{"id":685398,"date":"2025-11-13T13:57:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T10:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=685398"},"modified":"2025-11-13T13:57:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T10:57:25","slug":"is-it-possible-to-build-a-fully-traceable-outfit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=685398","title":{"rendered":"Is It Possible to Build a Fully Traceable Outfit?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sustainability<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Is It Possible to Build a Fully Traceable Outfit?<\/h1>\n
By <\/span>Bella Webb<\/span><\/span><\/span>Photography by <\/span>Niall Wilson<\/span> and Aurelia Lorimer<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

November 13, 2025<\/p>\n

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    Over the past year, I\u2019ve delved deep into fashion\u2019s supply chain, visiting more than 50 farms and factories to report on the evolving landscape around Made in Italy and Made in the UK labels. As I uncovered the sprawling nature of industry supply chains and the rarity of single-origin garments, a question began percolating in my mind: is it possible to build a fully traceable outfit?<\/p>\n

    A few weeks ago, I invited nine brands to tell the stories of their supply chain traceability journeys through a single garment. Each label had a different approach, and chose to focus on a different material, so the final outfits (we ended up with two) showcase a wide array of both challenges and solutions. Some brands are working directly with farmers to trace natural fibers back to their single origin, while others prefer aggregators with \u201cbatch traceability\u201d, where products are traceable to a small group of suppliers. Some are exploring high-tech traceability solutions, while others are still operating across Excel spreadsheets. Some have fully fledged digital product passports (DPPs) already live on their e-commerce sites, and others are still working out how to turn traceability into transparency.<\/p>\n

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    The result is a patchwork playbook you can pick and choose from, depending on the size of your business and the scope of your traceability ambitions. Whichever approach resonates most, traceability is increasingly time-sensitive. As the participating brands point out, the European Union (EU) is working fast to implement DPPs, and traceability is the linchpin that makes compliance possible. After all, if you don\u2019t know where your products come from, how can you communicate that to consumers, or make improvements along the way?<\/p>\n

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    Collaboration is key<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    When Tamanna Mullen started building Arth Atelier two years ago, her plan was to create a fully traceable brand. It should be easy, she thought. Starting from scratch, she wouldn\u2019t need to pivot an existing supply chain, made increasingly complex by years of offshoring, diversifying and racing to the bottom. But Mullen\u2019s optimism soon dissipated. \u201cI realized very quickly that full traceability is extremely hard to achieve,\u201d she explains. \u201cPart of the problem is that the system is set up in favor of mass production.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Taking wool as her starting point, Mullen approached established fabric suppliers, hoping they could help her trace her products back to the farm level. But, as a fledgling independent brand, she was unable to meet the respective suppliers\u2019 minimum order quantities. And when she turned to combing mills, scourers and farmers, with the aim of building her own supply chain, she ran into the same volume problem \u2014 but this time, at every stage. Eventually, she settled on a middle ground: working with aggregators that emphasize transparency and traceability. For wool, that meant forging a partnership with Nativa, a company that uses blockchain technology to certify and trace every stage of the production process. This allowed Mullen to trace the wool to a small group of regenerative farms in Uruguay. (Aggregators gather materials from multiple sources and sell them on to brands. Some give little reassurance about the source or practices used; others, like Nativa, allow brands to trace their products to a small selection of certified sources, if not the individual source.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Arth Atelier isn\u2019t the only brand using strategic partnerships to accelerate traceability. Since 2021, Reformation has been working with textile traceability platform Fibretrace to trace around 50% of its denim supply chains. \u201cIt\u2019s a good example of something we have been able to push beyond a pilot, because the goal is to find solutions and technologies that can scale and become part of how we operate,\u201d says Reformation\u2019s chief sustainability officer and VP of operations Kathleen Talbot.<\/p>\n

    The supply chain starts at the Good Earth Cotton farm in Australia, which uses regenerative agriculture practices and is owned by Fibretrace co-founders David and Danielle Statham. Before being transported to the Wathagar Ginning Company, the cotton is sprayed with a physical traceability pigment, which can withstand production processes from spinning to weaving and dyeing, allowing it to be scanned and verified at each stage of the supply chain. \u201cOne of our big challenges was finding a durable way to trace fibers that doesn\u2019t wash out and isn\u2019t an adhered label,\u201d says Talbot. \u201cThe fact that it\u2019s embedded into the fiber itself gives us a lot of assurance and is why we\u2019ve continued to scale with Fibretrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    Getting suppliers on board<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    When I reported our Made in Italy series last year, Gruppo Florence-owned hatmaker Facopel told me it was running 16 different work stations to accommodate the five different traceability operating systems dictated by various brand partners. This situation isn\u2019t uncommon among suppliers. The fashion industry has yet to decide on a single standard for traceability, and the EU is still working out exactly what DPPs need to include and how. For brands prioritizing traceability, getting suppliers on board can be half the battle.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt takes suppliers who are values-aligned and willing to go through extra steps to adopt these practices,\u201d says Talbot. \u201cFor brands, it\u2019s about asking: what does your vendor engagement look like? How do you really bring them along? How do you correct any incentives or malincentives if it\u2019s harder or more expensive to do? If your supplier has been doing the same thing for a hundred years, it\u2019s going to take a lot of negotiation and change management.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    In this way, traceability is not a technology challenge or an infrastructure overhaul, but a relationship-building exercise, says Gonzalo Pertile, VP of sustainability at New York-based brand Theory. \u201cWe start with people, not paperwork. Traceability happens in partnership with cross-functional teams, and you won\u2019t achieve anything without support that extends all the way from vendors to top management. When you trust the people you work with, you are more open to sharing information.\u201d Theory has been working with some of its suppliers for two decades, including Italian mill Botto Giuseppe, whose founder introduced the brand to Congi Farm in Australia, which now supplies the regenerative wool for its Atelier Wool coat.<\/p>\n

    Longstanding relationships like this are foundational to traceability, says Orlagh McCloskey, co-founder and creative director of London-based womenswear brand Rixo, which just celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Rixo says it is currently working with suppliers to digitize its traceability data and certificates, moving from Excel spreadsheets to the Intertek and Trace For Good systems. Having a proven track record and consistent orders helps to get suppliers on board with these changes, McCloskey explains. \u201cWe have only worked with one supplier since we started the brand, and I actually worked inside their company for a bit. When you\u2019re actually inside the factory, you can see how damaging it is if brands make fickle decisions, and how much that can impact waste. So having visibility of production has been a priority for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    Minimizing waste is one of the Rixo\u2019s priorities, adds McCloskey, and it\u2019s a prime example of how close collaboration with suppliers \u2014\u00a0enabled by traceability \u2014\u00a0can accelerate other goals. For the most part, Rixo uses digital printing to reduce its environmental impact, but sometimes, such as on its bias-cut scarves, it has to use placement printing. Having a direct relationship with the supplier allowed McCloskey to tweak her design and length of the scarves to cut wastage, something that would have been lost in translation. \u201cYou need that visibility and flexibility with your suppliers to work on solutions together.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Going direct to the source<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Many natural fibers are sourced through commodity supply chains, where aggregators and auctions make it difficult to trace fibers back to their farms. \u201cOften, fiber from multiple farms gets mixed into one yarn for logistical and financial reasons, so the best option we have found is buying through certifications,\u201d says former Mother of Pearl creative director Amy Powney, who launched affordable luxury label Akyn earlier this year with a limited fiber basket. \u201cThis is still complex though, and we\u2019ve had firsthand experience of certification rules not being adhered to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    Increasingly, brands like Theory are building direct relationships with farmers to overcome these challenges. In the UK, British Pasture Leather (BPL) is part of a broader movement to reconnect fashion with farmers. Since 2020, co-founders Alice Robinson and Sara Grady have been tracing British leather back to the farm level, creating the infrastructure that will hopefully help to distinguish regenerative leather from more environmentally destructive practices. \u201cLivestock agriculture is practiced across a great spectrum of approaches and that\u2019s obviously a huge flashpoint for brands using leather,\u201d says Grady. \u201cTracing the hides back to the farm level means we can bring distinction to farming practices that have positive impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    BPL works with a small group of British farms certified under Pasture for Life, but it doesn\u2019t trace individual products to individual farms as of yet. Instead, it operates on a batch traceability model, explains Grady. The bag featured is an iteration on Been London\u2019s Calvert tote, which was sold in limited quantities as part of BPL\u2019s Made With campaign, reimagining the hero products of 10 British brands in British leather. Been London founder Genia Mineeva, who works primarily with waste materials, asked for the parts of the hide typically considered \u201cundesirable\u201d, including the suede, belly and shoulder pieces.<\/p>\n

    Jewelry brand Monica Vinader is taking a similar approach to gemstones. In 2022, the brand launched DPPs with 50 of its bestselling styles and set up a program called Mine to Market, which traces its gemstones. \u201cThe jewelry industry is incredibly complex and quite opaque; fraught with human rights challenges and biodiversity issues. Gemstones in particular come from all over the world and the supply chain is very artisanal, with a lot of middlemen involved,\u201d says chief product officer Megan Shearer. Other materials had quicker fixes for traceability \u2014 switching to recycled gold and silver, and lab-grown diamonds \u2014 but the brand has only managed to trace 52% of its gemstones to their mine origin.<\/p>\n

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    A bright spot is aquamarine, which Monica Vinader sources from Zimbaqua, a Zimbabwean mine owned and operated by women. \u201cIt\u2019s been a long and slow process to trace our gemstones, and frankly, there are some people we just haven\u2019t been able to convince that this is the right thing to do. So we\u2019ve focused on finding like-minded partners with the same ambition,\u201d says Shearer. Still, the process wasn\u2019t without hiccups. Despite scouting around for an existing audit framework or certification that was fit for purpose, the brand was forced to create its own, working with a human rights specialist and SGS Certification Services. After a few minor tweaks \u2014 such as enshrining existing annual leave and maternity leave policies in writing \u2014 Zimbaqua passed. The brand has since expanded the framework to turquoise and green onyx, with hopes to scale across gemstones in the near future.<\/p>\n

    Not content with tracing its supply chain, some brands are building their own. Among the frontrunners is Spanish footwear and womenswear brand Miista, which is building its second factory in A Coru\u00f1a, Galicia. Producing as much as possible in-house also gives Miista better oversight of labor conditions, says Miista founder Laura Villasenin. \u201cWhen you work with outside factories, they often outsource parts of the process to factories or countries where labor is not as well regulated.\u201d This has long been the Achilles heel of Italian luxury production, a battle that recently entered the public domain. \u201cI feel comfortable knowing that we know what we\u2019re producing, how we\u2019re doing it and who is doing it, and we can open the doors to anyone that is happy to pass by.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    From traceability to transparency<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Traceability is the bedrock of so many sustainability initiatives, but it\u2019s not the end goal.<\/p>\n

    \u201cTraceability shouldn\u2019t be confused with impact, but it\u2019s essential for setting and maintaining rigorous fiber and production standards, as well as designing for circularity and end-of-life solutions,\u201d says Reformation\u2019s Talbot. It can also be the starting point for supply chain transformation, adds Pertile, pointing to Theory\u2019s partnership with Congi Farm, which is exploring the potential of seaweed tablets to reduce methane emissions from sheep.<\/p>\n

    Much of this takes place in the background, but at some point, brands will need to turn traceability into consumer-facing transparency. \u201cTraceability shouldn\u2019t live in spreadsheets or documents. It should be a customer experience,\u201d Pertile says. \u201cIt\u2019s always a challenge, breaking down complex sustainability topics into digestible information that our customer can process and understand. Hopefully, DPPs will allow us to bring to life all the work we have done on the backend.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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    But how do you tell complex stories about supply chains without consumers switching off? And how do you balance elevated, brand-aligned storytelling with regulatory compliance? Powney, for one, says she is \u201canti-QR codes\u201d because \u201cit\u2019s too much data for people to take in\u201d. Similarly, Reformation doesn\u2019t share product-level data on e-commerce product pages because it\u2019s so hard to get accurate data to that level, even between different washes of the same jeans, according to Talbot. \u201cWe\u2019ve found that on-product storytelling is typically more accurate and reflective of that exact product,\u201d she explains. \u201cSo we do have some swing tags and labels with content around Fibretrace, which you can scan and it leads you to the Fibretrace landing page on our website.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Some brands are cautious about sharing their traceability process publicly, for fear of competitors encroaching on hard-won supplier relationships and pushing suppliers beyond their capacity. But this isn\u2019t a fear Pertile shares. \u201cIf a brand wants to understand where their competitors are making products, they can find a way to get that information. They can go to the factory and see which other brands are on the production line, or they can check Open Supply Hub. From my perspective, our customer needs to know the story of our products and that\u2019s why we want transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    Some brands and producers \u2014\u00a0including BPL \u2014\u00a0are trying to bring traceability stories to life by offering field trips and studio tours, either to other industry players or to consumers. Others are using the product itself to tell the story. Secondhand retailer Beyond Retro recently released the Walulu \u2014\u00a0a riff on the viral Labubu, except it\u2019s made from upcycled denim in the shape of a whale, because textile waste is a \u201cwhale of a problem\u201d. Beyond Retro founder Steven Bethell\u2019s way of saying that \u201cthe medium is the message\u201d.<\/p>\n

    The limits of traceability<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Sometimes, the supply chain has blind spots that a single brand cannot overcome alone.<\/p>\n

    Beyond Retro sources post-consumer denim waste through its parent company Bank & Vogue, one of North America\u2019s leading traders of used goods. As a result, it has a reasonable amount of traceability from collection onwards, but there are still blind spots, says Bethell. Bank & Vogue owns a remanufacturing facility in the Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ) in India, and each incoming shipment is audited to make sure it only contains post-consumer textile waste from the US, he explains. \u201cThe biggest superpower we have is that we own the ecosystem, which makes supply chain traceability a lot easier,\u201d Bethell adds. \u201cBut I can\u2019t be very specific about which part of the US it came from, or which specific charity retailer we collected it from. I can just tell you they came from a big pot of unwearable jeans.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    Beyond Retro can make around 25 Walulu keychains for each pair of jeans they reuse. The keychains are then stuffed with old pillows \u2014 \u201cthe amount of old pillows is insane,\u201d says Bethell \u2014 and the trims are new. \u201cI wish I could figure out how to pull poppers off and reuse them, but I\u2019m not that smart. Sometimes, the juice isn\u2019t worth the squeeze,\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n

    The same sentiment is often applied to trims. Theory \u2014 which is owned by Fast Retailing, alongside Uniqlo and Helmut Lang \u2014 sources trims, buttons, zippers and linings through a list of nominated vendors, pre-approved by its parent company, says Pertile. These vendors are listed on the bill of materials (BOM), which are created for each product. But many brands,\u00a0including Reformation, don\u2019t yet trace these smaller components. \u201cWe get as much information as we can, but we don\u2019t go into the same level of diligence for anything that makes up less than 10% of the garment,\u201d says Talbot. \u201cIt\u2019s a long-term roadmap item, but we\u2019re just not there as an industry yet. So for denim, we\u2019re not looking at the rivet or some of the metal supply chains beyond Tier 1, but a pocket lining might trigger a deeper chain of custody review.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Despite these challenges, the progress is tangible. Had I posed the same question \u2014\u00a0is it possible to build a fully traceable outfit? \u2014 10 years ago, the answer would have been a resolute \u201cno\u201d. But it was surprisingly easy to find brands that are working on traceability today, albeit to different extents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

    Source URL: http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/is-it-possible-to-build-a-fully-traceable-outfit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sustainability Is It Possible to Build a Fully Traceable Outfit? By Bella WebbPhotography by Niall Wilson and Aurelia Lorimer November 13, 2025 Over the past year, I\u2019ve delved deep into fashion\u2019s supply chain, visiting more than 50 farms and factories to report on the evolving landscape around Made in Italy and Made in the UK […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":685399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-685398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=685398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/685399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=685398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=685398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=685398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}