New Legislation In France Will Prevent Brands Destroying Unsold Products.

French luxury brands are known for their elitist attitude towards manufacture, pricing, and more significantly, their policy regarding sold products.  It's a much touted fast by Hermes themselves that anything which fails to be sold in the invitation only sales is destroyed, Louis Vuitton and Chanel on the other hand who have no sales do exactly the same thing, and we wrote last year about how Burberry are attempting to gain some of this cachet by following suit when they indicated they also would destroy unsold clothing.

Previously the only brand that is slightly inclined towards sustainability is Hermes, with their 'petit h' range which makes products out of existing materials.  However, this is more an exercise in making more profit from left-over material than a movement towards being environmentally friendly, and less wasteful, since prices of these pieces can be several thousands in some cases.

The new "Project de loi relative a la latte centre le gaspillage et a l'economie circulaire", translating to "Bill on the fight against waste and the circular economy", is set to shake things up in France, and no doubt around the rest of the worlds luxury goods brands in due course.

The new law sets in place more than 100 sustainable inputs, and will effect everything from tobacco companies to the fashion industry and more.  The new legislation os designed to better the environmental impact of fashion, and comes with a comment from the French Prime Ministers office which observed that the current waste of manufactured clothing destroyed when unsold runs into $700 million annually, and an additional $900 million going to landfill.  The new law will encourage by way of sanctions and fines of up to $16,000, to donate goods, and to benefit the environment in this way.

This law was approved on January 30, and is awaiting formal enactment.  The potential effect of this long term is no doubt a potential reduction long term in the cost of luxury goods, especially at the higher end, as the perceived scarcity generated by the destruction of these products is one of the factors that created inflated prices,  not to mention the possible benefit to the environment, and to organisations that can benefit from donations.  We think however luxury goods companies will merely find cynical ways around this, such as repurposing the clothes, or storing them in warehouses in the third world indefinitely.