‘Fashion Act’ Supporters Hope to Stir Renewed Support – WWD

On Monday night, New York “Fashion Act” supporters convened in SoHo to drum up support for the bill that looks to make fashion more socially and environmentally accountable.

Speakers included Maxine Bedat, director of fashion-industry nonprofit New Standard Institute, Miranda Massie, director and founder of the Climate Museum and supermodel and activist Cameron Russell.

The rally was held at the Climate Museum, a first-of-its-kind space dedicated to climate change education action. Complete with postcard-writing and speeches, the event preceded a bus trip on Wednesday where supporters ventured, again, to Albany to advocate for the bill.

Per its current bill text, The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (S4746 and A4333) “requires fashion sellers to be accountable to standardized environmental and social due diligence policies, and establishes a fashion remediation fund.” Its key elements include partial supply chain mapping, science-based targets reporting and more for companies with excess of $100 million in revenue.

Everyone from Stella McCartney to ThredUp have endorsed the legislation. Though the Fashion Act was formally introduced in October 2021, it was reintroduced into the New York State Senate in February under Sen. Brad Holyman-Sigal.

The Fashion Act is just one piece of legislation, however, that looks to center sustainability.

At the federal level, there is the pro-labor “Fabric Act” (or‘‘Fashioning Accountability and Building Real Institutional Change Act”) which has supporters spanning New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who are the original cosponsors of the Fabric Act. Some trade organizations are pushing back, with The American Apparel & Footwear Association among those lobbying against bills such as the Fabric Act, per D.C.-based lobbying database Open Secrets.