PARIS — France’s Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode and Italy’s Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana are moving to align sustainability and supply-chain expectations across manufacturing.
On Wednesday, the two fashion industry bodies unveiled a joint ESG harmonization framework aimed at supporting suppliers and preparing brands for coming European regulatory requirements.
The voluntary framework focuses on harmonizing environmental, social and governance business conduct principles across luxury fashion supply chains, with the goal of reducing “supplier fatigue” among manufacturers and workshops that are often subject to compliance, auditing and data requests from different brands.
“The idea [was] to harmonize the social environmental auditing to decrease the fatigue of the suppliers,” said Pascal Morand, executive president of the FHCM, during a joint interview with Camera della Moda chairman Carlo Capasa.
The initiative follows years of parallel work by the French and Italian organizations, which eventually recognized they were addressing many of the same concerns around compliance, traceability and supply-chain governance. The groups ultimately decided to “join forces,” Morand said.
“We both started a couple of years ago and then said, ‘Oh, we are working on the same page. Why should we do two different commission tables,’” Capasa said. The framework is the result of roughly 18 months of joint work.
The organizations described the initiative as an effort to establish a “common language” around ESG expectations while preserving the autonomy of individual brands.
The framework is designed as a voluntary set of shared business conduct principles rather than mandatory rules, reflecting the challenge of coordinating across competing design and fashion houses while also preserving autonomy.
“It keeps the freedom of each of the brands to operate in its own way, but within the framework,” Capasa said.
According to the organizations, the framework covers governance, health and safety, human rights and labor conditions, and environmental compliance, alongside suggested supporting documentation suppliers may consider maintaining.
Morand said the framework includes roughly 50 shared expectations related to ESG business conduct and due diligence practices, though brands retain flexibility in how they implement them.
The process involved extensive consultation with luxury groups and sustainability experts on both sides, Morand said.
“The French houses said we need to work with the Italian houses. And the Italian houses said the same thing,” he said.
The effort comes as fashion companies face mounting pressure from upcoming European sustainability regulations, including requirements related to due diligence, traceability, environmental labeling and the implementation of digital product passports.
The initiative also reflects the organizations’ effort to help brands work within EU sustainability requirements. Both groups have been active at the EU level in discussions surrounding traceability, sustainability regulation and digital product passports with several events in Brussels.
“This is probably the first European document that France and Italy have shared with a common vision for future European regulation,” Capasa said.
The groups see the initiative as part of a broader transformation of the fashion industry.
While the framework is compliant with the EU rules, “we go further on some aspects,” said Morand. “It gives coherence within the global ecosystem. It doesn’t apply to one country — Italy or France, specifically — it can apply marginally to all the countries involving the supply chain.”
While Capasa and Morand emphasized that the framework is also intended to support suppliers, both executives framed it as an effort to create greater consistency across the luxury manufacturing ecosystem, particularly in Europe, where French and Italian luxury brands account for a significant share of high-end production.
“It means a lot also for Europe, because the production, the manufacturing in Europe mainly comes from designer and luxury brands. So it’s also very coherent with also this aspect and dimension of the European manufacturing,” said Morand.
The organizations also stressed the importance of supporting smaller workshops and SMEs, which they described as central to preserving the artisanal expertise and savior faire. Education and new opportunities will be part of the initiative.
“We are here now to help you to implement [it],” Capasa said. “That is an important side of this work, to move the system in this direction, to help people to be part of this framework.”
“All the SMEs inside the supply chain are part of the whole story,” Morand said, adding that the large houses have the market power to implement change. “The period in which we are in requires transformation. It requires a dialog, and it requires working with each other for the supply chain [transformation].”
Both executives said the organizations are working with schools and universities on future training and education initiatives related to ESG auditing, due diligence and supply-chain competencies, areas they described as rapidly evolving and likely to create new jobs.
The framework will be made public on both groups’ websites on Wednesday.
