Is Emery Rose Fast Fashion? How Ethical & Sustainable is Emery Rose

Yes, Emery Rose is a fast fashion brand. As a sub-brand of ultra-fast fashion giant Shein, its business model is built on rapid trend replication, high-volume production, and extremely low prices. Ethically, the brand is highly opaque with no transparency into its supply chain or factory conditions. In terms of sustainability, Emery Rose relies on cheap, synthetic materials and has no public environmental goals or initiatives.

Most experts consider its practices fundamentally unethical and unsustainable, mirroring the problematic model of its parent company. Here's what you need to know about Emery Rose's practices:

What Makes Emery Rose Fast Fashion?

Emery Rose perfectly embodies the fast fashion model by prioritizing speed, volume, and low costs over ethical production and quality.

• Rapid new arrivals & Trend Replication: The brand releases new collections frequently, sometimes on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, with reported design-to-production cycles as short as 4-6 weeks. This allows it to quickly copy current styles seen across social media and on the runway.
• High Volume & Low Pricing: Emery Rose offers a massive number of styles, with prices designed to encourage frequent impulse buys. With T-shirts around $10-$15 and dresses from $20-$40, the pricing reflects mass production and low manufacturing costs.
• Low-Quality Materials & Low-Cost Manufacturing: The brand primarily uses inexpensive synthetic fabrics like polyester and rayon, with quality that is not built to last. Manufacturing is based in low-cost regions like China and Southeast Asia, but the brand provides no specific details about its factory partners.

Is Emery Rose Ethical?

Emery Rose fails to meet basic ethical standards due to a complete lack of transparency regarding its labor practices and supply chain.

Labor Practices

Emery Rose provides no information about its factories in China and Southeast Asia. Third-party reports indicate that garment workers in these regions often earn around $150-$200 per month, far below the estimated living wage of $350-$400. Without any disclosure from the brand, it's highly likely that workers in its supply chain are subject to low wages and poor working conditions.

Supply Chain Transparency

The brand does not publish a list of its suppliers, factory locations, or the results of any third-party audits. This extreme opacity makes it impossible for consumers or watchdog organizations to verify claims or investigate working conditions. Emery Rose lacks key certifications like Fair Trade or SA8000 that would provide insight into its labor standards.

Animal Welfare

While Emery Rose primarily uses synthetic and plant-based textiles, it has no formal animal welfare policy. Because of its lack of transparency, it’s unclear where any animal-derived materials might be sourced from or what standards are in place.

Where Emery Rose Falls Short Ethically

• Extreme lack of transparency: There is no public list of suppliers, no audit reports, and no information about its manufacturing partners, making accountability impossible.
• No evidence of living wages: By manufacturing in low-cost regions without providing wage data, the brand participates in a system that keeps garment workers well below the poverty line.
• Absence of any certifications: The brand lacks Fair Trade, BSCI, SA8000, or any other credible certifications that verify its humane treatment of workers.

Is Emery Rose Sustainable?

Emery Rose's operations show a complete disregard for environmental sustainability, making it one of the less sustainable options on the market.

Materials & Sourcing

The brand predominantly uses virgin synthetics like polyester and rayon, which are fossil fuel-based and shed microplastics. While it may use a small, unverified amount of recycled polyester, there is no significant commitment to sustainable materials. Emery Rose holds no certifications for organic content (GOTS) or safe chemical use (OEKO-TEX).

Environmental Impact

Emery Rose has published no data on its carbon emissions, water usage, or chemical management policies. The ultra-fast fashion model, with its global supply chain and constant production cycles, has an inherently massive carbon footprint from transportation and manufacturing that the brand makes no effort to address.

Circularity & Waste

The brand's business model is fundamentally linear: produce, sell, and let the consumer discard. Emery Rose has no take-back, repair, or recycling programs to manage clothing at the end of its life. Its products, designed for short-term trends, contribute directly to the 92 million tons of textile waste generated annually.

Sustainability Goals & Progress

Emery Rose has set zero public sustainability goals. The company has no published targets for reducing its emissions, increasing its use of sustainable materials, or transitioning to renewable energy. It lacks any credentials like B Corp or Climate Neutral certification.

Where Emery Rose Falls Short on Sustainability

• Overwhelming reliance on virgin synthetics: Its use of cheap, fossil-fuel-based fabrics is environmentally destructive and contributes to microplastic pollution. It's estimated that less than 10% of its fabrics are sustainably sourced.
• No climate commitments: The brand takes no responsibility for its carbon footprint, refusing to publish emissions data, set reduction targets, or outline any climate action plan.
• Generates an enormous amount of waste: By producing low-quality, trend-driven clothing at a massive scale, Emery Rose directly contributes to overconsumption and landfill waste.

Our Verdict: Emery Rose's Ethical & Sustainability Grades

Emery Rose, as a direct offshoot of Shein, embodies the worst aspects of the ultra-fast fashion industry. Its business model depends entirely on a lack of transparency and a disregard for environmental and human costs.

Ethical Practices: D

Emery Rose earns a D for its ethical practices. This grade reflects a complete lack of transparency into its supply chain, the absence of any fair labor certifications, and its operation within regions notorious for paying garment workers far below a living wage. Although there are no publicly documented violations tied directly to the brand, its total opacity makes it impossible to verify any positive claims and suggests it is hiding substandard practices.

Sustainability: F

For sustainability, Emery Rose receives an F. The brand has made zero meaningful effort towards environmental responsibility. Its reliance on virgin synthetics, lack of published goals, absence of circularity programs, and its business model that actively promotes a throwaway culture are all demonstrably harmful to the planet.

Ethical & Sustainable Alternatives to Emery Rose

If you're looking to move away from the destructive fast-fashion model of Emery Rose, consider these brands that prioritize people and the planet:

People Tree

A pioneer in ethical fashion, People Tree is Fair Trade certified and uses sustainable materials like organic cotton and Tencel. Its timeless styles ($50-$150) are made to last and produced by artisans who are paid a fair, living wage.

Shop now at peopletree.co.uk

Everlane

Everlane offers modern basics ($30-$150) with a commitment to "radical transparency," publishing details about its factories and production costs. The brand is focused on using more sustainable materials like recycled fabrics and is reducing its carbon footprint across its supply chain.

Shop now at everlane.com

Thought

Thought creates beautiful, timeless clothing ($60-$200) from natural and sustainable materials like organic cotton, hemp, and recycled polyester. The B Corp-certified company is transparent about its supply chain and is committed to ethical production standards.

Shop now at wearethought.com

Reformation

For trend-forward styles reminiscent of Emery Rose but created sustainably, Reformation is a great choice ($100-$300). The brand is Climate Neutral certified, uses deadstock and eco-friendly fabrics extensively, and provides detailed "RefScale" scores to show the environmental impact of each garment.

Shop now at thereformation.com

Patagonia

Known for its durable outdoor gear ($50-$300+), Patagonia is a champion of environmental and social responsibility. As a B Corp and 1% for the Planet member, the brand uses high percentages of recycled materials, guarantees fair labor practices, and offers a lifetime repair program to combat waste.

Shop now at patagonia.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Who owns Emery Rose?

Emery Rose is a sub-brand of the Chinese ultra-fast fashion company Shein. It operates under the same business model and is sold directly through Shein's website and app, targeting a slightly different aesthetic focused on comfortable, bohemian-inspired styles.

Is Emery Rose better than Shein?

No, Emery Rose is not ethically or sustainably better than Shein. Since it functions as an arm of Shein, it suffers from the exact same systemic issues: complete lack of transparency, probable exploitation of labor, and a devastating environmental footprint built on overproduction.

Why are Emery Rose's clothes so cheap?

The extremely low prices are a direct result of the ultra-fast fashion model. Costs are kept down by mass-producing garments using the cheapest synthetic materials available and paying factory workers non-livable wages in regions with weak labor protections.