Dynamic innovation for sustainability in the luxury apparel industry

Sustainability in the luxury fashion industry is increasingly at the forefront of major brands’ marketing. Yet, achieving environmental and social sustainability in apparel products is virtually impossible without actions upstream in the supply-chain. In this article, we study the role of first tier suppliers in introducing sustainability-driven innovations in the industry. With an in-depth case study of an Italian B2B luxury “fashion engineering” company, we map the systematic introduction of new sustainability practices and innovations, that gradually built internal know-how regarding sustainability. The process moved from innovations in processes, to the supply-chain, and lastly to the product level, spanning organizational, operational, and communication practices. We find that the company could sustain significant growth over the past decade also thanks to its sustainable innovations, which have become more ambitious and effective thanks to the learning-by-doing embedded in this dynamic trajectory.