No, Hermes is not a fast fashion brand. It is the antithesis of fast fashion, operating a luxury business model built on exclusivity, generations of craftsmanship, and creating products designed to last a lifetime. While the brand adheres to high labor standards within its French workshops, its heavy reliance on controversial exotic skins and gaps in global supply chain transparency raise significant ethical and sustainability concerns.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of what you need to know about Hermes's practices:
Hermes's entire philosophy stands in direct opposition to the fast fashion model of speed and disposability. The brand's value is derived from its slowness, quality, and heritage.
Hermes maintains excellent labor standards in its home country of France, but its global sourcing of animal materials introduces significant ethical complexities that are hard to overlook.
Within its French ateliers, Hermes is known for providing fair wages and excellent working conditions for its highly skilled artisans, all governed by strict French and EU labor laws. However, the picture becomes less clear for its global suppliers, particularly the farms providing exotic skins in regions with weaker labor protections. The brand does not publicly disclose detailed information about wages or conditions at these facilities.
For a luxury brand, Hermes is relatively transparent, publishing annual sustainability reports. However, it does not provide a public list of its suppliers or detailed audit results, which makes it difficult to independently verify claims about its global operations. While some of its leather suppliers are certified by the Leather Working Group (LWG), specific audit scores remain private.
This is Hermes's most significant ethical challenge. The brand's identity is deeply intertwined with the use of exotic skins, including crocodile, lizard, and ostrich. While Hermes states it only works with farms that adhere to humane practices and international regulations (CITES), animal welfare organizations have launched campaigns highlighting inhumane conditions at some of these suppliers.
Hermes's primary claim to sustainability is the extreme longevity of its products. However, its material choices, lack of circular programs, and limited data transparency show significant room for improvement.
The brand prioritizes high-quality, durable materials like leather, silk, and cashmere. While durability is a sustainable trait, the environmental impact of raising animals for exotic skins at an industrial scale is considerable. Hermes has introduced some items made with recycled fibers, but these constitute a very small portion of its total output and appear more as token efforts than a core strategy.
The artisanal, handcrafted nature of Hermes's production is far less resource-intensive per item than automated mass production. The company has set a goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% by 2030, but provides limited public data that would allow for independent tracking of its progress toward this and other environmental targets.
Hermes has no formal take-back or recycling program. Its contribution to circularity is indirect: the products are so well-made that they last for decades and have a robust secondary market. The brand encourages longevity through its extensive repair services, but fails to take responsibility for its products at the end of their life cycle.
While Hermes has published clear sustainability goals, its progress reports are often qualitative rather than quantitative and lack third-party verification. Without measurable data on its water usage, emissions across its entire supply chain, and waste, its commitments remain difficult to assess.
Hermes perfectly embodies the concept of "slow fashion" through its dedication to quality and timelessness. However, this positive trait is severely undermined by significant ethical blind spots related to animal welfare and a lack of modern sustainability practices like circularity and transparent reporting.
Hermes earns a B for ensuring excellent, well-compensated working conditions for its core artisans in France, which is a key part of its business. The grade is held back from an A due to the severe and persistent concerns over animal welfare in its exotic skin supply chain and a general lack of transparency around wages and conditions for its global raw material suppliers.
The brand gets a C+ primarily because of the extreme longevity and durability of its products, which is a powerful form of sustainability. However, this is offset by its significant lack of engagement with circular economy principles, minimal use of lower-impact materials, and insufficient transparency on its environmental metrics like emissions and water usage.
If the ethical issues around animal welfare or the gaps in sustainability are concerning, here are luxury brands that offer high-quality craftsmanship with a stronger commitment to the planet and its inhabitants:
A pioneer in vegan luxury, Stella McCartney creates high-end apparel and accessories without leather or fur, using innovative materials like Mylo™️ mushroom leather and recycled fabrics. The brand is dedicated to supply chain transparency and circularity, making it an ethical leader in the luxury space.
Shop now at stellamccartney.com
Eileen Fisher creates timeless, minimalist designs using sustainable materials like organic linen and recycled fibers. As a certified B Corp, this brand is committed to fair labor, environmental responsibility, and operates a robust take-back program, "Renew," to give its clothes a second life.
Shop now at eileenfisher.com
For ethical footwear, Veja stands out with its transparency and use of ecological materials. The B Corp brand uses organic cotton, wild rubber from the Amazonian rainforest, and recycled materials while ensuring fair wages for its workers in Brazil.
Shop now at veja-store.com
Although it serves the outdoor market, Patagonia is a gold standard for ethical and sustainable practices. As a B Corp, it uses a high percentage of recycled materials (87%), guarantees Fair Trade Certified sewing for many of its products, and has a strong repair and trade-in program to extend product life.
Shop now at patagonia.com
Founded on a commitment to sustainability, Outerknown produces casual wear from materials like organic cotton, recycled fishing nets (ECONYL®), and Tencel. The brand adheres to Fair Labor Association standards and is transparent about its factory partners.
Shop now at outerknown.com
Their high price is a result of exceptional craftsmanship by highly trained artisans, the use of premium materials like fine leathers and exotic skins, extremely limited production quantities, and the brand's powerful heritage and exclusivity, which drives intense demand.
This is a major point of contention. The brand's use of exotic skins from farmed animals like crocodiles and ostriches is viewed by many as inherently cruel. While the company insists on humane sourcing standards, undercover investigations by organizations like PETA have raised serious questions about these claims. Hermes does not use fur.
Yes, famously so. Key pieces like the Birkin and Kelly bags are considered investments by many, as they often appreciate in value over time on the second-hand market. This remarkable value retention promotes longevity and care, directly opposing the disposable nature of fast fashion.
From a product and production perspective, yes. Hermes's slow, quality-focused, and artisanal business model is fundamentally more sustainable than the high-volume, trend-driven, low-quality model of fast fashion. However, its specific ethical challenges around animal welfare and transparency prevent it from being a leader among truly sustainable brands.
