Skip to main content
BoF Logo

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

Is Luxury Finally Set for a Sustainability Reckoning?

Amid growing disillusionment with luxury brands, a series of Italian investigations linking major players like Dior and Armani to sweatshop labour is putting new pressure on the sector’s most powerful asset: brand image.
An outside view of a factory supplying Dior shows a series of concrete buildings. A separate image shows a high-end Dior store.
An Italian investigation has linked companies like Dior to suppliers operating under sweatshop conditions, a world away from the refined and exclusive image the brand presents to the world. (The Business of Fashion and Shutterstock)

MILAN, Italy

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.

Further Reading

Italian Sweatshop Probe Is a Wake Up Call for Luxury Brands

An investigation into labour exploitation in fashion’s Italian supply chains has already entangled Armani and LVMH, accusing the companies of failing to adequately oversee their suppliers. Incoming EU regulation means such lapses in oversight could soon come with penalties of up to five percent of global revenue.

Op-Ed | The Myth of Ethical Luxury

Beneath luxury’s glamorous surface lies a network of supply chains tangled with the same labour abuses as fast fashion. Brands can, and should, do better, argues Caterina Occhio.

About the author
Sarah Kent
Sarah Kent

Sarah Kent is Chief Sustainability Correspondent at The Business of Fashion. She is based in London and drives BoF's coverage of critical environmental and labour issues.

© 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.


The Zara-Fication of John Galliano

Fashion’s enfant terrible is trading exclusivity for the mass market. Is it the ultimate fashion coup, or the final surrender of prestige?


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.


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