PRESS RELEASEFASHION
TRANSPARENCYINDEX2023

EMBARGOED UNTIL 13:00 PM BST ON 13TH JULY 2023

The fashion industry still has a long way to go to address global inequality and the climate
crisis, according to the latest Fashion Transparency Index.
•For the first time since the Index was published in 2017, two out of 250 major
fashion brands scored 80% or higher, including a luxury brand•

Major fashion brands continue to shirk responsibilities like tax and purchasing
practices which drive inequalities within the industry. The pay gap between fashionCEOs and garment workers continues to widen, meanwhile only 18% of brands aredisclosing the percentage of executive pay tied to their sustainability targets•

The climate crisis is growing in intensity and urgency but 94% of major fashion
brands still don’t disclose what fuel is used in the manufacturing of their clothes•

The overwhelming majority (99%) of major fashion brands still do not disclose thenumber of workers in their supply chains being paid a living wage

On the whole, the global fashion industry has
made unimpressive progress on transparency
with major fashion brands achieving an overall
average score of 26%, up just 2% from lastyear. While it is clear that much of the industry
is lagging behind on transparency, there weresome moves in the right direction. Finally, morethan half (52%) of 250 major brands reviewed
are disclosing their first tier supplier lists, apromising shift compared to 32 out of 100
brands (32%) in the first edition of the Index.
In another important milestone, a luxury
brand is among the top scoring brands forthe first time. Italian luxury fashion house
Gucci ranked second out of 250 brands, withan overall average score of 80%. After years of
the luxury fashion sector dragging its feet ontransparency, the five biggest movers this year
are all luxury brands (Gucci, Armani, Jil Sander,Miu Miu and Prada), with the biggest increase
being Gucci by 21 percentage points. This
demonstrates that big strides in transparency
are achievable if there is the will.

Liv Simpliciano, Fashion Revolution’s
Policy and Research Manager says:“As activists, it is maddening tohave to continually push for what
ultimately is the bare minimum ofwhat we should expect from major
fashion brands. The unimpressive
progress here is worrisome in theface of deepening social inequality,
environmental destruction and various
incoming legislations. We are pleased
that a minority of brands are finallyscoring 80% or higher but even 100%transparency is only the starting point
and it seems many major fashion
brands have yet to even show up tothe race. Time is running out and yet
the majority of the fashion industry
continues to dig their heels in andrefuse to change. We cannot shop ourway out of the climate crisis, we cannot
recycle our way out of overproduction
and frankly, there is no fashion on adead planet.”

MORE KEY FINDINGS FROM THE FASHION TRANSPARENCY INDEX 2023:
The overwhelming majority (99%) of major fashion brands do not disclose
the number of workers in their supply chains being paid a living wage rate.
Fashion Revolution, alongside allies, are campaigning for groundbreaking legislation at EU levelon living wages for garment workers worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of EU citizens have alreadysigned, but we need one million total signatures from EU citizens before 19th July 2023 for the EU
to take action. Please sign the campaign at goodclothefairpay.eu. If you’re not an EU citizen, help
us spread the word by sending to a friend who is, and by sharing our posts on social media.
The climate crisis is growing in intensity and urgency but 94% of major fashion
brands still don’t disclose what fuel is used in the manufacturing of their clothes.
The need to transition away from coal entirely to cleaner forms of energy is urgent if we are tomitigate against the climate crisis. We added a new indicator this year to understand major
brands’ reliance on coal. Despite this, few brands (6%) disclose the proportion of their supply chainthat is powered by coal and which geographic regions are still reliant on fossil fuels. Visibilityof fossil fuel reliance in the supply chains is critical for brands to take adequate measures tosupport their suppliers in a green transition and advocate that governments of countries theysource in increase accessibility to high-quality renewable energy like wind and solar.
Despite upcoming legislation to mitigate fashion waste, mounting evidence of
overproduction remains the big elephant in the room as most major brands do
not disclose their annual production volumes nor do they commit to reducing
the number of new items they produce.
Despite the indisputable fact that clothing waste reaches all facets of life, from microplastic
particles in the Mariana Trench to piles of discarded clothes visible from space, 88% of brands still
do not disclose their annual production volumes. This is a disappointing increase from last year’s
85%. Brands absolutely know how much they are producing; what business can survive without thisinformation? The continued lack of transparency begs the question, what’s being hidden?
Our clothes are produced by guzzling water in regions where it is scarce and byusing thousands of toxic chemicals. Yet, only 23% of major brands and retailers
disclose their methodology to identify these risks and even fewer (7%) disclose
their wastewater test results.
Given the worldwide impacts of hazardous chemicals on people and the planet, it is concerningthat only 7% of major brands and retailers publish their supplier wastewater test results. Brands
must trace their entire supply chain to address long-lasting social and environmental impacts ofwater pollution on garment workers, local communities and the surrounding natural environments.

Major fashion brands continue to shirk responsibilities like tax and purchasing
practices driving inequalities within the industry, while only 18% of major brands
disclose the percentage of executive bonus or pay tied to sustainability targets.
With less than half (45%) of major fashion brands publishing their responsible tax strategy, it is
crucial for governments to implement a tax system to address current loopholes and ensure thatmultinational companies pay their share. Additionally, fashion brands are increasingly adopting
direct-to-consumer (D2C) on-demand models in the way they order their clothes, typically placing
very small order quantities with suppliers upfront. Purchasing in this volatile, unpredictable way
places suppliers under risk and workers under immense pressure. D2C models also help fashion
brands avoid tax and evade forced labour regulations.
Few major fashion brands have published commitments to zero deforestation
despite accelerating biodiversity loss globally.
Materials used to make our clothes such as cotton, viscose and leather are associated withdeforestation. Brazil, for example, the second largest global cotton exporter is now reachingrecord-levels of deforestation and hundreds of fashion brands have supply-chain links to Brazilian
leather exporters, despite some of them having explicit policies about deforestation. Given thefashion industry’s role in contributing to global deforestation, it is alarming to see the absence oftransparency on targets. Just 12% of brands published a time-bound, measurable commitment tozero deforestation this year. This is 3% less than last year. In addition, only 7% publish measurable
progress towards achieving zero deforestation.
With due diligence legislation on the horizon, led by the EU, fashion brands haveincreased disclosure on their social and environmental due diligence.
Performance on every human rights and environmental due diligence indicator has increased
compared to last year. In human rights due diligence, the most significant increases havebeen in disclosing how brands consult affected stakeholders (37% up from 26% last year).
In environmental due diligence, we observe the biggest increase in disclosure of the salient
environmental risks, impacts and violations identified (37%, up from 26% in 2022). Upcoming
legislation on due diligence, within the EU, which is the largest importer of clothes in the world has
contributed to this uplift, as have similar efforts in Japan, Germany, the US and more.
Highest scoring brands 2023
In seven consecutive years of publishing this Index, for the first time in 2023, two brands scored
80% or higher. Italian brand OVS scored highest again this year with 83%, followed by Gucci at 80%
and then Kmart Australia and Target Australia at 76%. OVS has increased its score by 5 percentage
points since last year, Gucci by 21 percentage points and Kmart and Target Australia’s scores arelower by two percentage points.
Lowest scoring brands 2023
Alongside record highs this year, 18 major brands score a 0% rating, up from 15 brands last year,
including: ANTA, Belle, Big Bazaar, Bosideng, Fashion Nova, K-Way, KOOVs, Max Mara, Metersbonwe,
Mexx, New Yorker, Heilan Home, Savage x Fenty, Semir, Splash, Tom Ford, Van Heusen and Youngor. All
in all, 71/250 brands (28%) score in the 0-10% range. This is a slight improvement from 31% last year.

NOTES TO EDITORSThe full report will be made available at 13:00 pm BST on 13th July 2023 at:www.fashionrevolution.org/transparency
For interview requests, contact press@fashionrevolution.org
Download images for press here.
This year, we will mark the launch with a short animated film to illustrate the importance of theFashion Transparency Index as a tool to transform the fashion industry.
The video will be made available here on 13th of July.

ABOUT FASHION REVOLUTION
Fashion Revolution is the world’s largest fashion activism movement, mobilising citizens, industry
and policymakers through research, education and advocacy work. Fashion Revolution’s global
movement spans across 75 countries with a collective vision for a fashion industry that conserves
and restores the environment and values people over growth and profit.

ABOUT THE FASHION TRANSPARENCY INDEXThe Fashion Transparency Index analyses and ranks 250 of the world’s biggest fashion brands andretailers based on their public disclosure of human rights and environmental policies, practices
and impacts, in their operations and in their supply chains.
Brands are selected on the basis of an annual turnover over USD $400 million and represent aspread of market segments including high street, luxury, sportswear, accessories, footwear anddenim from across Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa.
These brands are ranked according to their disclosure on 258 indicators covering a wide rangeof social and environmental topics such as animal welfare, biodiversity, chemicals, climate,
due diligence, forced labour, freedom of association, gender equality, living wages, purchasing
practices, supplier disclosure, waste and recycling, working conditions and more.
It is important to note that transparency is not to be confused with sustainability. However, withouttransparency, achieving a sustainable, accountable, and fair fashion industry will be impossible.
Transparency underpins transformative change but unfortunately much of the fashion value chain
remains opaque, while human and environmental exploitation thrives with impunity. When brands
publicly disclose information, it allows anyone to scrutinise their policies, hold them accountable
for their claims and advocate for positive change.