Skip to main content
BoF Logo

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Are These Fashions Linked to Forced Labour? Brands Can’t Confidently Say No.

At least 570,000 Uighur Muslims are being forced to work in Chinese cotton fields that produce one-fifth of the world’s supply, a new report says. Most fashion brands can’t promise their products aren’t implicated, with concern spreading from fast-fashion and sportswear giants to major luxury groups.
Farmers picking cotton in a field in Hami in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. Getty Images

20 percent of the world’s cotton. Half a million modern slaves.

Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.

© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Sustainability
How fashion can do better for people and the planet.

The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.


How Mexico’s Independent Women Fashion Designers Are Rethinking Growth

At Soho House Mexico City, Mexican fashion designers Carla Fernández, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and Camila Banzo joined BoF’s Yasmine Dahlberg to speak candidly about identity, innovation and what it takes to build an independent fashion business in Mexico — as part of both Women’s History Month and the House’s ongoing Women Shaping the Future initiative.


view more
Latest News & Analysis
Unrivalled, world class journalism across fashion, luxury and beauty industries.

The Industry That Eats Its Young

Small fashion labels have always been shortchanged by their wholesale partners. A wave of high-profile bankruptcies has turned a structural injustice into an existential crisis. There is a better way to do business, writes Imran Amed.


VIEW MORE
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON