The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Serai, the online business-to-business platform launched by HSBC in 2019, has enabled suppliers to input data on the products they are handling at each stage of the supply chain. The aim is to offer companies, buyers and suppliers greater visibility over the origins of their goods at a time when cotton producers in Xinjiang, China come under increased scrutiny by the US government over allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses.
Serai also encourages suppliers to bring in third party surveyors to check and approve the data. Brands, retailers and buyers can then send on examples of Xinjiang-sourced cotton to US law enforcement.
“What we want to do is to build a platform that makes it easy for businesses to share information with each other, and get information from each other and build relationships with each other,” Serai CEO Vivek Ramachandran told the South China Morning Post.
Europe’s Parliament has signed off rules that will make brands more accountable for what happens in their supply chains, ban products made with forced labour and set new environmental standards for the design and disposal of products.
Fashion’s biggest sustainable cotton certifier said it found no evidence of non-compliance at farms covered by its standard, but acknowledged weaknesses in its monitoring approach.
As they move to protect their intellectual property, big brands are coming into conflict with a growing class of up-and-coming designers working with refashioned designer gear.
The industry needs to ditch its reliance on fossil-fuel-based materials like polyester in order to meet climate targets, according to a new report from Textile Exchange.