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Credit: H&M
The year marked a turning point where trend cycles collided with truth cycles. Audiences no longer measured brands by aesthetics or innovation, but by ethics. Every “drop,” “collab,” and campaign existed under audit, not by regulators alone, but by consumers armed with screenshots, receipts, and moral clarity. What was once dismissed as “cancel culture” evolved into a full-time accountability movement, reshaping how credibility functions in luxury and mass fashion alike.
Beneath the surface glamour, the industry faced a deeper identity crisis: Could it evolve fast enough to meet the ethical expectations of a public that finally knows its power? In 2025 answered that question, not with glossy sustainability reports, but with scandals that stripped away illusion, revealing just how fragile fashion’s moral fabric truly is.
How We Ranked Them
Criterion
Description
Weighting
Severity of Allegation
Criterion
Description
Weighting
Severity of Allegation
10 Fashion Giants Making the Worst Headlines in 2025
The following table summarizes the top 10 brands, ranked by the cumulative negative impact of their 2025 controversies:
Rank
Brand
Primary Controversy in 2025
Severity Score
1
H&M
Greenwashing Lawsuit & Child Labor Links
Extremely High
2
Adidas
Indigenous IP Theft & Child Labor Links
Very High
3
Arc’teryx
Environmental & Cultural Insensitivity (Tibet Fireworks)
Very High
4
Swatch
Racial Stereotype Ad (China)
High
5
Zara (Inditex)
Child Labor & Forced Labor in Supply Chain
High
6
Skims
Multiple PR Controversies (Israel, Product Design, Minor in Ad)
High
7
American Eagle
Controversial Ad Campaign (Eugenics Undertones)
Medium-High
8
Gap Inc.
Child Labor & Forced Labor in Supply Chain
Medium
9
Uniqlo
Local Brand Copying Allegations & Child Labor Links
Medium
10
Amazon
Child Labor Links (as a major apparel retailer)
Medium
Inside the Scandals: What Each Brand Got Wrong
These brands turned 2025 into fashion’s biggest PR cautionary tale, with scandals spanning greenwashing, labor abuse, cultural theft, and tone-deaf marketing. Each case shows how fast reputations crumble when ethics, culture, and creativity aren’t taken seriously.
H&M tops the list because it managed to get hit on two of the biggest red-flag fronts in 2025: greenwashing and child labor. A July class-action lawsuit accused the brand of “false” and “misleading” sustainability claims around its Conscious Collection, putting its entire ethical marketing narrative on trial. That was followed by confirmed links to a major scandal involving child and forced labor in the Indian cotton supply chain earlier in the year, turning H&M into the poster child for how bad “sustainable” fashion can go when the receipts don’t match the rhetoric.
Adidas spent 2025 fighting fires on multiple continents. A high-profile collab was accused of lifting the “collective intellectual property” of an Indigenous Mexican community without proper consent, sparking an outrage that forced a public apology and reopened long-running conversations about cultural theft in fashion. On top of that, Adidas was also named in the Indian cotton supply chain investigation tied to child and forced labor, cementing its place near the top of the controversy rankings for both cultural and ethical failures.
Arc’teryx’s downfall this year was entirely self-inflicted. A flashy fireworks promo on the Tibetan plateau backfired spectacularly, triggering global backlash over potential environmental damage and accusations of cultural insensitivity in one of the world’s most politically sensitive regions. What was meant to be a dramatic brand moment instead read as tone-deaf exploitation, eroding trust among exactly the eco-conscious consumers the brand has long relied on.
Swatch’s controversy was textbook “how did this get approved?” In an ad that ran in 2025, the brand featured a model making a slanted-eye gesture that echoed long-condemned racist stereotypes, particularly offensive in a key market like China. The outrage was immediate and international, forcing Swatch to pull the campaign and apologize, and spotlighting a serious failure in cultural review and internal checks.
Zara, via its parent Inditex, was again at the center of a major supply chain scandal when it was named in the Indian cotton investigation connecting global fashion giants to child and forced labor. Given Zara’s sheer size and influence, the revelations felt especially damning, reinforcing criticism that the brand’s fast-fashion engine is built on systemic exploitation rather than isolated incidents.
Skims didn’t have one big blow-up; it had a steady drip of headline-grabbing missteps. The brand drew backlash over its planned expansion into Israel, a provocative “faux hair micro string thong” product, and the inclusion of Kim Kardashian’s minor daughter in an adult-leaning campaign. None of these scandals hit the legal or human-rights level of other brands on the list, but the constant stream of PR flare-ups kept Skims in the controversy conversation all year.
American Eagle’s problem wasn’t labor or lawsuits, it was messaging. An ad featuring Sydney Sweeney with the line “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” sparked intense criticism, with many reading it as a wink toward eugenics and unrealistic body ideals. The campaign quickly became a case study in how a single line of copy can tank a brand moment, igniting social backlash and forcing a rethink of how far “cheeky” can go before it turns toxic.
Gap Inc. found itself pulled into the same Indian cotton supply chain scandal that ensnared several mass-market giants, with child and forced labor allegations putting its sourcing practices under a harsh spotlight. While the brand may not have had as many additional missteps as others higher on the list, the gravity of the core issue and its emblematic status as a global basics retailer kept it firmly in the controversy frame.
Uniqlo’s 2025 was defined by both local and global setbacks. In Singapore, its food-themed T-shirt campaign was called out for allegedly copying a smaller local brand’s designs, feeding the narrative that big fashion borrows freely from independent creatives. Layered on top of its mention in the broader Indian cotton labor scandal, the brand’s image as a clean, minimalist staple player took a noticeable hit.
Amazon earns its place on this list not as a fashion house, but as one of the world’s most powerful apparel retailers. Its inclusion in the Indian cotton investigation linked its vast marketplace to child and forced labor concerns, raising questions about the true cost of convenience and speed in fashion. The controversy underscored how even platform players can’t hide behind scale when systemic supply chain abuses come to light.
Independent fashion brand, Kandee Shoes lost its primary sales and community channel overnight after Instagram shut down the brand’s official account following a design dispute with luxury house Saint Laurent. The clash began after Kandee’s viral post showcasing its Caviar Collection platform sandals drew over 1 million views, triggering accusations from Saint Laurent which lead to a sling of Instagram takedown requests ultimately deleting the brands main source of income and 10-years of work.
