion Revolution – founded post-Rana Plaza collapse, started to create further awareness by developing transparency ratings for brands’ supply chains (Monroe, 2021).Based on the above, we argue the following:Interaction 1a—Landscape diffuses market and sustainability logics to the regime play-ers through various norm-setting institutions, providing institutional complexity at the regime level.Regime–landscape interactions (1b)Regime players can either engage in framing to legitimise or delegitimise sustainable practices. It is difficult to imagine that a single regime player would impact the land-scape, characterised by long-term historical developments and trends. However,

Page 12 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 coalitions formed between different regime players can influence the regime either posi-tively or negatively, depending on the implications in terms of sustainability impact. In other words, it is possible to differentiate between regime coalitions that are protago-nists or antagonists based on their sustainability orientation (Lempiälä et al., 2019). While niche players may also be involved in such coalitions, in the examples from fash-ion, the coalitions mainly were dominated by the regime players.Regime incumbents in the fashion system formed a few protagonist coalitions and networks. Fashion for Good, initially founded by the C&A foundation—today called Laudes foundation—engages in social entrepreneurship and philanthropy as part of the European clothing group C&A (Laudes Foundation, 2021). Fashion for Good legitimises circular pro-sustainability framing backed by other industry incumbents like Kering, PVH Corp., and Adidas (Fashion for Good, 2021). Partnership for Sustainable Tex-tiles—founded in October 2014 in response to the deadly accidents in textile factories in Bangladesh and Pakistan, was initiated by the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. This multi-stakeholder platform aims to guide the development of international agreements, setting frameworks and defining principles, allowing members to push their ethical fashion framing (Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, 2021). Global Fashion Agenda promotes circular fashion framing post-Covid crisis (D’Adamo & Lupi, 2021). These protagonist coalitions show that regime players provide their (often aligned with eco-efficiency, as explained earlier) framing to others in their field, legitimise themselves and their practices, and gradually aim to shift dominant logic in alignment with their interests, affecting landscape-level in the long run.The regime, however, is a complex field. Hence, while fast-fashion incumbents join the networks and platforms mentioned above in alignment with the environmental and social sustainability logic, such initiatives are often critiqued for buried corporate inter-ests and greenwashing (Partzsch et al., 2019). Some scholars argued that such coalitions might undermine the most crucial sustainability requirements and provide solutions that corporations determine to the degree they can invest in such initiatives (Partzsch et al., 2019). While we could not identify a specific antagonist regime coalition that rejects the sustainable development agenda or actively delegitimises it, it is evident that regime players would provide a framing that would not clash with the market logic. For instance, several fast-fashion brands have recently been scrutinised in the UK due to their business model. These companies actively defended their business model, which is based on cheapness of items and the fastness of delivery, often at the cost of employee well-being and fair supplier cooperation (Eley, 2018). This is also evident in the recent fallout between the Norwegian Consumer Authority and H&M. The Norwegian authori-ties blamed the global brand for greenwashing. They found H&M’s Conscious collec-tion marketing misleading statements on sustainability credentials (Hitti, 2019). Bente Øverli, deputy director-general at Norway’s Consumer Authority, argued that “H&M [is] not being clear or specific enough in explaining how the clothes in the Conscious col-lection and their Conscious shop are more sustainable than other products they sell…Since H&M [is] not giving the consumer precise information about why these clothes are labelled Conscious, we conclude that consumers are being given the impression that these products are more sustainable than they actually are” (Dwyer, 2019).

Page 13 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 Most regime players would engage with sustainability through the lens of ’business case’ in a more instrumental manner (Gao & Bansal, 2012; Hahn et al., 2015; Joseph et al., 2019). Thus, it is important to highlight that we do not propose pure sustainability or market logic, but rather highlight that the field is complex, and regime players are exposed to both logics simultaneously. While slow and sustainable fashion developments have presented various alternatives at the niche level, “the challenge now is extending the slow concept on a larger scale”; hence the regime’s transition to sustainable fashion (Clark, 2015, p. 444).Based on the above, we argue the following:Interaction 1b—Regime players provide their framings to shift or reinforce the dominant logic in the landscape using the space of protagonist or antagonist coalitions. Protago-nist coalitions may provide eco-efficiency framings to shift the dominant market logic in the landscape that guides the regime practices. However, this may entail greenwashing if and when the corporate action and language are decoupled. Antagonist coalitions may provide fastness and ultra-fastness framing further to reinforce the legitimacy of market logic in the landscape. Negative impact niches may also provide eco-efficiency framings to legitimise their practices and operations.Landscape‑niche interactionsLike protagonist and antagonist regime coalitions, it is vital to highlight the distinctions between negative and positive impact niches, as we explained earlier. Like the regime players, niche players operate in an institutionally complex environment where both environmental and social sustainability logic, as well as the market logic, guide beliefs, norms and practices. However, negative and positive impact niches are predominantly guided by one logic more than the other (i.e. demonstrating one dominant logic rather than being impacted by both logics equally).Landscape–Niche Interactions (2a)Market logic dominates the negative impact niches. An example of a negative impact niche in the fashion industry is ultra-fast fashion that “can bring products from design to sale in as little as a few days, focusing on rapidly responding to consumers’ increas-ing demands for immediacy and fashionable innovation” (Camargo et al., 2020, p. 538). Ultra-fast fashion players like Boohoo and Shein use digital technologies to gather and utilise big data on consumer behaviour, personalise shoppers’ experiences, and heavily draw on social media and influencers (Monroe, 2021). Even during the Covid-19 crisis, these companies were reportedly “quick to capitalise on Covid-19 as an opportunity to boost sales, but had paid little attention to low wages and unsafe working conditions in its suppliers’ factories […and] growth and profit were prioritised to the extent that the company lost sight of other issues” (Monroe, 2021, p. 2). A recent article in the Guard-ian demonstrates how these ultra-fast fashion players, such as Shein, exacerbate the problem of unsustainable consumerism while being responsible for environmental and social sustainability problems. For instance, “some workers at factories supplying Shein reported working more than 75 h a week. In one of them, workers got one day off a month” (Mahmood, 2022). These niche players maintain legitimacy as their operations

Page 14 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 and business models align with market logic which has dominated the fast fashion regime in decades.Some negative impact niches may not appear negative at first sight. However, they still operate in alignment with the market logic. An example is platforms such as Depop, which may be regarded as “important services that can drive the [circular economy] for fashion” by some scholars (Manieson et al., 2021, p. 342). However, the same platform can also be critiqued for its social implications, as it still encourages unsustainable con-sumption, leads to fashion addiction and exacerbates social inequality and gender issues (Hitchings-Hales, 2021; Lieber, 2019; Mahmood, 2022). Here, too, we observe that while some niche players may posit themselves as more sustainable compared to the regime players, these niche players also carry attributes of the dominant market logic in various ways and, unfortunately, reinforce unsustainable and unethical consumption patterns, exacerbating both environmental and social challenges.On the other hand, sustainability logic dominates the positive impact niches. However, sustainable fashion players within the positive impact niches must satisfy the economic bottom line to ensure funding and maintain operations whilst creating a positive impact aligned with their mission (Illge & Preuss, 2012). This is why clashes between different logics are often observed in sustainable business models (Bidmon & Knab, 2018; Smink et al., 2015a, 2015b). This is also evident in the work of sustainable fashion entrepre-neurs, who are often challenged by the conflicting demands of maintaining a finan-cially successful business while at the same time aligning this business with their ethical and sustainable values (Heinze, 2020). Indeed, a recent study portrays how sustainable fashion entrepreneurs experience financial precarity and tension “between pro-social motives and more traditional, masculine or “gladiatorial” entrepreneurial tendencies […] that privilege competitiveness and financial reward, offering another component of emotional complexity experienced by [sustainable fashion] entrepreneurs”. Therefore, the growing literature on social/environmental enterprises explores mission drifts—“the risk of losing sight of their social missions in their efforts to generate revenue” (Ebrahim et al., 2014, p. 82). Mission drifts demonstrate that positive impact niche players face the risk of drifting apart from their missions if market logic gains dominance.Based on the above, we argue the following:Interaction 2a—Landscape diffuses market and sustainability logics to the regime play-ers, providing institutional complexity at the niche level. While market logic dominates negative impact niches, i.e. ultra-fast fashion, sustainability logic dominates the positive impact niches. However, positive impact niches face the risk of mission drifts due to the tensions embedded in their business model that reflect the contradictions between market and sustainability logics.Niche–landscape interactions (2b)In response to the environmental and social challenges brought by the fast fashion regime, positive impact niche players emerged in recent years to challenge the domi-nant practices and norms with novel business models (Lueg et al., 2015; Stål & Cor-vellec, 2018). Earlier, we introduced six framings of these positive impact niches that challenge the fast-fashion regime. We observe many players within the positive niches that engage in these framings, demonstrating alignment with the sustainability logic,

Page 15 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 albeit diagnosing different aspects of fast fashion as problematic or proposing alter-native solutions to the challenges faced by the fashion industry. Drawing on consist-ency framing, California Cloth Foundry legitimises itself by suggesting that “our skin absorbs what we put on it” and hence, “[they] choose only botanical ingredients and avoid all petrol-based fibres, treatments and dyes” (California Cloth Foundry, 2021). Utilising the degrowth or sufficiency framing, Petit Pli designs children’s clothing items considering the growth rate of children using new materials that enable con-tinuous size adjustments, aiming to reduce the consumption of children’s clothing through degrowth principles. Abrazo Style—a company that promotes ethical fram-ing, describes its products as “fairly traded, quality, hand embroidered, 100% cotton Mexican apparel in contemporary fabrics and designs” (Style, 2021). Similarly, other sustainability entrepreneurs use ethical framing to highlight the social dimension of sustainability and emphasise providing jobs for communities and local economies guided by social inequalities in their businesses (Su et al., 2022). Advocating slow framing, the Tiny Closet creates clothing from outsourced/deadstock fabric while ensuring all pieces are made to order, thereby aligning itself with the principles of slow fashion (Wardrobe Oxygen, 2021). Using deadstock fabric also aligns itself with the other framing: circular. Promoting circular framing, Pure Waste produces cloth-ing items from waste fabric (Pure Waste, 2021), and Nuw provides a social network to share clothes with people in your local community and extend the life cycle of our wardrobes (Nuw, 2021).Unlike the positive impact niches, however, the negative impact niches, like ultra-fast fashion, may further reinforce the legitimacy of market logic with an unsustaina-ble framing of ‘ultra-fastness’ demonstrating an alignment with the market logic. They engage in discursive battles to hook customers to buy more with aggressive online engagement and an abundance of style while at the same time staying efficient with a small inventory and no brick-and-mortar stores (Camargo et al., 2020; Monroe, 2021). In an interview, Carol Kane and Mahmud Kamani, the co-founders of Boohoo, explain the foundations of their business by suggesting they saw the internet as a way “to cut out the middleman and market directly to customers” and in 2006, they set up Boohoo. The partnership [between Kane and Kamani] covered all the bases: [Kamani] had the money, while Ms Kane knew the industry and the tastes of fashionable young women” (Lewis, 2020). Thus, the foundations of these businesses already reflect the dominant market logics. However, while sustainability logic may not dominate ultra-fast fashion players, they may also engage in eco-efficiency framing from time to time. Since they, too, are exposed to sustainability logics. For instance, Boohoo announced a collaboration with media personality Kourtney Kardashian Barker and launched new collections focusing on sustainability. However, “many accused Boohoo and Kourtney of greenwashing—which is when a company positions itself as being envi-ronmentally friendly in marketing but lacks eco-conscious practices” (Wheeler, 2022).Based on the above, we argue the following:Interaction 2b—Niche players provide their framings to shift or reinforce the domi-nant logic in the landscape. Positive impact niches provide their pro-sustainability framings (consistency, degrowth-sufficiency, ethical, slow, circular and sharing) to shift the dominant market logic in the landscape that guides the regime practices. Negative

Page 16 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 impact niches provide framings, like ultra-fastness, to further reinforce the legitimacy of market logic in the landscape. Negative impact niches may also provide eco-effi-ciency framings to legitimise their practices and operations. However, this may entail greenwashing if and when the corporate action and language are decoupled.Regime‑Niche Interactions (3a&b)Based on examples from fashion, the nature of relationships between the regime and niche players can be characterised as coopetitive because we observe that regime and niche players engage both in cooperative and competitive framing. Regimes and niches may copy the framings of the niches or position themselves as competitors to some niches, which we refer to as competitive framing. Alternatively, both regime and niche players may collaborate with each other and position themselves as partners (Dzhengiz et al. 2023), which we refer to as cooperative framing.The tragic Rana Plaza event and the regulatory environment, such as the EU circular economy regulations, pushed the fast fashion incumbents to partially adjust to the niche instead of heavily investing in the current paradigm. H&M joined forces with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and committed to a 100% circular vision with the “goal to only use recycled or other sustainably sourced materials by 2030” (H&M, 2017). They added that “[they] are aware that [this] vision means a big change from on how fashion is made and enjoyed today and if [they] want to take the lead in this challenge” (H&M, 2017). A similar player is VF Corporation, which introduced takeback systems to reuse and recy-cle their products (VF Corp., 2017). These show that fast fashion incumbents are copy-ing the pro-sustainability framings of niche players and getting into direct competition with many positive impact niche players, thus engaging in competitive framing. Because, due to these initiatives, they can communicate with the consumer where they are as the industry’s incumbents regarding sustainability and target a portion of the market for environmentally conscious consumers.Positive impact niches may also use competitive framing to legitimise themselves and their sustainable technologies or business models (Kishna et al., 2017). They use various discursive strategies to delegitimise the regime players framing the regime “as insuffi-cient, outdated, irresponsible, or unacceptable” (Geels, 2010, p. 506). For instance, the founder of Nuw highlights that “[she] was angry and frustrated that [she] had been so complicit in an industry that caused so much harm, and [she] was heartbroken because [she] did not feel [she] could enjoy fashion without contributing to the problem” (Nuw, 2021). Similarly, Batshava Hay, an entrepreneur that focuses on recycling existing fab-rics to produce new clothes, reminds us that “[their] main issue is with companies like H&M pushing such huge quantities of cheap clothing by calling it sustainable, yet in the end, they are still producing a massive collective waste…the focus should really be on buying less and wearing what you own over and over again, rather than buying too much cheap, disposable clothing” (Dixon, 2019). Here, we observed the delegitimisation efforts of positive impact niches as a response to the uptake of sustainability logic by the regime players, using a competitive framing.On the other hand, competition with the fast fashion regime is fierce for nega-tive impact niches. Boohoo, the ultra-fast player, recently bought brands such as Debenhams and Dorothy Perkins. Its executive chairman, Mahmud Kamani, said

Page 17 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 (“Debenhams shops to close permanently after Boohoo deal,” 2021): “This is a trans-formational deal for the group, which allows us to capture the fantastic opportunity as e-commerce continues to grow. Our ambition is to create the UK’s largest market-place.[…] Our acquisition of the Debenhams brand is strategically significant as it represents a huge step which accelerates our ambition to be a leader, not just in fash-ion e-commerce, but in new categories including beauty, sport and homeware.” As the statement shows, strategies such as mergers and acquisitions and demonstrating interest in market leadership through competitive framing show the efforts of nega-tive impact niches acting upon the dominant market logic to shape the regime fur-ther using a competitive framing.The relationship between niche and regime players is complex due to their hori-zontal and diagonal linkages (Ingram, 2015). The dynamics, therefore, are not always competitive. Sometimes, “incumbent players lose faith in the regime due to much landscape pressure and no longer defend the regime” (Smink et al., 2015a, 2015b, p. 88). Such appears to be the case in fast fashion. We identified several examples of cooperative interactions: strategic alliances between the regime and niche players and innovation ecosystems whereby incumbents develop, fund, and cooperate with startups. For instance, Lenzing and H&M joined forces for the Conscious Collec-tions in 2011. H&M uses Lenzing’s Tencel branded Lyocell fibres- based on a niche technology that produces fibres from natural wood pulp from sustainable tree farms and biomass (H&M, 2017). H&M also partnered with I: Co, which collects clothing and footwear for reuse and recycling (Reuters, 2019). Bext360, a blockchain startup, partnered with various regime incumbents such as C&A, Zalando, PVH Corp and the Kering Group to pilot their blockchain technology to track and trace the value chain of organic cotton (Knapp, 2019). Kering—the global fashion conglomerate with a portfolio of Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga brands—is working with the startup accelerator Plug and Play to launch the Kering Sustainable Innovation Award. This award aims “to boost Chinese startups with the potential to bring a positive environmental and social impact to the apparel and textile industries” (van Elven, 2018). In summary, incumbents employ competitive strategies by adjusting slowly and copying the strategies of positive impact niche players that demonstrate novel pro-sustainable framings. Simultaneously, they collaborate with and enable the development of positive impact niche players, which is a helpful strategy to remain competitive, as the legitimacy of positive niche players enhances over time.Based on the above, we argue the following:Interaction 3a*- Regime players may copy the pro-sustainability framings (i.e. cir-cular framing) of positive impact niches by engaging in competitive framing, rein-forcing the legitimacy of sustainability logic. Regime players may also engage with cooperative framing and actively collaborate with positive impact niches, reinforcing the legitimacy of sustainability logic.Interaction 3b*- Positive impact niche players may use competitive framing to infiltrate the regime and gain dominance by delegitimising dominant regime play-ers through an emphasis on how the market logic still dominates the regime players, which is evident in various examples of greenwashing of regime players. Alterna-tively, some positive impact niche players may also engage with cooperative framing

Page 18 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 and even actively collaborate with regime players to infiltrate the regime and gain dominance. Negative impact niche players may use competitive framing and engage in strategic moves, such as mergers and acquisitions aligned with the market logic, to further shape regime practices, infiltrate the regime, and gain dominance.Regime interactions (4)Examples from fast fashion demonstrate that the regime is filled with persistent insti-tutional tensions and contradictions amongst the players, which is reflected in various controversies and framing contests. For instance, in 2021, the International Sericul-tural Commission (ISC), an inter-governmental organization that aims to develop the silk industry worldwide, registered an official complaint to the Federal Trade Commis-sion (FTC) about silk’s score on the Higg Index of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (Mathews, 2020). Higg Index is a standardised measurement of value chain sustain-ability (Sustainable Apparel Coalition, 2021). Sustainable Apparel Coalition helps fast-fashion players legitimise their eco-efficiency framing by developing the Higg Index to measure and reduce sustainability impacts in the textile value chain (Sustainable Apparel Coalition, 2021). The complaint claimed that silk as a fibre is unfairly and inaccurately represented on the Higg Material Sustainability Index (MSI). This shows that there are framing contests in the fast fashion regime due to controversies over the sustainability of different materials.Similar framing contests have also been observed regarding plastic-based fibres’ sus-tainability and environmental impacts, e.g. polyester. The Fossil Fashion report, pro-duced by the Changing Markets Foundation, showed that more than half of all textiles produced globally contain polyester, which”bare [many] challenges of recycling once it has been blended with other materials”; thus,”the contribution of fast fashion to waste and of the microplastic pollution which synthetic clothing sheds when washed” (Edie Newsroom, 2021). This report challenged fast fashion incumbents of the regime, such as Nike, H&M, Primark and Zara, by revealing that” clothes made from recycled plastic bottles are just as damaging to the environment” ().Thus, independent nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) played an essential role in these regime dynamics (Fischer & Newig, 2016). Another example is the Clean Clothes Campaign which “repeatedly addressed moral and ethical aspects in fash-ion production [..] and put pressure on fashion companies to minimize negative social and environmental impacts” (Beyer & Arnold, 2022, p. 46). Here, the emotional framing efforts of NGOs (Dzhengiz et al., 2021) can be effective in further pushing the dominant companies in the regime to further enhance their social and environmental sustainability standards, for instance. Another campaign as such is the Detox campaign of Greenpeace. For instance, Adidas has been scrutinised by Greenpeace “even after the company’s com-mitment to [Greenpeace] detox campaign and only after setting a credible roadmap, has [Greenpeace] announced these commitments as a victory for the industry” (Dzhengiz et al., 2021, p. 2477). Here, NGOs such as Greenpeace are not dominant regime players (like the incumbents of fast fashion). However, they act as challengers to shift the regime dynamics by interacting with other regime players through campaigns.Alternatively, regime players may act aligned, as mentioned earlier in the regime coali-tions. Industry-policy cooperations, voluntary agreements, and commitments are also

Page 19 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 common in fashion. For example, Textiles 2030 is a voluntary agreement for the fash-ion industry to transform industry practices by reducing companies’ impacts on climate change, whereby many dominant regime players such as Marks and Spencers, Primark, and Next are members (WRAP, 2021). Another example focuses on a social sustaina-bility issue, labour conditions. The Better Work Programme, organised by International Labour Organization and International Finance Corporation, invites textile factories to improve working conditions with a vision to lift people out of poverty in the global gar-ment industry by providing decent work, empowering women and promoting inclusive economic growth (Better Work, 2022). We provided several examples of these kinds of protagonist coalitions in fast fashion earlier to explain how through these coalitions, they provide their framing to shift or influence the dominant logics in the landscape. Here, we further add that such coalitions provide a space to negotiate over the different pro-sustainability framings of different regime players, thus also a platform for regime interactions.Based on the above, we argue the following:Interaction 4- Regime players may propose misaligned framings, thus leading to fram-ing contests. Alternatively, they may propose aligned framings, leading to coalitions, whether protagonist or antagonist.Niche Interactions (5)In the context of fast fashion, we introduced positive impact niches that engage with pro-sustainability framings (consistency, degrowth-sufficiency, ethical, slow, circular and sharing) and negative impact niches that engage with unsustainable framings (i.e. ultra-fast fashion). Both negative and positive impact niches interact amongst and with each other to some degree.Recently, ultra-fast fashion started infiltrating the dominant regime, even threaten-ing the dominant regime players such as H&M and Zara with their ultra-fast offerings (Monroe, 2021). As a niche, ultra-fast fashion threatens the viability of rising pro-sus-tainable framings of positive niche players. The overconsumption embedded in the business models of ultra-fast-fashion players like Shein or Boohoo is viewed as funda-mentally unsustainable and unethical (Nguyen, 2021). Positive impact niches, through their pro-sustainable framings that aim to address the environmental and social sustain-ability challenges, compete with the negative impact niches’ unsustainable framing. For instance, some critics argue that the ultra-fast negative impact niches promote the lin-ear economy, often discard the ethical dimension of designing and marketing products, neglect paying fair wages to workers, and are associated with poor working conditions in their supply chains (Kent, 2020). This controversy between the existing niches is seen in social media, where “sustainable fashion influencers are competing with a major force capturing the attention of Generation Z and millennial women: the ultra-fast fashion industry” (Birenbaum, 2021). Also, many entrepreneurs, like Tom Cridland, are fight-ing against ultra-fast fashion, offering durable products, and challenging the notion of ultra-fastness with quality, durability, and sustainability (Ford, 2019). Cridland offers the ‘30 Year Collection’ as an antidote to fast and ultra-fast fashion and encourages cus-tomers to “hold on to [their] clothing for a lifetime” (Ford, 2019). Another sustainability

Page 20 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 entrepreneur, Anne-Marie Tomchak, critiques the Instagram and Tiktok marketing heavily adopted by ultra-fast fashion players such as Boohoo and Shein and says that “I am personally of the view that the advertising model around social media is contribut-ing to climate change because it has led to the acceleration of fast fashion” (). Here, we observe how positive impact niche players may contradict and challenge negative impact niche players through framing the unsustainability of the business models that rely on ultra-fastness.Between different positive impact niche operators, cooperative framings are also in play. A British blogger Francesca Willow reported about cooperation around the sus-tainable clothing bloggers and brands (Willow, 2017): “We do not believe in competition in our community (we like each other too much for a start), so we decided to join forces, bringing together our resources and ideas—enabling us to talk about brands we believe are making a difference, whilst also getting the chance to work together.”In the context of new sustainable material innovations, Finland has been reported to build up an entrepreneurial ecosystem around cellulosic textiles. “Collaboration across the value chain has been essential for accelerating innovations,” says Dr. Solveig Roschier from Gaia Consulting (Business Finland, 2018). This is not to say that positive impact niches would not also have competing framings. As the definitions in Table 1 showed ear-lier, the proponents of different pro-sustainable framings may prioritise different issues. For instance, while ethical framing prioritises the social dimension of sustainability, cir-cular framing prioritises resource use and circulation. We were able to identify examples between positive and negative impact niches and cooperative framings amongst positive impact niche players and competitive framings amongst positive impact niche players. However, we could not find examples of cooperative and competitive framings between different negative impact niche players. While these relationships may exist in real life, we are limited in searching for cases representing these relationships.Based on the above, we argue the following:Interaction 5- Positive impact niche players may use competitive framing and engage in framing contests to infiltrate the regime and gain dominance by delegitimising negative impact niche players through an emphasis on the unsustainability of ultra-fast fashion business models relying on market logic. Alternatively, some positive impact niche players may also engage with cooperative framing and even actively collaborate with each other to infiltrate the regime and gain dominance.DiscussionBased on the illustrative case of (un)sustainable transitions in fashion, we built a con-ceptual framework, as shown in Fig. 1 and proposed several arguments in the previous section supporting this framework. In this section, we further explain how our frame-work resonated with the extant MLP literature and in what ways the illustrative case of fashion transitions helped us further expand the existing conversation on MLP and sus-tainability transitions. We do so by discussing each interaction we detailed with various examples in the previous section. We conceptualised five distinct interactions between landscape and regime players, landscape and niche players, regime and niche players, amongst different regime players and niches.

Page 21 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 Figure 1 demonstrates two interactions between the landscape and the regime players (1a and 1b). One (1a) focuses on the diffusion of complex and heterogenous institutional logics, both market and environmental and social sustainability logics, to dominant regime players. This interaction aligns with the existing transition literature that focuses on the MLP. For instance, Geels and Kemp (2007, p. 446) highlight that “landscape developments create pressure on the regime, leading to major problems”. They argue that while regime players try to react to landscape developments with incremental changes, they often cannot fully solve the problems; hence, niche players find a window of opportunity (Geels & Kemp, 2007). They further argue that landscape-regime interac-tions provide room for socio-technical transitions; however, they also highlight that the landscape changes over a long time.The other interaction between landscape and regime (1b) emphasises the agency of regime players to influence the landscape by legitimising different logics through their own framing efforts, often through developing protagonist or antagonist regime coali-tions. Scholars highlight that “institutions also depend on agency; [since] institutions are constructed by the very same players” (Smink et al., 2015a, 2015b, p. 89). This agency is thanks to regime players’ framing efforts which give sense to other stakeholders and push their meaning systems at the landscape level. A recent article by Geels (2020, p. 9) captures this interaction as “structural elaboration”, which he defines as ‘upward’ actions that reproduce existing institutions (“morphostasis”) or transform them (“morphogene-sis”)”. He notes that such agency can often be attributed to institutional entrepreneurship of professional societies, industry associations, and standardization organizations. In the case of fashion, such organizations include but are not limited to Fashion for Good, Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, and Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Still, we find that while Geels (2020) recently captured this agency of such organizations to influence the landscape, MLP literature overall did not focus much on how these organizations would be able to do so by using various framing strategies. Here, we believe our paper can start a new conversation by inviting other scholars to explore the role of agency through pro-tagonist and antagonist coalitions.Figure 1 demonstrates two interactions between the landscape and the niche players (2a and 2b). Like in the landscape-regime interactions, we also include both the top-down and the bottom-up dynamics. One interaction focuses on the diffusion of com-plex and heterogenous institutional logics, both market and environmental and social sustainability logics, to positive and negative niche players in a top-down fashion. Albeit differently because we explain positive and negative niches are dominated by one logic more than the other (sustainability logic for positive niche, market logic for negative niche). Thus, the landscape also shapes the niche level through market and sustainabil-ity logic diffusion. Therefore, like the regime, niche players also operate in institutional complexity. Niche players also influence the landscape by framing to give sense to other stakeholders and push their meaning systems at the landscape level. MLP framework also acknowledges that the discursive activities of niche players (i.e. framing) “eventu-ally result in cultural repertoires at the landscape level” (Koistinen et al., 2018, p. 113). However, as El Bilali (2019b, p. 358) highlights, with a few exceptions like Koistinen et al. (2018), MLP literature also often emphasises how the landscape provides the structure for niche players, and there is “more room for agency within the MLP.”

Page 22 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 Figure 1 also demonstrates the regime and niche players’ interactions, focusing on the competitive and cooperative framing dynamics. We explain that both positive and negative niche and regime players engage with competitive or cooperative framing to gain or maintain regime dominance. Again, these competitive and cooperative framing efforts also capture how regime and niche players actively use different framing strate-gies and contests to either remain legitimate and relevant (for regime incumbents) or to gain legitimacy to dominate the regime (for niche). Especially the niche players are trying to replace the regime, especially as a dominant framing emerges from framing contests between different niche alternatives (3a). On the other hand, regime players aim to maintain their legitimacy in the face of public scrutiny due to scandals and green-washing accusations by adopting the eco-efficiency framing, which aims to combine the market logic and sustainability logic, respectively, through a business case approach (3b).Here, our findings from fashion transitions resonate with the transitions literature which gave significant attention to regime-niche interactions. This literature posited that as the niche network expands, the new offering of the niches gains significant market share (Geels & Schot, 2007). Therefore, regime-niche interactions are often viewed as competitive. Regimes may resist niche players by using their power to access resources (Koistinen et al., 2018). This resistance is often viewed when they heavily invest in the current paradigm or partially adjust to niches (Smink et al., 2015a, 2015b). For instance, the regime may use the financial system to control which niche innovations would receive future investments, highlighting that only those niche players that fit or con-form with the regime would gain sufficient legitimacy to replace the regime (Geddes & Schmidt, 2020). Regime players may respond to niches through de-alignment strategies that are competitive and defensive and re-alignment strategies that are cooperative and proactive (Smink et al., 2015a, 2015b). Thus, our findings add to the literature on MLP in transitions by showing that regime-niche dynamics are indeed coopetitive.Figure 1 also demonstrates interactions within the regime by demonstrating how regime players may have framings that align with each other, which may result in regime coalitions, whether protagonist or antagonist. They may also posit misaligned framings, which may compete with each other, even clash, resulting in framing contests. Literature on transitions also portrayed regimes as semi-coherent entities that entail endogenous sources of change due to multiple institutional logics that offer different behavioural rationalities (Runhaar et al., 2020). Thus, our proposal of regimes as a framing con-test field demonstrates alignment with the extant literature. Joining Fuenfschilling and Truffer (2014), we also argue that regimes are filled with persistent institutional tensions and contradictions amongst the players. In the fast fashion regime, we demonstrated these contradictions, especially in the recent controversies about different materials, including silk and polyester which destabilised the regime and many dominant regime players are still unable to clearly defend their position (for instance, for marketing recy-cled polyester as sustainable and green).Finally, Fig. 1 also demonstrates interactions within the niche players by demonstrating how positive impact niche players may use competitive or cooperative framing amongst themselves to legitimise each other and engage in framing contests with negative impact niche players to infiltrate the regime and gain dominance by delegitimising their model of business. This, too, was highlighted by the MLP literature, which emphasised how

Page 23 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 niche players may compete to gain dominance and have their novelties used in the regime or even replace regime practices and norms (Schot & Geels, 2008). For instance, like our emphasis on coopetitive dynamics between different positive impact niche play-ers, Köhler et al. (2019) also highlighted the need to understand the complementary and competing interactions between emerging and existing niches. Here, however, we expanded the conversation within the MLP literature on transitions at the niche level. Exclusively, we propose a distinction between negative and positive impact niches and challenge the assumption that niches are almost always associated with positive environ-mental and societal impact.Unlike the expectation of a ‘sustainable transition’, we show that fashion first evolved from a prêt-à-porter to fast fashion. Today, the fast-fashion regime is threatened mainly by the negative impact of ultra-fast fashion niches, unlike the expectation of sustainable fashion players taking over the regime. Indeed, with all the stakeholder concerns, ultra-fast players like Boohoo have been financially very successful and still growing via takeo-vers and acquisitions of many known fast fashion brands.ConclusionsIn this paper, we shed light on (un)sustainable transitions by presenting an illustrative case of transitions in fashion. Based on the illustrative case of fashion, we presented a framework that integrates institutional logics and framing with the interactions in the MLP. We also explored the fashion industry’s positive and negative sustainability devel-opments. By doing so, we contributed to the literature in three distinct ways.First, we demonstrated how fast fashion became the regime and how ultra-fast fash-ion will likely replace today’s fast fashion. Antal et al. (2020) previously invited others to study unsustainable trends, which have received scant attention thus far. Our analysis particularly focused on these unsustainable trends as we highlighted the negative impact niches at the micro level, antagonistic coalitions at the meso level, and the framing con-tests that include unsustainable promotion of ultra-fastness and fastness and micro and meso levels. Therefore, we answered the call of Antal et al. (2020) and contributed to the literature on MLP by expanding the conversation from sustainability transitions to unsustainable transitions.More specifically, concerning our first contribution, we challenged the notion that niche developments often lead to sustainable solutions. We joined scholars such as Næss and Vogel (2012), who referred to ’unsustainable niches’ and defined two categories of niche players based on their sustainability impact: positive impact and negative impact niche players. While many other scholars gave examples of positive impact niche players in fashion and other contexts, we demonstrated ultra-fast fashion as a negative impact niche. Doing so, we also contributed to the literature on MLP by extending the notion of niche.Secondly, we shed light on the transitions of the previously neglected fashion con-text. To our knowledge, transition studies have failed to study the evolution of the tex-tile, apparel, clothing and fashion industries thus far. Therefore, we believe our analysis, based on secondary data and illustrative cases, can provide an initial understanding of transitions to fast fashion (and currently to ultra-fast fashion).

Page 24 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 Thirdly, to explain interactions in the MLP framework, we draw on framing contests and institutional logics literature. We, therefore, joined other studies that created a bridge between transitions and framing and institutional logics (Fuenfschilling & Truffer, 2014; Runhaar et al., 2020) and elaborated on the idea of agency and power, which extant MLP literature in transitions was critiqued for lacking (El Bilali, 2019a, 2019b; Svensson & Nikoleris, 2018).Limitations and future research guidanceOur study is not without limitations. Firstly, due to our limited research focus, we did not provide how consumer demands may shape the (un)sustainable fashion transi-tions. Based on Fischer and Newig (2016), changing consumer trends towards more sustainable alternatives is likely one of the explanatory factors for landscape change today. Here, we believe future research should further focus on the role of consumer trends in shaping the landscape, thus, the macro level of fashion transitions and explain to what degree the changes in consumer trends affected the institutional log-ics that provide legitimate norms, practices and behaviour.Secondly, our research is based on secondary data and illustrative examples. While these examples helped us identify some adverse developments and unsustainable transitions, we believe future empirical research is necessary to shed light on the neg-ative impact niche players further, mainly to show how they use competitive framing amongst themselves and engage in framing contests with regime players. Exploring the framing strategies of ultra-fast fashion players like Boohoo and Shein can be a good start for future research. Furthermore, a similar analysis of antagonistic coali-tions is also necessary. Here, empirical studies could especially explore how in the face of controversies such as the one about polyester and silk in the Higg Index, dif-ferent regime players may act together in defence of their positions.To conclude, for a sustainability transition to occur, positive developments at all levels need to occur in the fashion industry. The multi-layered interaction process presented in this article shows how complex and multi-faceted the transition is in fashion. Joining (Buchel et al., 2018, p. 39), we also highlight that “to effectively con-tribute to a transition, one needs to acknowledge the systemic complexity, the myriad of interrelated players and scale levels, and the fact that too often the solutions we are working on now are part of the problem”. Moving forward, we invite future scholars to explore the transitions in the fashion industry, which, in our view, would provide novel explanations regarding unsustainable transitions.Implications for practiceOur research framework informs three types of practitioners: sustainable fashion entrepreneurs, sustainability managers in fast fashion incumbents, and policymakers. Here, we summarise the implications of our research for these practitioners.Firstly, our framework shows that sustainable fashion entrepreneurs (that form the positive impact niche) will need to compete with each others’ framings because dif-ferent entrepreneurs focus on different challenges within the unsustainability of fast fashion and propose different solutions. We demonstrated that these entrepreneurs

Page 25 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 often go beyond eco-efficiency framing and propose six distinct framings: consist-ency, degrowth-sufficiency, ethical, slow, circular and sharing. Ultra-fast fashion and fashion players also increasingly adopt eco-efficiency, circular, and sharing framing. Therefore, sustainable fashion entrepreneurs will need to actively challenge fast and ultra fast fashion to establish their legitimacy and destabilise the unsustainable transi-tions. The idea of framing contests provides sustainable fashion entrepreneurs with an idea of how they can use language tactics, emotions, and ethical values, to replace dominant regime practices and negative impact niches.Moreover, the tensions between sustainability’s environmental, social and economic demands challenge sustainable fashion entrepreneurs. We join Heinze (2020) and note that financial precarity may affect these entrepreneurs if they cannot balance the demands of the market and sustainability logics. Here, sustainable fashion entrepreneurs must be cautious of drifting away from their missions if market logic gains dominance in their operations.Secondly, our framework provides insights for sustainability managers in fast fashion incumbents (as part of the regime). We demonstrated that fast fashion incumbents had experienced a legitimacy crisis since the Rana Plaza tragedy. Here, a way forward for the incumbents has been cross-sector partnerships and inter-firm alliances to address vari-ous sustainable development goals (Dzhengiz 2020) often collaboratively with others in the industry through protagonist coalitio (Dzhengiz et al. 2023). We underline that sus-tainability managers in fashion incumbents play a crucial role as internal change agents and external advocates of their company’s, framing their own sustainable solutions, which are often associated with eco-efficiency. As internal change agents, we believe these managers should motivate their organizations to integrate sustainability into the core of the business. This will, fundamentally, require challenging the fast fashion busi-ness model and its emphasis on over-consumption. Here, framing and framing contests, not for external legitimacy but for internal organizational change, can help these manag-ers (Girschik, 2018).Finally, our study posited how transitions could turn unsustainable and not all niches require protection for innovation’s sake, especially when their impact on the natu-ral environment and societal well-being is negative. Thus, joining Lazarevic and Valve (2020), we believe policymakers should address normative questions. Who decides what niches should be protected and on what grounds? Should they be protected at the expense of others? Policymakers should think about these questions. Our framework can help policymakers to conceptualise different multilevel interactions in the context of fast fashion and guide them on the complexities of transitions.AcknowledgementsWe want to thank Minna Halme and Jouni Juntunen for their friendly feedback. We also would like to thank Professor Mike Hodson for his generous and constructive feedback. We also owe a thank you to the participants of SUB sessions at Aalto who also provided constructive feedback to this article while its development. We also would like to thank Elise Rehula for her design support which helped us put our theoretical ideas into a framework. Author’s contributionsTD contributed to the article especially by building the conceptual framework and looking at the MLP framework through the lens of institutional logics and framing. TH contributed to the article by introducing the literature on sustain-able transitions and MLP. OS contributed to the article by bringing insights from textiles and fashion and sustainability issues in this context. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Page 26 of 33Dzhengiz et al. Fashion and Textiles (2023) 10:19 Authors’ information Tulin Dzhengiz isa Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Sustainability at the Department ofStrategy Enterprise Sustainability at Manchester Metropolitan University. Sheis interested in researching inter-organisational relationships, includingcol-laborations, strategic alliances, partnerships, innovation andentrepreneurial ecosystems, and industrial clusters in the context ofsustainability and circular economy. She has published in variousjournals such as the International Journal of Management Reviews, BusinessStrategy and the Environment, Journal of Business Ethics, and Sustainability.Teresa Haukkala is a Research Fellow at the Chair ‘Technology for Change’ at École Polytechnique in Paris, France. Her research focuses on the interface of sustainability, science, technology, business and policy analysis and advocacy. She is a Political Scientist by training and has received her doctoral degree from Organization and Management Studies at the Aalto University School of Business in June 2019. Her PhD thesis handled the wicked problem of a low carbon energy transition and in particular the deployment of solar energy in Finland. After her PhD she worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University and Aalto University School of Business before joining École Polytechnique. Prior to her PhD, she has worked in the field of communications as a consultant and manager, and also as a journalist. She has published in leading journals, such as Research Policy, Energy Research & Social Science, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, and Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy. Olli Sahimaa is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Aalto University School of Business. His research and teaching focus on sys-tems analysis, sustainability transitions and circular business models. He has extensively studied especially fashion and textiles as well as municipal waste sectors. Sahimaa strives toward inter-disciplinarity in his research. He has published in various highly regarded journals, including Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, Sustainable Production and Consump-tion and Waste Management. His career background is a combination of environmental engineering and sustainability in business.FundingThis research was supported by the Academy of Finland’s Strategic Research Council’s Grant No. 327299 Sustainable textile systems: Co-creating resource-wise business for Finland in global textile networks/FINIX consortium.Availability of data and materialsNot applicable.DeclarationsEthics approval and consent to participateOur paper is based on previous literature and secondary data. Therefore, there is no need for ethics approval or participation.Consent for publicationAll authors give consent for publication of our article at Fashion and Textiles journal. 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