Armani made headlines earlier this month when an Italian court revealed that it is tied up in a labor matter after at least one of its suppliers used subcontractors that flouted national labor laws. In a court order released on April 5, the Court of Milan stated that one of Armani’s suppliers, Manifatture Lombarde, “used subcontractors in the Milan area that employed undocumented migrants for the production of Armani bags, leather goods, and other accessories,” subjecting these individuals to “particularly disadvantageous working conditions,” including requirements that they work a greater number of hours than the company officially declared and the payment of wages of between €2 and €3 ($3.25) per hour.
“In a ruling dated April 3, the court appointed a consultant for one year to work alongside managers [at Giorgio Armani Operations] to improve relations with suppliers,” the AFP reported. The court’s order – which comes amid a years-long effort by the Milan public prosecutors’ office to investigate the outsourcing of production by large groups in fashion and other industries to subcontractors that allegedly exploit workers – sheds light on rising regulatory attention to the workings of apparel brands’ supply chains. (Such attention is likely to increase further in coming years in light of ESG-centric calls for increased transparency about companies’ value chains.)
While fast fashion companies have traditionally been at the center of manufacturing-related disputes, the Armani case demonstrates that both the mass-market and high-fashion levels, alike, face difficulties when it comes to keeping tabs on their complex and often murky supply chains.
Supply Chains and the ESPR
One element worth addressing here is the impending role of legislation in the European Union that aims to bring transparency to the products offered up in the apparel and textile segment. As part of a reworking of the existing Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC, the EU has proposed (and preliminarily passes) the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (“ESPR”). The ESPR – a provisional agreement of which was adopted in December 2023 and adopted in April 2024 – “follows the same approach as the current Ecodesign Directive, which has been driving efficiency gains for energy-related products in the EU for over a decade,” according to the European Commission.
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