Vestiaire Collective will ban fast fashion brands from its marketplace starting Friday.
The fast fashion ban effort, by Vestiaire Collective, counts Black Friday promotional deals and aims to position the retailer as progressive in an anti-consumerist culture.
“Fast fashion has no value, and even less on resale,” says Donia Won, Chief Impact Officer of Vestiaire Collective. “We have taken this step because we do not want to be involved in an industry with a high environmental and social impact. The current system encourages over-production and over-use of low-quality goods and generates large amounts of fashion waste.”
The full list of recently banned brands includes Asos, Atmosphere, Boohoo, Burton, Cider, Coast, Dorothy Perkins, Fashion Nova, Karen Millen, Miss Selfridge, Misdirection, Na-Ked, Nasty Gal, Oasis, Pretty Little Thing. , Shein, Tezenis, Topman, Topshop (and collaboration) and Warehouse.
Some brands like Shein have already launched their own sales service.
B Corp Vestiaire isn’t shy when it comes to exclusive marketing. Following the acquisition of Tradici in March, the retailer introduced a “collection” of the toys in a campaign to celebrate resale and differentiate itself from competitors.
While the news may seem progressive, the ban may now be on the lines of greenwashing, as it does not include Spanish fast fashion retailer Zara, which currently has 105 pages of listings or more than 5,000 items. (Banned brands, by contrast, generate very few search results at all, indicating that they may have been removed from the site in the first place or earlier). Vestiaire Collective has confirmed that it bans all fast fashion on the wave, although the company doesn’t give firm estimates or deadlines.
Sellers are increasing space with products they allow on their sites to address environmental and social issues. Earlier this fall, both The RealReal and Rebag took to banning the product. In this case, Yeezy’s ban was in response to criticism of Ye (the celebrity formerly known as Kanye West)’s inflammatory (and in some cases anti-Semitic) comments.
