According to LVMH's head of image and sustainability Antoine Arnault, luxury is "sustainable by nature."
It's a common message within the industry, where high prices and claims of artisanal manufacturing are often used as proof points for ethical and environmentally responsible operations, businessoffashion reported.
And yet just this week, a Milan court placed an LVMH unit under external supervision after an inquiry alleged that subcontractors in its supply chain had exploited workers. In April, the same court found evidence of sweatshop conditions in Armani's Italian supply chain. Suppliers to around a dozen more fashion brands are currently under investigation in Italy.
Meanwhile, earlier in the year, an investigation by Bloomberg called out exploitation in LVMH-owned Loro Piana's vicuña supply chain. (Armani has said it has always had controls in place to minimize abuses, while LVMH has denied the claims relating to Loro Piana. The French luxury group did not respond to a request for comment on the Italian court's decision).
Such findings are shocking, but hardly surprising. Although luxury brands like to position fashion's environmental and social ills as a mass-market problem, the incidents are just the latest in a string of reports challenging the carefully cultivated perception that luxury goods are synonymous with ethical practices.
The reality is that many luxury players operate more like fast fashion than they care to admit. For years now, "exclusive" goods have been produced and sold by the millions in a shift towards high-margin mass production that has come with increased pressure on manufactures and greater risks of labor exploitation.