Inside the Policy Briefs
Today’s fashion system is oversized, with overproduction and overconsumption driving significant environmental and social harms.
Our research highlights four structural lock-ins which explain the growth in fashion production and consumption in recent decades, from fossil-fuel–based fibre production to globalised low wage value chains, from high-volume advertising and marketing models to digital shopping environments that foster fast and frequent consumption.
To resize fashion in line with planetary limits we need to move from reactive policies that try to mitigate harmful symptoms, to a policy mix which includes transformative interventions that fundamentally redesign and disrupt the logic of the system.
Explore the Policy Briefs
Key insights
Today’s fashion system is oversized, with overproduction and overconsumption driving significant environmental and social harms.
Our research highlights four structural lock-ins which explain the growth in fashion production and consumption, from fossil-fuel–based fibre production to globalised low wage value chains, from high-volume advertising and marketing models to digital shopping environments that foster fast and frequent consumption.
Policy efforts in the EU thus far have focussed on efficiency measures and product-level improvements, however, these approaches will likely fail to deliver reduced environmental impacts, due to the presence of rebound effects in which growth in overall consumption and production volumes negates efficiency gains.
We need to move from reactive policies that try to mitigate harmful symptoms of the fashion system, to a policy mix which includes transformative policies that fundamentally redesign and disrupt the logic of the system.
Whilst more difficult to implement, transformative policies are vital to set the industry on a path to sufficiency, where everyone’s needs can be met equitably within the planet’s limits. Without them, incremental efficiency improvements will be consistently outpaced by growth in production and consumption, driving further environmental and social pressure.
The Problem
Synthetic textiles, derived from fossil fuels, now dominate the global fibre market. Cheap inputs have driven an explosion in production volumes and while no single fibre is inherently unsustainable, synthetics are the primary engine of overproduction at scale. Their low cost and wide availability lock the industry into high-volume, high-turnover business models. Recycling and durability policies alone cannot fix this; they treat symptoms, and durability criteria may even accelerate synthetic use, worsening plastic pollution and climate outcomes.
What Needs to Change
Addressing textile overproduction requires upstream action:
- Ban waste exports to curb synthetic garment pollution
- Reform Life Cycle Assessment tools to capture full environmental costs of synthetic fibres
- Use eco-modulated EPR fees to penalise mass synthetic garment production
- Apply fiscal policy to internalise the true cost of fossil fuel inputs
- Halt new investment in petrochemical infrastructure for fibre production
- Close loopholes in international climate negotiations that exempt petrochemicals and textiles from fossil fuel phase-out commitments
The Problem
Poverty wages and poor conditions throughout garment supply chains enable mass production at artificially low costs. Power imbalances let dominant brands shift costs and risks onto suppliers, fuelling unfair trading practices, overproduction pressure, and social harm. This not only represents a human rights failure but undermines Europe’s competitiveness and blocks progress toward a circular, sustainable fashion sector.
What Needs to Change
- Use corporate due diligence frameworks to strengthen collective bargaining and secure living wages in garment-producing countries
- Ban and penalise specific Unfair Trading Practices
- Expand eco-design frameworks to include minimum design process criteria, extending lead times and reducing pressure on workers
- Apply antitrust policy to tackle asymmetric power relations in fashion supply chains
- Reform corporate governance to address extreme wage inequality within the fashion sector
- Align global trading rules with sustainable development principles
The Problem
Advertising and demand-driven marketing are core engines of fashion overconsumption. Social media has become the dominant channel for aggressive, highly targeted tactics that exploit weak regulation — driving impulsive purchases and raising consumer protection risks. The advertising industry sustains consumerist culture, equating material goods with status and wellbeing. Current policy responses, focused narrowly on greenwashing, barely scratch the surface.
What Needs to Change
- Regulate the volume and content of fast fashion advertising on social media
- Use EPR frameworks to penalise companies relying on aggressive marketing practices
- Explore alternative financing models for social media to reduce advertising dominance
- Partner with the advertising industry to redirect its cultural influence toward sustainable and equitable lifestyles
- Invest in formal and informal education and public campaigns that foster non-consumerist values
- Regulate and redesign public space to support citizen wellbeing and reduce overconsumption
The Problem
E-commerce is a significant blind spot in sustainable fashion policy. By reducing purchasing friction, it encourages impulse buying and amplifies environmental impact. Platforms actively deploy dark patterns and strategies such as fake scarcity, free returns and shipping to increase basket sizes and purchase frequency. Even circular offerings such as resale and reuse platforms exhibit the same behaviours, undermining circularity through rebound effects. Meanwhile, cheap imports via e-commerce erode Europe’s circular businesses and competitiveness and non-compliant products pose real health and safety risks to consumers.
What Needs to Change
- Enforce existing EU regulations on products sold through e-commerce marketplaces
- Require transparency and reporting on platform strategies designed to drive overconsumption
- Ban specific harmful tactics including fake scarcity, buy-now-pay-later add-ons, free returns, and air shipping for non-essential goods
- Develop a comprehensive e-commerce framework that shifts platform purpose, business models, and consumer culture toward sustainable consumption
Systems Innovation for Fashion Policy
This policy brief series is the culmination of a 2-year research project, led by the Hot or Cool Institute in consultation with researchers, policy makers and civil society organisations, to drive systemic change in the fashion sector.
To inform this research we have pioneered the use of participatory systems thinking methodology, which involved three key aspects. 1) Visioning: aligning stakeholders around a shared vision of what a just and sustainable fashion sector looks like 2) Understand: Through desk research and four expert workshops, we were able to map the key dynamics driving overproduction and overconsumption in the fashion system, identifying key feedback loops and leverage points. 3) Transform: This systemic understanding was then used as the foundation to co-design and evaluate policy interventions, identifying transformative policy options which can shift the fashion sector towards more sustainable and just outcomes.
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Hot or Cool Institute produces evidence-based research to inform policy, shift social norms, and promote low-carbon, nature-positive lifestyles. All our work is freely accessible and open source, ensuring that anyone can use our research, tools, and guidance at no cost.
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