The Covid-19 pandemic has emboldened the push for transparency.
“The clients, they want immediacy. They want […] transparency, they want authenticity, and they want to be in the context. They want to hear the message through their loudspeakers,” says Michael Burke, chief executive at Louis Vuitton, in The State of Fashion 2021, an annual report published by the Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company.
Burke refers to the skyrocketing demand from around industry that has transformed the state of play. By creating supply chain transparency through digitisation, it has been able to “boost both productivity and resilience,” Burke claims.
Not only are these fundamental changes to the garment manufacturing supply chain unavoidable for survival during the ongoing pandemic, but they are especially so as brands and consumers become aware of the insidious and hidden malpractice behind the curtain of the garment supply chain.
Throughout the industry, brands are often unaware of their suppliers beyond Tier 1, enabling socially and environmentally unethical suppliers to remain unchecked and, consequently, run amok with malpractice. As a result, many brands are investigating their own supply chains and publishing the results with reputed organisations.
But it is not only luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton undergoing a transformation. For example, in Fashion Revolution’s 2020 Fashion Transparency Index, high-street retailer H&M topped the charts as the brand disclosing the most information. Fashion Revolution hopes these statistics will incentivise and push more major brands to be transparent but acknowledges that this involves shaming resistant brands to share information.
Positively, however, this highlights that brands across the fast-fashion-to-luxury spectrum are embracing the move. All-in-all, this will make it impossible for industry to remain evasive. Consumers and clients want to know about the history behind their products, with particular attention on human and worker rights abuses.
The State of Fashion 2021, for example, adds that the push for transparency is essential for brands to show their commitment to human rights: “Companies should focus on transparency and concrete plans to support commitments as a first step," the report explains. "Introducing concrete changes to purchasing practices are crucial, such as ringfencing labour costs in negotiations as a way to pay workers in the supply chain a living wage."
Consequently, the textile & garment industry has become awash with technological solutions able to help businesses identify instances of malpractice, support the demystification of their supply chains, make the data available for clients and consumers or verify their social and environmental sustainability. Technologies such as blockchain, open data platforms, information gathering systems and more support the transformation of supply chain management and logistics towards transparency, and industry is fast to adopt them.
For WTiN’s Textile 4.0 channel, we investigate transparency, social and environmental sustainability, and the technology capable of demystifying the textile & apparel supply chain, and feature expert commentary from Dr Martin Schleper, associate professor in operations & supply chain management at the University of Sussex Business School in the UK. The feature will be available from 8 February 2021.
