France has an unofficial Minister for Fashion
Brune Poirson's mission is taking the french fashion industry on sustainable path
January 24th, 2020
Last August, during the G7 in Biarritz, thirty-two luxury brands, including adidas and Prada, signed the Fashion Pact, a document where they commit to make a collective effort on environmental, climate, ocean defense and biodiversity issues. In addition to Emmanuel Macron and François-Henri Pinault, one of the main supporters of the project was Brune Poirson, French Deputy Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition.
In the French Government, she is a leader against waste and in support of waste recycling. Born in Washington DC in 1982, Brune grew up in Apt, Vaucluse. Her father was a sustainable development consultant at the World Bank and her mother restored paintings. After studying at Sciences-Po Aix in Paris and the Harvard School of Economics, she ran for the 2017 legislative elections in the canton led by Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, winning by a narrow margin over the National Front candidate. Shortly after her entry into parliament, she was elected Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition. This was not her first function in a state apparatus. In 2009, in fact, she joined the cabinet of Indian Minister Sam Pitroda and worked in his office in New Delhi (India). It was in this country that, between 2012 and mid-2014, she was employed for Veolia as director of sustainable development for South Asia and began to take a more concrete interest in environmental issues. Although her role is not strictly focused on fashion, in the three years since her election, the politician has drafted a zero-waste law that, among many other measures, makes it mandatory to use washing machine filters that prevent microplastics from escaping from clothes and ending up in the water flow, but, above all, has imposed legislation that outlaws the practice of burning or otherwise destroying unsold products ( do you remember Burberry in 2018 when it declared to have burned surplus items for over 32 million euros?). Her militancy in fashion and environment has caused a lot of negative criticism, as she said in an interview:
When you’re a young woman in government — or in general, in life — and you decide to tackle a topic like fashion, everybody goes after you. It’s almost the end of your reputation. If I were really a politician, I would have taken nuclear energy or something. But I think there is more to do in the field of fashion. I know we need to do something about it.
Poirson's commitment to regulate the environmental impact of the sector (which in France alone is the second most profitable in the nation after aeronautics) gave her the nickname of "France's unofficial fashion minister". The New York Times' description has made many wonder about the need to have a person who plays that role and acts within the government.