The seventh edition of the Fashion Transparency Index, published by not-for-profit Fashion Revolution, ranked 250 of the world’s largest fashion brands and retailers based on their public disclosure of human rights and environmental policies, practices, and impacts, across their operations and supply chains.
Today, we’re covering the key findings and takeaways from the index. But before you dive in, we want to stress that the Index is NOT to be used as a shopping guide. It’s about accountability more than anything else, and does not measure ‘good’ or ‘bad’ brands to buy from. They issue strict communication guidelines to brands to encourage brands to communicate their results without misleading sustainability and labour claims.
The Fashion Transparency Index reveals insights into the most pressing issues facing the fashion industry:
The majority of brands (85%) do not disclose their annual production volumes despite mounting evidence of clothing waste around the world, and most major brands and retailers (96%) do not publish the number of workers in their supply chain paid a living wage.
As new and proposed legislation focuses on greenwashing claims, almost half of major brands (45%) publish targets on sustainable materials yet only 37% provide information on what constitutes a sustainable material.
Only 24% of major brands disclose how they minimise the impacts of microfibres despite textiles being the largest source of microplastics in the ocean.
The vast majority of major brands and retailers (94%) do not disclose the number of workers in their supply chains who are paying recruitment fees. This paints an unclear picture of the risks of forced labour as workers may be getting into crippling debt to accept jobs paying poverty wages.
Just 8% of brands publish their actions on racial and ethnic equality in their supply chains.
Highest scoring brands
Italian brand OVS scored highest again this year with 78%, tied with Kmart Australia and Target Australia, who increased their scores by 22 percentage points vs 2021.
This is followed by H&M, The North Face and Timberland who are tied at 66%. The biggest movers this year are Calzedonia Group brands (Calzedonia, Intimissimi and Tezenis) who increased their score by to 54%, a significant improvement compared to last year’s 11%.
Lowest scoring brands
17 major brands score a dismal 0% rating including: Jil Sander, Fashion Nova, New Yorker, Max Mara, Semir, Tom Ford, Helian Home, Belle, Big Bazaar, Elie Tahari, Justfab, K-Way, KOOVs, Metersbonwe, Mexx, Splash and Youngor. A total of 73 brands score in the 0-10% range — that’s almost a third of the world’s largest brands and retailers. We need to see a significant shift in the next 12 months if brands are serious in their commitment to tackling global inequality and the climate crisis.
Fashion Revolution’s Policy & Research Manager Liv Simpliciano believes that greater transparency is crucial in order to address the root cause of many of fashion’s social and environmental issues featured in the Fashion Transparency Index.