Fashion's Promises Ran Out of Credit This October

Fashion is good at promises. Every season brings a fresh pledge, a new target and another alliance with a hopeful name. This October, the evidence caught up with them.

A wage report, new EU rules, a wave of industry coalitions and a weak quarter for SHEIN all landed within weeks of each other. Good On You gathered these stories in its October roundup. Below, we set out what happened in each case and what we think it tells us.

A Wage Pledge Means Little Without a Payslip

On Living Wage Action Day, Clean Clothes Campaign published the latest edition of its Fashion Checker, which tracks whether big fashion brands pay garment workers enough to live on. This year it assessed 110 brands. It found that 32% of them have committed to paying a living wage, but only 4% report real progress. 

Garment workers it surveyed in Pakistan earn 74% less than a living wage. In Bangladesh the figure is 73%, in Turkey 66% and in Serbia 63%. Aileen Robinson, who coordinates Fashion Checker, puts it plainly, saying that 

“Any wage below living wage is a poverty wage” 

We agree. A commitment that never reaches a pay packet is a press release. Brands that mean what they say should publish what workers in their supply chains earn and show how that figure is rising. Today, only 3% of brands disclose wage levels at all.

Europe Is Right to Ask for Evidence

The EU's new consumer rules on green claims, known as EmpCo, apply from 27 September 2026. Under these rules, brands can only use broad words such as ‘green’, ‘sustainable’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ if they can back them with clear, specific evidence.

We welcome this. These words have been printed on so many labels that they stopped telling shoppers anything. Asking for evidence protects honest makers as much as it protects buyers, because it stops vague claims from crowding out real ones. 

Brands and makers everywhere, including in India, that sell to European shoppers will now need facts behind their words.

The same thinking is spreading. In the United States, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree has introduced a textile waste bill that aims to cut waste, improve data collection and support circular practices.

Coalitions Should Be Judged by What They Deliver

During New York Climate Week in September, several new fashion industry alliances were announced. Reporting from the week, Business of Fashion observed that the headlines were less about climate results and more about the launch of yet another coalition.

In the same month, a report from the University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and DIRT Charity found that fashion influences around 30% of global farmland, roughly 1.45 billion hectares, once materials such as wool and leather are counted.

Working together can help, especially when suppliers receive the same requests from many buyers. Even so, a coalition is a starting line. An industry with that much reach over the planet's land should report its progress every year, in plain numbers anyone can check.

Cheap Fashion Is Starting to Show Its Costs

SHEIN's second-quarter profit fell 67%. Higher jet fuel and freight costs hit a business that ships low-priced clothes by air, and its profit margin dropped to 2.1% from 6.2% a year earlier. The company now plans to move into higher-priced clothing.

One difficult quarter does not end fast fashion. Still, it shows that a model built on endless volume at the lowest price carries costs that someone eventually pays. For years, workers and the environment carried most of them. As rules tighten and costs rise, more of that bill is landing with the brands themselves.

Proof Is Already Working

October also brought news from brands taking a different route.

Yes Friends

Founder Sam Mabley secured £20,000 from Deborah Meaden on Dragons' Den in exchange for 2% of the business. The brand pays an extra premium on its orders when the lowest-paid workers at its supplier factories earn below its living wage benchmark, and it checks through payslips and signed receipts that the money reaches them.

Mud Jeans

The circular denim label filed for bankruptcy in August and has since found new shareholders. It plans smaller production runs, a stronger online focus and a tighter range.

Neither brand claims to be perfect. What sets them apart is that they show their working, and making less while selling it well is a sound plan for any label.

Ask for Receipts, Not Pledges

At TuDuGu, we believe the coming years will reward brands that can prove what they say and leave behind those that cannot. Handmade, ethical and traceable fashion rests on that idea. When you know the artisan, the place and the process behind a piece, a claim becomes something you can check.

Change begins with the questions we ask before we buy. Who made this? What were they paid? How do you know? Any label worth your money should be able to answer all three.