How Europe’s war on ‘fast fashion’ will convulse Asia

Producing clothes devastates the environment, causing 10% of carbon emissions. Making one T-shirt uses enough water to hydrate a human being for more than two years. Europe — the leading importer of clothes — is seeking to crack down on this phenomenon by demanding factories make sturdier, fixable clothes that don’t fall apart in the wash. But these proposals, if enforced, would require a revolution in Asia, home to most garment factories and 65 million people (mostly women) who stitch clothes. How would this change their lives — and is such a shift even feasible?

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