Essay Sample on Brexit's Impact on the British Fashion Industry

Introduction

The British fashion industry depends on universal trade, prospers on an international pool of faculty, and has openly defended the idea of remaining in the European Union (EU). Britain’s fashion industry did not vote for Brexit. The consequences of a no-deal Brexit on the country’s fashion sector remain unclear, especially the industry’s dependence on the European Union garment labor force (Hamnett & Reades 2019, p. 389). Having a UK-based apparel manufacturing facility plays a significant role in producing a more sustainable future for the British fashion industry, supporting ethical and environmental matters encountered by the industries abroad.

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Scholars argue that by developing a domestic eco-system whereby each phase of the procedure, from design to delivery, can occur within just a few miles, the carbon related with the fashion industry has intensely reduced. The development remains essential for an inferior influence fashion sector which, with the appropriate guidelines enacted, could flourish after the UK’s post-Brexit (Hamnett & Reades 2019, p. 389).The economy can remain viable by retaining skills, minimizing air miles, and ensuring the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) opt for ethical practices within the UK fashion industry. The purpose of this paper involves an exploration of the impact of Brexit on the sustainability of the UK fashion retail industry.

Threats Posed by ‘No Deal Brexit’ for UK Fashion Industry

Regardless of the prospects that a prosperous UK fashion sector could attract, in the aspect of no-deal Brexit, there exists an increasing concern for the greater number of garment employees within the European countries, especially those who migrated from Lithuania (Sodhi & Tang 2018, p. 884). After the Brexit referendum, the East London Fashion Cluster lost staffs. Growing xenophobia within the United Kingdom meant that most people felt insecure working in Britain and started the migration of apparel personnel back to the European continent.

As several factories open in European nations, together with the absence of precision on European employees’ rights after the no-deal Brexit, reservations over the future of the UK’s homegrown fashion trade continue to develop. The root of the matter remains that the United Kingdom depends largely on fashion personnel from the European Union, a fact that remains a portion of the STEM training program that has remained part of the UK learning strategy since 2008 (Sodhi & Tang 2018, p. 886). Students registering for courses in arts has decreased since 2010 to 2019 forming an ensuing privation of learning in the expertise needed for the modern fashion industry, thus making Britain remain understaffed and unprepared should the request for domestic UK-based fashion trade grows.

Supply Chain Management and the Effect of Brexit

Fashion remains one of the globe’s most significant industries, with it driving a whole part of the universe economy. The growth in commerce from the Asian marketplaces has happened because of enhanced technology, economical fabrication costs, and the capacity to bulk produce costumes at a rapid rate (Thompson & McLarney 2017, p. 235). Ethical fashion refers to the production process from the design, sourcing, and manufacture of garments which optimizes gains to people and society while reducing the effect on the environment. The fashion industry can play an active role in sustainable livelihood establishment, poverty reduction, decreasing and lessening environmental apprehensions.

The issue with most products entails the fact that they do not manage the supply chain, and hence may not recognize if moral issues may damage their reputation. According to figure 1 below, sustainable supply chain management has stemmed from the acknowledgement of the tactical prominence of supply and procuring undertakings both in realizing the company’s long-term productivity and in addressing sustainability matters within commercial competence (Thompson & McLarney 2017, p. 242).

Ensuring that employees and firms meet administration standards remains a difficult task. Fashion revolution can encourage ethical fabrication and sustainability and increase awareness to all buyers. The uncertainty over no-deal Brexit may affect the supply chain management in the United Kingdom and policies on the sustainability of the fashion industry (Thompson & McLarney 2017, p. 251). The complex nature of the supply chain makes it difficult to predict how Britain will react to the changes in its relation with other countries and the mandatory requirement for companies to observe international sustainability goals.

Data on the Effect of Brexit on the Sustainability of the UK fashion Retail Industry

Britain’s £30 billion fashion sector has 890,000 employees and remains susceptible to a chaotic UK Brexit. About three-quarters of the UK fashion and textile exports go to the EU market, valued at approximately £9.6 billion per annum (Athwal et al. 2019, p. 421). Without a withdrawal deal, the shipping would attract a 6-12% tariffs from the WTO. The figure below shows how Britain dresses up (in billions of pounds) and the average tariffs on EU-origin shoes and clothing in percentage. Much of this economic burden will filter down to consumers, and sustainable programs will get affected.

Over $500 billion of value get lost each year because of underuse and the inefficiency in recycling. Economists believe that by 2030, the international apparel purchase may increase by 63%. The UN (United Nations) projects that by 2050, to deliver the natural resources needed to maintain present lifestyles with the rapidly rising population growth requires equal resources of three planets (Athwal et al. 2019, p. 423). The declining economy of the UK due to the Brexit financial uncertainty, the US-China trade war, and the global COVID-19 epidemic has worsened the situation for the fashion industry in the UK to undertake CSR on humanitarian and environmental global challenges effectively.

The fast-fashion sector remains resource-intensive and emissions-intensive in that producing a pair of jeans generates an equal amount of greenhouse gases as a car that travels 80 miles. Non-biodegradable fabrics can stay in landfills for up to 2 centuries, while the production one cotton shirt uses about 2,700 liters of water. About 80% of apparel gets produced by young women aged between 18 to 24 years (Athwal et al. 2019, p. 424). The wage paid to workers remains below the minimum wage bill, and there exist reports of child labor in the fashion industry. The continued economic strain due to a no-deal Brexit may make the situation severe undermining the global efforts to curb humanitarian problems and manage environmental pollution.

Sustainability of the Fashion Industry and the Impact of ‘No Deal Brexit’

There exist concerns that the contemporary fast fashion commercial approach inspires over-consumption, thus producing extreme waste. Most of these garments cannot get recycled since they do not get manufactured from single fiber materials. Some report shows that garments produced get disposed in a landfill or get burned (Thompson & McLarney 2017, p. 255). In modern days, the way factories produce, utilize, and dispose of fashion products remains unsustainable. Textile industry contributes greatly to climate change than other sectors, such as shipping and international aviation combined, customers’ lake-sized bulks of freshwater and forms plastic and chemical pollution.

Synthetic fibers exist in the deep sea, in aquatic life, and the Arctic sea ice. Through the supply chain network, some of the multi-national retailers have commissioned production in nations that offer low wages to their workforce, have weak environmental conservation policies, and have little trade union representation. Some countries have standardized poverty pay and working conditions for garment employees, especially women (Jones & Comfort 2020, p. 8). The no-deal Brexit effect on the use of child labor, forced labor, prison labor, and bonded labor in companies and the fashion supply chain remains a concern. Fast fashion industry takes advantage of global indifference towards this labor-intensive personnel hence encouraging over-consumption and overproduction.

Labor exploitation occurs in the United Kingdom in which some fashion retailers do not pay the minimum remuneration. The Brexit deal must address such concerns to conform to the international laws on labor and provide guidelines on retailing of fast fashion (Jones & Comfort 2020, p. 12). Fashion should not harm our planet. However, the fashion industry has, for long failed considerably to improve the working environment, wage, or reduce waste. Climate change and over-consumption push mass extermination. Brexit deal should offer a new commercial approach for fashion. Britain’s administration should amend the law to incorporate a regulation that mandates factories to undertake due diligence monitoring through their supply chains.

Some of the designers opposed to Brexit have put effort to champion sustainable fashion (D’Mello 2017, p. 13). These fashion retailers and designers face fierce competition from traders who look at reducing expenses and optimizing revenue regardless of the social and environmental costs. The Brexit deal, if effectively negotiated, should detail vibrant economic motivations for fashion retailers to encourage sustainable trade in the industry (D’Mello 2017, p. 15). With or without Brexit, the United Kingdom must design taxation transformations to reward fashion businesses that create products with minimum environmental influences and reprimand those that do not.

Although fast fashion has made it easier to experience the desire of the design, style, and modern trends, repairing, renting, and reusing garments remains more sustainable than recycling or dumping clothes. Thus the Brexit deal can influence the system to stop the casual society. According to Jones and Comfort (2020, p. 17), companies like Asos, Esprit, H&M, and Inditex have signed Global Framework Agreements that establish high levels of health, safety, trade union rights, and environmental practices in the entire retailers’ international functions, irrespective of domestic country ethics.

The Brexit deal and governments in the European Union must expedite partnership between water companies, fashion retailers, and washing machine producers and lead on resolving the issue of microfiber contamination. However, the task of minimizing microfiber pollution must depend on the factories producing these brands that shed the fibers (D’Mello 2017, p. 13). Besides, studies on how design can eliminate emissions from synthetic fibers and recommendations get provided immediately.

The Cost of Doing Business and the Brexit Effect on UK Retailers

The impact of the vote to leave the EU has led to the devaluation of the pound. About a third of retailers in the UK had started deliberating changing suppliers or outsourcing from different nations. Most retailers consider the impact of no-deal Brexit on their supply chains concerning the regions they need to source from and their foreign exchange plan (Jones & Comfort 2020, p. 17). About half of retailers in the UK think that no-deal Brexit may affect their businesses; a small majority believe that no-deal Brexit will have no considerable influence. In contrast, others think it can result in a positive effect.

Financial directors of most fashion retail companies had started strategizing on cost management. Howe...