Sorry, Planet Earth, but don’t count on millennials to save you. Despite a reputation for being socially, politically and environmentally “woke”—to the point of caricature by their curmudgeonly forebears—the demographic born between 1982 and 2000, per the U.S. Census Bureau (and 1981 and 1996, according to the Pew Research Center) isn’t about to martyr themselves…

Leather derived from mushrooms. Knitwear cultured from algae. Yoga pants blended with crab shells. For the fashion industry, frozen in the amber of tradition and resistant to change, these are practically mutinous developments. It isn’t just niche brands that are dabbling in these so-called “biosynthetics,” which is to say, man-made materials with organic origins. H&M…

If haste makes waste, then H&M clearly needs to slow its roll. The Swedish fast-fashion chain has amassed a staggering $4.3 billion in unsold clothing—up from 7 percent the year before. In an industry where profits are hitched to turnover rates, this volume of surplus doesn’t bode well for H&M’s bottom line. Neither does it…

Pity the humble clothing label. From high-fashion to basement bargain, hypebeast to Old World luxe, it’s the one universal design element that all items of apparel share, yet most people pay it scant attention. Sure, they’re useful to confirm a garment’s make and size, but other than that, who cares, right? Well, plenty of people,…

Victoria’s Secret is struggling with slumping sales—is the #MeToo movement, as one online research firm posits, to blame? Certainly the lingerie goliath’s foothold on its intended demographic is slipping. According to YouGov’s BrandIndex, which measures public perception of corporations, Victoria’s Secret’s “buzziness” with women aged between 18 to 49 has toppled from a score of…

For brands and retailers that are still feeling their way around sustainability, communicating a greener ethos to their customers can feel like a double-edged sword. “They’re scared to come out of the shadows and say, ‘We’re doing this,’” said Amber Valletta, a model, entrepreneur and activist who spoke at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit this past…

Baby Boomers. Gen X. Millennials. Gen Z. Just when you thought you had the generational demographics licked, PYMNTS.com has defined a new class of consumers for brands and retailers to woo. Meet the “bridge millennials,” a cohort-spanning bracket that the payments website describes as individuals “between 30 and 40 years of age who are maturing…

H&M is losing customers—can Big Data bring them back into the fold? The Swedish apparel retailer certainly has had a hard time of it lately. Sweatshirt controversies and delivery problems aside, foot traffic has nosedived, sending H&M’s operating profit careening 62 percent in the three months through February and yoking the fast-fashion chain with $4.3…

H&M is doing it. Levi’s is doing it. Even Zara wants a seat at the table. In fact, a total of 64 companies representing 143 brands and a combined value of 7.5 percent of the global apparel market have thrown their support behind a transition to a circular fashion economy, where products are made to…

In 2017, retailers finally took a sledgehammer to the walls that for so long kept their brick-and-mortar, web, and mobile operations separate. Now that they’re embracing technologies that will allow them to streamline the retail experience, 2018 will undoubtedly be the year of unified commerce. Indeed, retailers plan to increase their overall IT spending for…

For fashion companies that have operated with unbridled freedom over the years, the trend of social responsibility can feel like a millstone around the neck. Indeed, for a long time, many major brands were inclined toward “greenwashing” to portray themselves as more environmentally friendly than their actions warranted. Today, more are finding that profitability and…

Convincing a brand to adopt a third-party standard can be a tough sell. Persuading an entire country? Well, that’s practically unheard of. But something nigh miraculous happened on the way to the Sustainable Textile Conference, the five-day industry affair organized by Textile Exchange in mid-October. Defying all odds, the nonprofit announced that two key Argentine…