Yes, Anthropologie is a fast fashion brand.
Anthropologie is an American fashion retailer. It was founded in 1992 by white American businessmen Richard Hayne (worth $1.1 billion) and Scott Belair (worth $70 million). It has over 200 stores across the U.S., Canada, and the UK.
Anthropologie is owned by Urban Outfitters Inc. (also known as URBN), who also owns Free People and Urban Outfitters, as well as fashion rental company Nuuly, outdoor lifestyle brand Terrain, bridal-wear retailer BHLDN (sold under the Anthropologie brand in the UK), and restaurant concept brand Menus & Venues. Today, the Urban Outfitters Inc. group are owned by shareholders. The company generated $3.9 billion in revenue in 2019.
Anthropologie is a fast fashion brand due to its speed of production and the number of clothes that it sells.
Fashion Revolution Transparency Rating: 11-20/100
Good On You Sustainability Rating: 2/5
Remake Fashion Accountability Report Rating:3/150
Additional Reasons Why Anthropologie Is A Fast Fashion Brand
- Despite being a sister brand to fashion rental platform Nuuly, it appears Anthropologie has no plans to reduce how much clothing it makes. When I last checked their website, Anthropologie was selling over 2,600 styles of clothing. That’s too much.
- Anthropologie is not transparent and does not provide any information about its suppliers on its website. Good On You noted that ‘None of its supply chain is certified by labour standards which ensure worker health and safety, living wages or other labour rights.’ which means we do not know the conditions in which Anthropologie clothes are being made.
- In its general Vendor Code of Conduct, URBN notes that all workers ‘must be at least the local minimum legal working age or 15 years of age’, meaning 15 year-olds are making their clothes.
- Also according to Good On You, Anthropologie is not doing enough to reduce its environmental impact, with ‘no evidence it minimises textile waste…. no evidence it avoids hazardous chemicals in its supply chain… and no evidence it implements water reduction initiatives.’
- In 2020, Anthropologiestopped paying their garment factories, using covid-19 as their excuse, damaging the employment, health and wellbeing of its garment workers.
- In the same year, they were also accused of racial profiling shoppers in their stores.
- According to Remake, under the Urban Outfitters umbrella, Anthropologie has a ‘long history of human rights violations in its supply chain, was named one of thetop violators of wage theftin California’s garment factories and never endorsed the Garment Worker Protection Act.’
Sustainable Alternatives To Anthropologie
If you’re looking to stop shopping at Anthropologie, I recommend checking out brands with similar styles and better ethical and sustainable credentials such as Arkitaip, Baukjen*, Mayamiko, Meadows*, Poeme, or Toast. You could also check out my guide to 150+ sustainable fashion brands to find more, or consider searching for second-hand garments on my favourite second-hand fashion sites.
This post is part of a largerguide to UK fast fashion brands, which goes into more detail about the issues with fast fashion, why it will never be sustainable, and how to make your wardrobe more sustainable.
Data for this review is taken from the brand’s website, corporate website, Wikipedia, and sites linked throughout.All information is assumed correct at date of publication.Last updated: September 2022.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links (denoted '*')
