Fast fashion waste: What happens to excess clothing in the fast fashion industry

Fast fashion thrives on rapid production cycles and affordable mass-produced goods. Every year, 80 billion garments are produced worldwide. Yet, more and more unsold textiles remain. But what actually happens to them?

What happens to surplus clothing in the fast fashion industry

Large fast fashion brands produce new garments at increasingly shorter intervals. This way, the trends seen on the runways during Fashion Week are available as affordable mass-produced items in shopping districts within just a few weeks. Fast fashion giants manage to launch a new line within only 14 days — they release up to 24 collections per year.

What consumers often don’t realize: at least 230 million textiles remain unsold each year in Germany despite price reductions. During the lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic, it was even half a billion garments. Due to applicable taxation, clothing donations to needy organizations are not an option for most companies. As a result, these unsold textiles end up shredded, incinerated, or sold as cheap goods abroad within the EU.

How does Les Lunes avoid overproduction?

Today, more than two years after Les Lunes was founded in Germany, our shop offers around 20 products. This fundamentally sets us apart from how fashion usually works. From the start, we have focused on iconic styles that are not tied to trends. Instead, we want to create favorite pieces that bring joy over a long period. That’s why we have chosen high-quality and durable materials. We develop new styles together with customers and influencers. We proceed thoughtfully, investing a lot of time, love, and research into new products — because we only want to produce what our community likes.

We don’t want to produce anything that ends up in the trash. That’s why we don’t manufacture large quantities in advance without knowing if they will be sold. Instead, we base production on our customers’ demand. Especially with new styles, it can happen that certain sizes and colors sell out quickly. Of course, we then do our best to reproduce your favorite essentials as quickly as possible.

For the future, we also plan to launch only one new look each month. This could be, for example, a set of two products. Or perhaps a capsule collection of four mix-and-match pieces. No more. Rather less.

Would you like to learn more about our approach as a Responsible Fashion Company? Then check out this blog post.