The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Big brands have stepped up sourcing in Europe over the last few years in a race to get the trendiest clothes to the continent’s consumers as quickly as possible. But the push for faster fashion has come at the expense of European manufacturers and their workers, according to a new report by labour advocacy groups Clean Clothes Campaign and Fair Trade Advocacy Office.
Major brands in both the luxury and mass market segments often pressure suppliers to lower prices, despite the effects of inflation, according to the report, which was based on interviews with suppliers, experts and union representatives in Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Germany. Manufacturers are regularly asked to make changes midway through production, but are also liable for any delays. Lead times are often unrealistic and payment timelines have ballooned.
Such trading practices are relatively common in the garment industry and contribute to low wages and labour abuses. The report’s authors are calling for tougher government regulation.
Learn more:
On Labour Rights, You Get What You Pay For
With purchasing practices that undercut the cost of production, big brands are shortchanging workers and undermining their own commitments to operate more responsibly, according to a new study.
With 100 tons of clothing from the West discarded every day in Accra, ‘fast fashion’ brands must be forced to help pay for the choking textile waste they create, environmentalists say.
The former Vogue Ukraine fashion director and LVMH Prize finalist’s upcycled tailoring label Bettter aims to become a platform that helps big brands give deadstock garments new life.
The buzzy concept is a chimaera that distracts from the root cause of fashion’s worsening environmental impact: overconsumption, argues Ken Pucker.
Kering, LVMH and H&M are among a handful of companies pioneering a new science-based framework to measure, disclose and address their impact on nature.