H&M and Zara are more transparent than some of the world’s biggest luxury brands

See how your faves stack up.

Following the release of the Ethical Fashion Report, Fashion Revolution has released its 2018 Transparency Index.

The index is another way for consumers to educate themselves on the level of transparency of global fashion brands, with 150 companies featuring in this year’s report. Brands are selected based on an annual turnover of over US $500 million, with a market spread of luxury, street, sportswear, footwear and more. Each rating is based on information that is publicly available at the time of publishing.

The 2018 report comes with a few surprises. Brands like H&M, adidas, Puma, Zara and ASOS are more transparent than some of the world’s biggest luxury fashion brands. While the former group scored around 41-60% for overall transparency, Gucci, YSL, Hugo Boss and Burberry were in the 31-40% category. It’s important to note that while lower-scoring, these luxury brands have made steady improvements since the 2017 report.

A notable mention also goes to Gucci, which was the only brand in the entire report to score 100% in its approach to policy and commitments. This involves disclosing the brand’s procedures on equal pay, living conditions, annual leave, health and safety etc.

The report’s top-scoring brands were adidas and Reebok, coming in at 58% each for level of overall transparency. This means both brands are publishing the vast majority of policies, procedures and future goals mentioned in the report.

Among the worst performers were luxury brands including Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Max Mara and Barneys New York, which all received a score of 0 or 1.

If you’d like to check out the 2018 Fashion Transparency Index for yourself, you can do so here.

fashionrevolution.org