Fashion Nova has created fast fashion for the Instagram era. Most online marketers rely on a large network of celebrities, influencers, and random self-proclaimers who constantly post about the brand on social media. It was designed to cater to online shoppers and cheap, mass-produced clothing that looks expensive.
“They have to buy different styles and clothes just to keep their Instagram feed fresh,” Richard Saghian, founder of Fashion Nova, said in an interview last year.
To achieve that goal, offer new sales options. If you ask Mr. Saghian, the era of $200 jeans is over. Fashion Nova Semi-Formal Denim retails for $24.99. And he said the company could produce clothing “within two weeks” through a manufacturer in Los Angeles, a short drive from the company’s headquarters. This example represents the secret behind the brand’s success. The federal Department of Labor found that many of Fashion Nova’s clothes were made by low-cost American workers.
Los Angeles is full of factories that pay workers below the book minimum wage and compete with foreign competitors that offer lower wages. Most of the people behind the sewing machines are undocumented and probably not defying their bosses.
“It has all the advantages of a sweatshop system,” said David Weil, who led the U.S. Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Office from 2014 to 2017.
Every year, the agency investigates wage violations at Los Angeles garment contractors and reports unannounced to review wage data, interview workers and question managers. In an investigation from 2016 to this year, the agency found that Fashion Nova Clothing was responsible for paying $3.8 million in back wages to hundreds of employees at various factories, according to a local government document detailing the reviewed findings. by The New York Times. was found under construction. .
The factories, which were contracted by retailers to produce clothes for fashion brands, were paying the sewers $2.77 an hour, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The Labor Department declined to comment on the lawsuit.A spokeswoman said in a statement that the agency “continues to ensure that employers have access to long-term compliance assistance and minimum wage requirements, and the Payroll Unit will continue to be the time to enforce the law.”
After violations were discovered at the Fashion Nova clothing factory, government officials met with company representatives. “We have already had very productive and positive meetings with the Department of Labor to discuss our ongoing efforts to ensure that all workers associated with the Fashion Nova brand are properly compensated for their work,” said Fashion Nova Director Erica Meierhans. : The lawyer said in a statement to the Times: “An idea
“Fashion Nova is responsible for underpaying everyone who works on our brand and this is wrong.”
Everyone Wants More Followers
It was opened by Mr. Saghian opened the first Fashion Nova store in Los Angeles in 2006. After seven years and four stores, she realized that customers were losing out to online stores that sell clothing.
A web developer refused to let him build a website. There was no traffic because no one knew what Fashion Nova was. seed”There are very few native markets that have 300,000 followers,” Saghian said in an interview, adding that Instagram has better opportunities.
In the year 2013, Ms. Saghian has an Instagram account and starts posting photos of her clothes on mannequins and clients. He noticed that some of the store’s regular visitors were influencers he found on Instagram with hundreds of thousands of followers.
seedSaghian started giving them free clothes and posting photos of them wearing Fashion Nova clothes. He turned around, sent the photo again and pointed to the handle.
“Everybody wants to be famous. Everybody wants to have more followers,” said Mr. Sagian said.”Adding brands helps fans grow their following.”
This strategy took Fashion Nova from the confines of the Internet to the world. The brand received attention on hip-hop issues. In 2017, sales increased by 600%.
Grammy-winning rap star Cardi B unveiled her first collection with the brand via an Instagram video in November.”I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s that?’ I wanted to do it again. Is it Chanel? Is it YSL? Is it Gucci? “No,” he added, promising, “The Fashion Nova.”
All 82 styles of Cardi B’s collection sold out within hours of its release. He posted another video the same night, saying he would be back “in two or three weeks.” (Cardi B’s line is made in Los Angeles, but the government found no clothing from the factory that allegedly paid workers less than minimum wage, Fashion Nova reports.)
According to Google search data, last year there were more searches for Fashion Nova than for Versace or Gucci. sir With 17 million followers on Instagram, there are enough people looking for clothes on the website to fill a basketball stadium at any given time.Sagian said.
To keep up with your needs, Fashion Nova produces more than a thousand new styles every week, thanks to local suppliers who can quickly respond to the brand’s requests.
“If you have a design idea that comes to mind on Sunday night, I’ll have a prototype by Monday afternoon,” he said.
The Best Price
Most of the competitors for Mr. Sagian is home to glass-walled stores that are packed into six blocks of downtown Los Angeles’ Garment District.
These are companies that design clothing patterns and sell in bulk to Fashion Nova and other retailers. These companies supply their garments to nearby factories as contractors.
In November, The Times visited seven companies that produce Fashion Nova clothing in low-wage factories, according to a Labor Department investigation.Some just talked about their work and their brand. Others declined to speak or spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing the company as a client if they went on the record.
Five owners and employees who agreed to be interviewed said Fashion Nova will continue to push them to pay the lowest price per garment and demand a quick turnaround.
“They give me the best price they can give me because I can still make a profit,” Mr. Saghian said.Businesses can trade with Fashion Nova, but their power is limited. Few retailers are still doing business in Los Angeles, and big orders from Fashion Nova could keep the small clothing store going for another year. So they look for contractors who can sew their clothes quickly and cheaply.
Amante Clothing, located in a boutique full of colorful prints, collaborates with Fashion Nova. The brand paid Amante $7.According to a Labor Department survey last December, the number of large orders last year was 15 per person. Amante found a designer called Karis Apparel who made the tops.
The Labor Department said Amante paid Karis $2.20 to sew each garment. Fashion Nova was sold for a hefty price of $17.99.
“We don’t have sewing contractors, so whatever the sewing contractors do is their problem,” said an Amante designer who declined to be named for fear of losing his job. “We don’t know what they are doing to offer such low wages. We believe they are paying their workers low wages.”
Charis, the factory where Amante worked, closed last April.Another manufacturer caught up in the investigation moved production to Mexico this year.
But many other factories escaped punishment.
Fashion Nova: Same owner, different name
When Teresa García started working at Sugar Sky, it was called Xela Fashion. In 2014, government records show that Xela Fashion was owned by Demetria Sajche, the wife of Mr. Garcia told Angelina to call. In the months since then, Mr. García remembers how many names the flag has changed. But he was working at a seed factory downtown, a few blocks from SoulCycle.
Her employer is Nena Fashion, a company founded by Leslie Sajche, a relative of the owner of Mrs. Garcia, according to business records filed with the California Secretary of State. About a year later, the name changed back to GYA Fashion.
In 2017, the factory moved to the industrial area of Olympic Boulevard in East Los Angeles and began using a new name, Sugar Sky. About a year later, Ms.Sajche stopped the day-to-day running of the company and handed over the job to Eric Alfredo Ajitaz Puac, who the employees knew was her lover.
sir Garcia said he believed the reason for the name change was to avoid being shut down by federal or state officials. Many employees, including Mr. Garcia filed unpaid wage claims against Xela, Nena, Gya and Sugar Sky with the California Department of Labor, the state agency that handles such disputes.The outstanding invoice includes a check showing that Mr. Garcia earns $225, or $3.46 an hour, for a 65-hour work week. Remember that the factory received an order from Fashion Nova for 5,000 pieces at once.
