The latest “Fashion Transparency Index” by Fashion Revolution shows that among the 250 largest fashion brands and retailers in the world, the best-trending ones are on the cutting edge of transparency.
Gucci is the highest scoring luxury brand at 48%, up from 40% in 2019. The Italian brand is also the only one scoring 100% in the Policy and Commitments section, with other brands from the Kering group ranking right behind Gucci.
The Fashion Revolution annual ranking shows H&M as the highest scoring brand, with 73% out of 250 possible points, for sharing detailed information on their supply chain and on their approach to a series of social and environmental issues.
For the first time this year since the Index was first introduced, some brands scored 70% or more, although very few reached that high.
After H&M, C&A ranked second at 70%, followed by Adidas and Reebok at 69%, Esprit at 64% (showing that their commercial issues have not undermined their attention to transparency), Patagonia at 60%, and the British chain Mark & Spencer at 60%, one more firm demonstrating how the operating difficulties they have experienced do not necessarily mean cancelling all efforts for transparency.
The lowest-scoring brands at 0% are Bally, Max Mara, Pepe Jeans, Tom Ford, Elie Tahari, Jessica Simpson, Mexx, and Chinese Belle, Heilan Home and Youngor.
Fashion Revolution monitored the major brands, and compared their performances as to five key areas in 2016.
The 2020 report also features indexes covering a wide range of topics such as animal wellbeing, biodiversity, chemicals, climate, due diligence processes, forced labor, freedom of association, gender equality, living wages, purchasing practices, supplier disclosure, waste and recycling, and working conditions.
The latest edition of the Index features 50 more brands and retailers, some of which obtained extremely low scores. Among these, Fashion Nova from the US (final score at 2%), Koovs from India (2%), and PrettyLittleThing from the UK (9%).
With many low scores and the average one among all 250 brands reviewed this year at only 23%, it has still improved by 2 percentage points from 2019. Among the 98 brands reviewed every year for the past four, average scores have increased by 12 percentage points.
The brands that improved most this year include Monsoon, whose score rose by 23 percentage points, Ermenegildo Zegna (+22 points), Sainsbury’s (+19), Dressmann (+17), and last Asics, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, all up by 15 percentage points.
The Index also shows that Ermenegildo Zegna has become the first luxury brand to disclose a detailed list of its suppliers, and overall, 40% of brands shared a list of their first-level suppliers, from 35% in 2019. Only 7% of brands disclosed some of their raw material suppliers, from 5% last year.
Last, the 2020 Index reveals that only 6% of brands pay their suppliers by a maximum of 60 days, and only 2% share the percentage of orders paid to suppliers on time, within the agreed terms.
