Barriers to sustainable transition in the fashion industry: insights from India

Streamlined production and innovative retail strategies have enabled the fashion industry to experience rapid growth in recent decades, with its complex global supply chain posing serious environmental and social sustainability challenges. Policymakers and advocacy groups have been demanding a transition toward a sustainable fashion system as awareness about the impact of this industry continues to rise. Although multiple initiatives and alternative business models have emerged in the sociotechnical system of fashion, a sustainable transition in this sector has not yet been realized. Conversely, the fashion system exhibits indications of being locked into unsustainable practices. This article aims to understand the barriers preventing the transition of the fashion industry to a sustainable system from the perspective of the actors within the supply chain. Ethnographic interviews with manufacturers and industry experts in India are leveraged to understand the challenges within the supply chain that are reinforcing the unsustainable practices in this industry. This article highlights the perspective of a developing country in the sustainability discourse. The interview analysis demonstrates that in fashion, brands implement various methods to attain sustainability through certifications or compliance standards in the manufacturing regions while lacking an understanding of local circumstances and contexts. This article argues that the disconnect between certifications and their implementation reinforces unsustainable behaviors in the supply chain instead of addressing them. Furthermore, it asserts that compliance efforts should steer away from the Western definition of sustainability and pivot toward sustainability strategies grounded in the local context of the manufacturing country.