Overview:
The clothing deals on fast-fashion websites like Temu and Shein, and in stores like H&M, can seem too good to resist. But an expert panel at Word In Black talked about the dark side of unbelievable deals, including environmental concerns and disruptions to personal health.
In the past decade, fast-fashion retailers have reshaped how Americans shop, creating a constant firehose of new styles and “irresistible” deals for consumers of trendy clothing often made quickly and cheaply. The barrage of options is refreshed daily by online retailers like Shein, Temu and Fashion Nova, alongside chains like H&M.
But the true cost of cheap fashion is rarely printed on the tag. A growing body of independent research has found that a lot of this clothing contains endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as PFAS — or “forever chemicals,” undisclosed “fragrance” additives and phthalates, which are linked to thyroid dysfunction and cancers.
A recent Word In Black virtual panel, “The Dark Side of Our Addiction to Fast Fashion,” moderated by events manager Shernay Williams, discussed the downside of fast fashion, including its impact on personal health, the environment and Black businesses.
Williams noted the panel’s timeliness, with Shein currently facing a major lawsuit in Texas for allegedly violating the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act by misleading consumers about product safety. Texas alleges the China-based company has been selling children’s and maternity clothing containing dangerous levels of forever chemicals, lead, formaldehyde and other dangerous substances. The suit also raises concerns about customer data safety, deceptive pricing and copyright infringement. Temu and Fashion Nova face similar allegations. Black designers also allege that the companies have stolen many of their fashion designs.
These dangerous chemicals mimic the body’s natural hormones once absorbed, binding to hormone receptors and blocking the body’s own hormones from functioning properly. Long-term exposure has been linked to hormonal diseases and cancers — including breast, testicular and prostate cancer — along with thyroid dysfunction, metabolic issues, and early-onset puberty, panelist Kennedy Black of the Resilient Sisterhood Project explained.
Health concerns have grown to the point where the state of California has gone beyond forcing companies to disclose which chemicals they’re using. Manufacturers and distributors have been penalized with fines totaling tens of millions in settlements over the undisclosed use of lead, phthalates and PFAS.
A Disproportionate Burden on Black Women
But the fines and penalties don’t reflect the level of harm many consumers experience.
Panelist Teju Adisa-Farrar, founder of the Black Fiber &Textile Network, framed the issue in stark terms: Across makeup, hair, and fashion, Black women use the most toxic products of any group.
Nearly 80% of beauty and personal care products marketed to Black women are full of chemicals, including preservatives and undisclosed fragrances, that make them moderately to severely hazardous, according to a 2025 report by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.
Kennedy Black’s organization also ran a research and outreach initiative called POWER, Product Options in Women’s Engaged Research, to study this exposure and help Black women make more informed choices. She also flagged parabens — commonly added to shampoos and conditioners to prevent mold — as linked to uterine cancer.
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Jamila Wright, founder of the Richie Writz brand and a content creator who documents her own experience with hormone disruption, shared her personal story during the virtual program. After years of unexplained weight gain and breast tenderness, and her primary care doctor offering little beyond diet advice, she went to a medi-spa that specialized in hormone testing.
“I said, ‘Let me go somewhere where they actually study hormones, they do hormone replacement therapy, somebody who will give me some real answers because I’m paying for it,’” Wright recalled.
The experience and the results were shocking. The practitioner’s first questions weren’t about diet, Wright recalled. They were about what Wright was putting on her skin, in her hair, and what clothes she was wearing.
“My estrogen was at six hundred and seventy-four,” Wright said. The practitioner told her, “I’ve never seen estrogen levels this high. You should be at 64, not 674.”
Wright left with a list of chemical ingredients to check for and spent the two weeks before her follow-up appointment overhauling only what touched her skin — clearing out perfumes, candles, plug-in air fresheners and cleaning products. They gave her no dietary changes. “In that two-week time span, my estrogen went from 674 down to 128,” she said.
Why It’s So Cheap
Adisa-Farrar traced fast fashion’s rock-bottom prices back to the supply chain itself. Clothing materials like polyester, acrylic and nylon are petroleum-based — derived from oil — and made artificially cheap through fossil-fuel subsidies. The oil refineries that process those materials, she noted, tend to be located in Black and brown communities, so the pollution burden falls disproportionately on the same populations exposed to the chemicals in the finished garments. Labor to make the garments is sourced overseas, where environmental and wage regulations are minimal, which is “why your Shein crop top costs three dollars,” as she put it.
She offered a striking statistic: In 1960, about 95% of U.S. clothing was made domestically, with roughly 89% of it from natural fibers like wool, hemp and cotton. Today, less than 3% of American clothing is made in the United States. And roughly two-thirds of all clothing is made from polyester, acrylic, nylon and other synthetics — a shift that applies to sheets and bedding as well.
What Women Can Do
The panelists agreed that meaningful change starts small. Wright recommends using a free, ingredient-scanning app, Yuka, to check the health impact of shampoos, lotions and detergents. She also recommends switching to a clean laundry detergent that doesn’t contain dyes or fragrances, and washing new clothes before wearing them.
Kennedy Black suggested changing shopping habits to eliminate buying garments with toxic materials. She recommended checking care labels to extend the life of what you already own.
Adisa-Farrar encouraged consumers to read clothing fiber labels the way they’d read a food ingredient list before purchasing. Favor natural fibers such as cotton, linen and wool, she said, and seek out small, sustainable, Black-owned brands. She noted that her organization connects Black farmers and natural-dye artisans directly with designers.
She also urged people to reclaim their power by remembering that consumers also are influencers whose choices shape what gets made and marketed to their communities. She stressed the need to stay politically engaged by signing petitions and supporting lobbying coalitions that have helped remove some PFAS from children’s clothing.
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