Fashion Novas Labor Standards and Transparency

Fashion Nova was founded in 2006, and today, this fast-to-market apparel and lifestyle brand has over 25 million social media followers. The companys clothing is worn by stars such as Cardi B and Kylie Jenner. In 2018, it was the most popular fashion brand on Google. Richard Sagian, founder and CEO of the company, states that Fashion Nova works with over 1,000 manufacturers, including those based in Los Angeles, to produce designs in just 24 hours (About us, 2021). Then, 48 hours later, 600 new products are photographed every week (Hughes, 2018). They are published online one to two weeks after conception, and items tend to sell out in days or even hours.

A recent article from Vox reports that activists question the true value of such low prices, which are almost always the result of the exploitation of workers. And as for Fashion Nova, the company owes its workers $ 3.8 million in wages (Malik Chua, 2021). Good on you, a fashion brand rater, which evaluates brands based on their environmental and social performance, recommends avoiding this fast-fashion company for several reasons. Their website states that none of Fashion Novas supply chains are certified by labor standards, that there is little information about supplier policies, gender equality, or freedom of association, and that it is unclear if the company pays enough for its employees to live (Rauturier, 2020). All of these claims were further backed up by the New York Times in a 2019 article that reported Fashion Nova was clearly underpaying and that its factories were under investigation by the US Department of Labor (Kitroeff, 2019).

As an inspector, I would suggest Fashion Nova admit the violations and compensate all underpaid money to the workers. Also, the company should recheck its outsourcing contracts to be certified by labor standards. Finally, they should increase the companys transparency in terms of financial activities and reports. I believe those measures would help the company to recover from the incident and gain its reputation back.