The first French fashion brand founded online, Sézane makes casual, chic clothing and accessories appropriate for all occasions. With a stated goal of avoiding overproduction, sales, and unsold stock, Sézane releases its archives twice a year, ensuring that nothing goes unworn. While Sézane could expand its commitments to transparency and fair labor, their attainable, SBTI-aligned end-of-decade sustainability targets, well-researched ethical sourcing initiatives, and item-by-item transparency pages make them an excellent sustainability-oriented option for the discerning consumer.
Sézane
The first French fashion brand founded online, Sézane makes casual, chic clothing and accessories appropriate for all occasions. With a stated goal of avoiding overproduction, sales, and unsold stock, Sézane releases its archives twice a year, ensuring that nothing goes unworn. While Sézane could expand its commitments to transparency and fair labor, their attainable, SBTI-aligned end-of-decade sustainability targets, well-researched ethical sourcing initiatives, and item-by-item transparency pages make them an excellent sustainability-oriented option for the discerning consumer.
Transparency
- Each item on Sézane’s website has its own traceability page, allowing customers to make informed decisions on an item-by-item basis.
- Their Code of Conduct has a clause prohibiting suppliers from using cotton sourced in the Xinjiang region of China. This is a much-needed move against one of the most severe human-rights issues in the fashion world.
- That said, Sézane still has some room for growth. While most of their factories are in Europe, they do not disclose locations beyond the country level. Since they audit each Tier 1 supplier annually, this is information they can be expected to know and could easily disclose.
Fair Labor
- Sézane audits all its Tier 1 suppliers at least once per year, as well as some of its Tier 2 suppliers.
- Sézane has a direct complaint hotline to several supplier facilities and regularly distributes worker well-being questionnaires, which has resulted in anti-sexism trainings and workspace overhauls.
- Sézane could improve their Fair Labor score by disclosing whether all of its clothing makers are paid a living wage for their area.
- Additionally, they can increase their commitments to worker and community well-being.
Sustainably Made
- By 2030, Sézane aims to reduce the carbon footprint of each piece in its inventory by 52% and company-wide Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 42%.
- In light of the cashmere industry’s high carbon footprint, links to desertification, and lack of animal welfare standards, Sézane removed all cashmere items from its collections in 2023.
- All of Sézane’s permanent boutiques are powered by renewable energy. Sézane is actively working with its largest suppliers to find ways to reduce their carbon emissions.
- According to their most recent Impact Report, 77% of Sézane’s material is “eco-friendly,” encompassing fabrics and other materials that are GOTS, RWS, or FSC-certified; organic; or otherwise sustainably grown. Key areas:
- 81% of the cotton Sézane uses is organic or recycled. Due to ethical and environmental concerns, Sézane does not use cotton and other products sourced from Syria, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, or the Xinjiang region of China.
- 75% of the viscose Sézane uses comes from sustainably managed forests. Sézane does not use viscose sourced from high-risk countries for deforestation, such as Brazil and Indonesia.
- 100% of the wool Sézane uses is certified mulesing-free, while 82% is RWS-certified.
- 100% of the leather Sézane uses comes from LWG-certified tanneries. Sézane does not use leather sourced from the Amazon Rainforest region.
