In China With Michelle Zou

Fashion is a $2.4 trillion-dollar global business (2% of world’s GDP), and is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Sustainability is a complex and critical issue in today’s fashion industry. China is the largest textile producing and exporting country in the world with $110B exports of textiles and apparel (2017). “Made in China” is on 50% of the world’s apparel (Business of Fashion). This also means that an estimated 53% of the world’s textile production waste comes from China - an estimated 70,000 tons produced every day, and 2.5 billion tons of polluted wastewater produced annually. In this episode, Rayne Reed will discuss what each of us can do in sustainable fashion, what companies can do to increase sustainability while meeting consumers’ demand, and share some industry best practices. Rayne has 30 years’ experience in the fashion industry, has worked for Gap as Senior Director of Product Development and Buying in China, and lived in USA, Europe and Asia.