The Regulatory Landscape: A Moving Target

Opening the seminar, Alberto Mussini outlined a regulatory environment in constant flux.
Nexia Audirevi, founded in 1983 and now part of a global auditing network, works closely with heavyweight clients
such as LVMH and Rimowa.

Mandatory sustainability reporting, originally expected in 2025, has now been postponed to 2027.

“Regulations are in constant motion,” Mussini noted, highlighting how political shifts alter the size, scope, and details of corporate disclosure.

According to Mussini, Europe remains “the most advanced region” in ESG scrutiny, despite global inconsistencies.
He broke down the three pillars:

Environmental

Climate mitigation, pollution control, biodiversity protection, water use, and circularity.

Social

Fair working conditions, equal opportunity, labour rights across global supply chains, and consumer protection.

Governance

Anti-corruption practices and animal-welfare management.

Meanwhile, while regulatory demands rise, market trends move downward.
Luxury is navigating a turbulent phase: China is softening, and Hermès remains the rare exception performing steadily.

Supply Chain Responsibility: Beneath the Surface

The seminar turned granular as Jacopo Gonzi and Paola Siviero examined the increasingly fraught terrain of supply-chain accountability.
Italy’s regional production clusters—globally admired—are also under intense scrutiny.

The speakers traced the long history of labour-exploitation scandals, from early 20th-century America to the Rana Plaza collapse.
Today, however, the spotlight has shifted to Italy itself.

A growing list of Italian court cases has revealed labour violations buried within subcontracting networks.
The Milan court alone has investigated cases involving Amazon’s CEVA Logistics, Dior,
Loro Piana, and Valentino.
At the centre of many cases lies caporalato: a system of labour exploitation hidden several tiers deep in the supply chain.

Inside ESG Audits: What They Really Uncover

Gonzi and Siviero broke down what ESG auditing looks like in practice: project management, risk assessment, on-site inspections,
staff interviews, and photographic documentation.

Even the most prestigious luxury brands face an overwhelming challenge. A company like Loro Piana, celebrated for its craftsmanship,
might rely on thousands of suppliers spread across multiple tiers. In luxury, production capacity pressures often trigger
unauthorised subcontracting—a hidden but critical ethical fault line.

A Glimpse Into the Audits

Paola Siviero provided concrete examples drawn from the field:

• Workers disappearing during official operating hours.
• Employees skipping breaks due to long commute times.
• Payslips failing to reflect actual overtime.
• Overcrowded dormitories.
• Electricity-consumption spikes revealing night shifts.
• Quantitative red flags: if over 20% of working hours go unpaid over three months,
  the audit becomes “critical”.

These are not isolated oversights. They are structural patterns.

A Hard Truth for the Fashion Industry

The speakers converged on one central message:
fashion cannot claim sustainability without confronting the uncomfortable realities of its own production networks.

At the University of Bologna—where fashion meets critical cultural inquiry—the seminar served as a reminder.
To understand fashion in 2025 means not only analysing silhouettes or trends, but examining governance structures,
labour conditions, and the messy, essential work of accountability.

Text by Saroj Ali