Facing a wave of new rules by the European Union, the bloc’s fashion industry is gearing up to address its concerns. The next months will be crucial as legislators are starting to flesh out a set of green rules.

In July, Ursula von der Leyen was re-elected as the President of the EU Commission. In her second term, the EU plans to implement a set of rules for greener products sold on the single market. This also marks the start of a phase during which industry representatives, such as the European Fashion Alliance (EFA), can make suggestions on how the rules will be applied in practice.

“Work to do”

“I count on your support on making the legislation work together with businesses, consumers and the environment,” Jessika Roswall, the new EU Commissioner for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy said in Brussels on Wednesday.

“As a new Commissioner, I want you to know that my door is always open,” she told a room of nearly a hundred representatives from 15 European fashion associations gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels this week. While she acknowledged their efforts to address fashion’s negative environmental impact through more sustainable sourcing or product design, she also pointed out challenges.

Europe’s clothing and textile sector has a yearly turnover of 170 billion euros but it also generates more than 12 million tonnes of textile waste, Roswall pointed out during her speech. „Only 22 percent is separately collected, and 8 percent is reused. These numbers tell us we have work to do.”

Lack of awareness

The issue of increasing textile waste is only of the many that the EU seeks to tackle with new legislation. As part of its Green Deal, the bloc seeks to be carbon neutral by 2050 and by 2030 carbon emissions have to be reduced by 55 percent compared to 1990.

The EU has devised a package of policies to reach its climate goals, of which many will affect the textile sector. Amongst those, the Ecodesign for Sustainable Design Regulation (ESPR), ecodesign requirements for physical goods, bears the potential to shake up what’s at the core of the fashion industry: The overall value chain of how a garment is designed, made, labeled and discarded.

Sustainable considerations such as durability, repairability or reusability need to be made when designing products, the EU website shows. There is also mention of more recycled content, limiting waste generation or enhancing product repairs.

Despite the looming changes, a majority of fashion companies aren’t aware of the upcoming legal changes. Only 52 percent of the surveyed organisations are familiar with the ESPR, shows a report that the European Fashion Alliance presented on Wednesday.

Even less of the respondents, 44 percent, are familiar with the Digital Product Passport (DPP). This digital identity card is part of the ESPR and will store information to enhance the products transparency and sustainability.

Concerns

The Ecodesign rules (ESPR) entered into force on July 18 but specific rules for products from different sectors, such as fashion, still need to be worked out by the EU. However, some proposals worry fashion companies already.

The Italian luxury brand Max Mara did a durability test on a coat according to the guidelines detailed in the rules, said Constanza Maramotti, granddaughter of the founder and member of the company’s board and sustainability committee. The result held a negative surprise for her. The current criteria of technical durability would only assign the brand’s signature product a durability of only three months.

“This is exactly the opposite of what our experience is,“ said Maramotti at a roundtable held by the European Fashion Alliance on Wednesday. She added that Max Mara coats are often passed on through generations of women. In her view, purely technical criteria fail to account for what she called “emotional value”.

Complexities

A product like a bra with more than 50 components has to balance various aspects when it comes to being more sustainable, said Lieve Vermeire, Sustainability Manager at Belgian lingerie maker Van de Velde on Wednesday. The company is looking to add more recycled materials to their bras but this may not affect the quality or fit of the products. The number of components also equals the number of suppliers who would need to work more sustainably as well.

The amount of components and suppliers that can be involved in a single product illustrates the challenges that fashion companies still face. The EFA report shows that 88 percent of respondents invested financial or human resources in activities related to sustainability but 59 percent still lack tools or support for “high-quality practices” to transition to a more sustainable business.

The respondents focused on product quality and durability (66 percent) or innovative and responsible materials (64 percent). However, activities that demand technical solutions or a better understanding of the supply chain are still limited. Less than 30 percent of activities involve care and repair, certification or labels or recyclability, according to the respondents. 79 percent report they don’t use innovative solutions to ensure product traceability.

Financial burden

The new rules of the European Union also come at a time when the industry is struggling with weak consumer spending amid economic uncertainty. A major part of the fragmented fashion industry consists of small and medium-sized businesses, some of which might lack financial resources and manpower to meet the new legal requirements.

“This is a huge financial burden for the smaller businesses. There is data fatigue, nobody knows all the data we need to report,” said Goulay. “I am afraid that we lose the why because of the burden of the how.”

And how some rules will be applied to the apparel industry is not entirely clear yet. It remains to be seen, for example, how much information needs to be included in the digital product passport and if there is sensitive data that can only be accessed by the regulator for example. The European Fashion Alliance also hopes for a holistic approach to durability, which does not only account for technical durability.

Homework

„This term is about implementation,” said Christian Ehlert, Member of the Parliament and party member of von der Leyen’s Christian Democratic Union. At the roundtable on Wednesday, Ehlert also mentioned various funds that could help the fashion industry in making the transition, asking the fashion industry for suggestions. “What is lacking is a precise catalogue of proposals that we can transform into the logic of our world.”

“The ESPR instruments must now be filled with life, taking into account the fashion-specific features. We have been given homework for the next three to four months, as the EU wants to define which programs can support the implementation of the ESPR by the end of 2025,” said Scott Lipinski, the Chairman of the EFA and CEO of the Fashion Council Germany.

The European Fashion Alliance plans to deliver an action paper tailored to the fashion industry in the first quarter, he added. This will require finding a common denominator among the European fashion councils, as moving from abstract requirements to specific guidelines might result in more discussions.

„That will be a big challenge over the next few months,” said Lipinski. „But looking back on the discussions so far, we have always found solutions.”

FashionUnited has been invited to the Fashion Policy Round table by the European Fashion Alliance.