Hermès: Fashion's fight with its supply chain

London - For as long as fashion companies have been relying on suppliers outside of their home country to produce their collections, there will always be problems in the supply chain.

Even with a basic understanding of fashion’s production cycles, it’s fairly obvious that the bigger the brand’s collections, the more complicated the supply chain. This applies to all brands, whether high fashion or high street - from Primark to Hermès - it is virtually unrealistic to control every facet of the supply chain all of the time.

The headlines published today that Hermès may be working with a crocodile leather supplier that is accused of unethical practices is neither something the company can be held fully accountable for, or indeed knowledgeable, however lenient that may sound.

One handbag may have 15 suppliers

A single handbag from Hermès may have as many as 15 suppliers, from leather, lining, fabric, to zippers, threading, buckles, buttons, leather closures, dust bag, gold foil branding, etc. Of these 15 suppliers, the majority will be from abroad, spread across the globe as diverse as Italy, South America and Portugal. It is impossible to know the processes of conduct and practice of each supplier all of the time for every style a fashion house is making, even more so when you have long lasting relationships and a working history that doesn’t give reason for concern.

Of course fashion businesses of this size and stature will have teams of production controllers who visit factories and suppliers regularly, but it remains a largely difficult territory to conquer, as was evident by the factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, where so many of the world’s leading high street brands produced their clothes, but not a single company preempted the worker or factory conditions of this business.

In the case of Hermès, sourcing high quality crocodile skins for its bags is no easy feat. This remains at best a very limited commodity in terms of cost and demand and at the same time is a much more challenging business then say sourcing calf skin, which can be found almost anywhere.

Fashion houses rely on their relationship history

Probably Hermès is happy to work with a reliable supplier that it had no awareness of the company’s other practices. This is no excuse, nor should the Hermès turn a blind eye, but it is also important to understand the context of how the supply chain works. If Hermès were to unleash SWAT teams and undercover guerilla spies on all its suppliers they would soon be left with broken relationships and a costly quality control bill. Sometimes these issues are only found when other agencies, such as PETA, highlight them.

Most fashion businesses would prefer to source closer to home if the price and quality were good enough, to save them time, headaches, and ultimately money. But the last time we checked there were no crocodile farms in France. In fact crocodile skins are so rare, the prices commanded for a meter of its leather could easily buy one a small car.

Hermès responded correctly and quickly: “An investigation is underway at the Texas farm which was implicated in the video. Any breach of rules will be rectified and sanctioned. Hermès specifies that this farm does not belong to them and that the crocodile skins supplied are not used for the fabrication of Birkin bags.”

If you are a potential customer for an Hermès Birkin bag, this issue should not necessarily be a deterrence.

images: Hermes Birkin