Author: Shayeza Walid
Starting this July, big fashion brands will no longer be able to destroy their unsold items in the EU. On Monday, the European Commission adopted new measures that will ban medium and large companies in the EU from destroying unsold clothing, footwear and related accessories, a practice long criticised for driving waste and emissions. The new rules are being implemented under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), the bloc’s framework for setting sustainability and durability requirements for products placed on the EU market.Large companies will be banned from incinerating or discarding unsold apparel, footwear and accessories beginning July 19,…
When silk patchwork jackets, hand-embroidered fabrics and block-printed linens graced the Kartik Research runway last June, the moment was hailed as a breakthrough for South Asian craftsmanship. And for some menswear leaders, the Indian label’s Paris debut pointed to something even more significant.“The South Asian global creative community is finally finding its feet,” says Aaron Christian, author of The Asian Man, a book documenting the evolution of South Asian men’s fashion and style from the fringes to the centre. “Especially…the younger generation, they’re redefining the look and feel of what South Asian is without a co-sign from the Western perspective.”Today,…
Hello, and a happy Friday, This is Shayeza Walid, The Business of Fashion‘s sustainability reporter, writing to you from a not-so-frosty London, after a snowy, blustery cold week in Copenhagen, where I was attending the 20th edition of Copenhagen Fashion Week. There’s a lot of doom and gloom in the world, and in fashion right now — especially in the case of sustainability — which has slid down the corporate agenda amidst geopolitical, economic uncertainty and been hit with a slew of regulatory backtracks in a more pro-business EU. But if my time in the Danish capital proved anything, it’s…
Shein’s claim that it will reach net-zero emissions by 2050 has come under fire in Germany.Environmental Action Germany, a German environmental and consumer protection organisation known as DUH based on its local name, concluded a legal challenge against the ultra-fast fashion retailer last week that forces Shein to provide evidence for the claim on its German website or remove it.In a statement to The Business of Fashion, Shein said it had “engaged constructively with DUH over recent months,” adding that it had published additional information on its website to provide “greater transparency around its sustainability targets, data and progress.” The…
COPENHAGEN — Braving negative temperatures and snowy streets – last week, designers, fashion veterans and buyers from some of the industry’s largest retailers gathered in the Danish capital for the 20th anniversary of Copenhagen Fashion Week. Although still much smaller than fashion weeks like Paris and Milan, the event has made its mark on the global fashion map as a showcase for Scandi-cool brands like Holzweiler, Sunflower and The Garment, and just as importantly, for its commitment to sustainability, which chief executive Cecilie Thorsmark made central to the event when she began her tenure in 2018. In 2020, the fashion…
Fashion brands would be forgiven for not knowing exactly when the EU will begin mandating that all new items sold in the region come with digital product passports — unique digital identities containing traceability details and other information.Since the European Commission first started talking about requiring DPPs in its Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation in 2024, the final text for its rules on textiles has experienced multiple delays. Even searching the EU website does not offer exact dates for when draft rules, which could at least be used as guidance, can be expected — let alone when the DPP requirements…
Fashion brands would be forgiven for not knowing exactly when the EU will begin mandating that all new items sold in the region come with digital product passports — unique digital identities containing traceability details and other information.Since the European Commission first started talking about requiring DPPs in its Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation in 2024, the final text for its rules on textiles has experienced multiple delays. Even searching the EU website does not offer exact dates for when draft rules, which could at least be used as guidance, can be expected — let alone when the DPP requirements…
Hello! Happy New Year and Happy Friday, This is Shayeza Walid, BoF’s sustainability reporter, and welcome to 2026’s first edition of the Frayed Edge –which as a reminder, will be coming to your inbox on a bi-weekly cadence for most of this year.Not even a month in, fashion’s sustainability promises are already under pressure. This week’s through line is trust — and the ways it’s being tested across fashion’s sustainability ecosystem. Whether it’s the growing gap between certification claims and farm-level practices, the hope of scaling circularity through resale, or evolving science on microplastics in the human body, the industry’s…
A new investigation by PETA Asia into mohair farms in South Africa and Lesotho, the world’s largest producers of the wool, is renewing scrutiny of fashion’s animal welfare certification schemes. Undercover footage released by PETA in December and filmed at farms certified under the Responsible Mohair Standard shows goats being beaten, dragged and shorn so roughly they were left bleeding.The investigation, conducted between January 2025 and November 2025, examined conditions at six farms across South Africa and Lesotho, with investigators finding workers violently striking goats with brooms and poles, hauling animals by their horns, legs and tails and forcefully pinning…
Nike has reached a settlement to compensate thousands of former garment workers at a Thai supplier following a multi-year investigation into pandemic-era wage theft allegations.The payments made to roughly 3,300 workers relate to a Bangkok factory owned by Hong Seng Knitting that manufactured Nike apparel and accused to have coerced workers into accepting unpaid leave in 2020 according to an initial investigation by labour organisation Workers Rights Consortium. In December 2024, a separate investigation commissioned by the Fair Labor Association, a human rights monitoring organisation that counts Nike as a member, recommended the brand help compensate workers who were furloughed…