Beyond Firefighting: New Operating Model for Resilient Fashion Supply Chains
Jul 23, 2025
3
min reading
In the face of relentless uncertainty, fashion needs more than quick fixes. It needs a new way of operating.
The recent turmoil – from tariff whiplash to geopolitical shocks – has forced brands to scramble for solutions, and the despair has often led to reactive displacement rather then a structured solution plan.
The Business of Fashion detailed how U.S. tariff threats spooked fashion companies into action (or rather, into reaction). And while quick pivots are often criticized, they reflect just how stretched the industry has been in recent weeks, facing disruption without the breathing room to strategize.
For instance, tariff escalation, particularly under the Trump administration, pushed many brands to hastily shift sourcing away from familiar supply bases like China toward alternatives like Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia.
But even these “Plan B” locations are now coming with risks of their own.
For example, Vietnam was initially hit with a 46% tariff on exports under Trump-era policies. Although that decision was quickly suspended, the threat of reimposing it lingered, with a 90-day deadline now extended to August 1.
Under the most recent agreement, the U.S. has opted for a 20% tariff instead – a lower rate, but still a significant trade barrier. This back-and-forth illustrates the continous uncertainty, even in countries positioned as “Plan B” sourcing alternatives.
Another example is Brazil, one country that was expected to become a new export hub for businesses, now faces a 50% tariff – one of the highest on the U.S. list.
This all points to a bigger, more provocative question: while supply chain diversification has been strongly advised in the sector, the volatility calls for deeper changes, ones that foster systemic shifts rather than surface-level solutions.
Of course, supply chain diversification isn’t to be ignored. In fact, in a recent BoF Podcast, journalist Joan Kennedy emphasized it’s still an important strategy, but the challenge is bigger now, as many countries are facing new tariffs.
It’s really unpredictable, and that leaves brands in a constant state of reaction.
There’s no perfect or one-size-fits-all solution. Every brand’s needs, constraints, and goals are different.
But while there are no overnight miracles, there are smart, tailored strategies that move the needle. And one way to start is by asking: Isn’t it time we updated our strategies and systems for supply chains?
And more importantly – when headlines call supplier diversification a solution, are they really speaking to the lived realities of SME brands, or just repeating a narrative that works best for the biggest players?
Keep reading to unpack the tough questions, to explore what a new system and a truly resilient operating model could look like for fashion today.
Beyond the Backup Plan and What Diversification Misses
As we explored earlier, supply chain diversification is often presented as the go-to strategy in times of disruption – move production out of China, diversify across regions, keep your options open, and so on.
On the surface, it makes sense. Reducing dependency on any single country can be a smart strategy. But in practice, diversification isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and it’s certainly not a silver bullet.
For large brands with deep pockets and big teams, shifting production across multiple regions is challenging, but manageable.
For small and mid-sized brands, though, the equation is different. Constantly switching or expanding supplier networks requires capital, operational flexibility, and time (all of which are often in short supply for SMEs).
AlixPartners, a global consulting firm, makes this plain:
Supplier diversification is beneficial to obtain control and maintain continuous supply, but it comes with huge investments, upskilling, and added costs in a competitive environment.
Even Business of Fashion acknowledged recently that “supply chain diversification isn’t working like it used to.” The terrain has changed. Traditional playbooks are falling short. So, where to turn to now?
When Global Disruption Becomes the Norm
The disruptions today go far beyond tariff threats. Brands are now navigating a world where war, political instability, and climate emergencies are reshaping the field of sourcing and shipping altogether.
Armed conflict has disrupted entire regions of production, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Beyond the devastating humanitarian crises these conflicts cause, they also carry major implications for fashion businesses, disrupting trade routes, inflating energy prices, and destabilizing regional manufacturing hubs.
The Red Sea, a vital shipping corridor for global trade, has seen a nearly 50% increase in piracy this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau – a growth that threatens fashion’s shipping routes and delivery timelines.
Climate volatility is intensifying – extreme heatwaves in Europe, South Asia, and parts of North America are putting worker safety, crop yields, and production timelines at risk. As BoF recently reported, climate change is now a direct material risk, with heat, drought, and flooding increasingly disrupting raw material sourcing, factory operations, and financial forecasting.
It’s not news that this instability directly impacts brand operations. A missed shipment or delayed container can derail a season’s collection, shrink selling windows, and damage trust with retailers or customers.
We’ve seen this especially among emerging and independent designers. In a July 2023 Vogue Business feature, Joe Brunner of Browns highlighted the growing logistical burden:
Emerging designers struggle the most with delays… These delays can snowball into a series of additional hitches which impact seasonal performance.
That’s the heart of the matter: while larger brands can often absorb delays and navigate around risk, SMEs don’t have that luxury. They can’t just add a new factory, switch ports, or wait out a crisis. They need the kind of support structure that often doesn’t exist at their scale.
So What Is The Industry Offering Smaller Brands?
This is where the conversation (in boardrooms, media, and policymaking) often falls short.
Yes, many are acknowledging that the old ways aren’t working (like BoF recognized). But few are offering viable alternatives that are accessible for all. What’s the path forward for a lean team trying to source responsibly without a global sourcing office? What’s the strategy for the SME brand that’s still managing production on spreadsheets?
It’s not that diversification is wrong, it’s that without infrastructure and tools that meet brands where they are, diversification becomes a privilege, not a strategy. If the industry is serious about resilience, it’s time to move past generic prescriptions and start building – or at least talking about – systems that support all brands.
What does a viable operating model look like for the majority of fashion businesses today? That’s the question we should be designing answers for.
So – returning to the question of where to turn next – the answer lies in structural change. Keep reading to see what that can look like in practice.
A New Ecosystem for Resilient Supply Chains
It’s clear that the old playbook of ad-hoc fixes is not exactly delivering what the fashion players need, especially the smaller sized ones.
What’s needed now is a collective commitment to democratizing supply chain innovation, so that every brand and supplier, not just the largest players, can upgrade how they work.
That’s why we’ve been asking a core question throughout this piece: How do we make supply chain improvement something all brands can access – not just those with scale and capital?
The good news is that, across the globe, more voices in fashion are waking up to the power of community and collective solutions, especially in turbulent moments like the one the industry is navigating now.
“The last six months have been such a dark time in America. It’s been heavy, very heavy. There are days when, in the studio, we just have to act as a support group, because some days feel unbelievable.”
That’s how designer Willy Chavarria described the atmosphere in a recent Wallpaper feature.
Known for his emotionally charged shows and bold cultural narratives, Chavarria used the most recent Paris presentations to elevate fashion into a medium of collaboration, spotlighting diverse models, immersive storytelling, and meaningful partnerships with organizations like the ACLU and Human Rights Campaign.
Image credit: Victor Boyko / Getty Images | Originally featured on Wallpaper – “Willy Chavarria Interview, 2025”
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But he didn’t stop at symbolism. The message extended into the very structure of the work –from who was featured on the runway to who made the clothes behind the scenes.
It was all about building visibility and equity into every layer of the process.
What Chavarria’s work signals (beyond the power of the garments themselves) is the shift in mindset we mentioned. A recognition that real resilience doesn’t come from operating alone, but from intentional networks, shared purpose, and the courage to reimagine the systems we rely on.
That’s the kind of thinking we need in supply chain building too.
And this is the spirit driving initiatives like World Collective – not presented as a perfect solution, but as a team and an ecosystem bringing a new mindset and solution-driven approach to how our systems function –in this case, how our supply chains work.
World Collective was built as a global aggregator, an ecosystem uniting tools, platforms, and partners to drive real progress across the supply chain.
In practice, that means
Creating a shared infrastructure where brands (big and small) and vetted suppliers can find each other, share credible data, and build trust more easily;
Giving a designer who’s just starting out the same window into her supply network that a heritage house might have;
Empowering small and medium mills with the same opportunity as major ones: to spotlight their certifications and build relationships with clients who appreciate their value.
Our role, as we see it, isn’t to claim we can fix fashion’s supply chain woes overnight, but to build bridges to get to the solution to some of them, like:
The Lack of Traceability and Transparency: A Core Issue in Fashion
Today, only about 19% of fashion businesses have clear visibility into their value chain (and even that is usually incomplete). In other words, more than four-fifths of the industry is operating with a blindfold on when it comes to upstream impacts.
And in mist of all these recent tariff whiplash and trade chaos, supply chain transparency is more important than ever.
Why? Because without real-time data, brands can’t anticipate or react quickly to changing risks, like tariffs, factory disruptions, or regulatory shifts.
So when a sudden tariff is imposed (as happened in the U.S. with China, Vietnam, and Brazil), brands don’t always know which of their products, materials, or suppliers are affected or how much exposure they have. That means:
They can’t re-route production in time.
They might keep ordering from high-risk zones without realizing it.
They end up paying the tariff and facing potential shipping or delivery delays.
World Collective’s answer? Building ESG and traceability into the supply chain’s very design, rather than adding it on later as an afterthought.
Our partnership with Kinset is designed to close the traceability gap in fashion’s most opaque supply chain tiers (Tiers 2–4) by combining supplier relationships with modular traceability technology.
Through this collab, selected suppliers across regions are equipped with digital dashboards to verify certifications, input impact data, and connect directly to DPP-ready infrastructure.
Image from Kinset’s website.
For brands, this means faster access to verified material data, lower due diligence costs, and a practical pathway to comply with EU DPP, CSRD, and OECD frameworks.
In short, the collaboration simplifies complex traceability, empowers suppliers with visibility, and helps brands integrate DPP data into sourcing decisions not just for compliance, but to drive smarter, more sustainable growth.
And perhaps most importantly: this model doesn’t exclude SMEs, because World Collective’s platform is designed to make these traceability and compliance tools accessible, not exclusive.
The Lack of Supplier Aggregation
Another core challenge we aim to address at World Collective is the lack of meaningful collaboration between fashion brands and textile suppliers. I
n times of stress, the relationship often defaults to being transactional. Instead of working together to solve shared problems, pressure gets pushed downstream.
The recent tariff panic made this painfully clear.
Ecotextile News reported that several major American retailers sent letters to their vendors demanding 5 to 10 percent price reductions to offset the costs of newly imposed tariffs. These weren’t negotiations. They were unilateral cuts, delivered under pressure.
This kind of reactive behavior may save money in the short term, but it erodes long-term trust. And when that trust breaks down, the entire supply chain becomes more fragile.
World Collective's solution works differently. Instead of viewing suppliers as interchangeable, we see them as core collaborators. Our platform:
Aggregates and vets high-performing and certified suppliers across multiple regions (Asia, Africa and the Americas)
Elevates supplier visibility through verified profiles and data
Supports long-term partnerships through shared forecasting, DPP-readiness, and transparency tools
And for SMEs especially, having access to trusted, vetted suppliers – and the tools to build relationships with them — is crucial. It removes friction and builds consistency. It makes strategic growth possible, even in uncertain times.
World Collective’s vision is a prime example of seizing this moment – and it goes far beyond the issues highlighted here.
Our Ecosystem isn’t offering a quick fix or a one-off toolkit; it’s actively shaping the next-generation infrastructure of the fashion supply chain – built for resilience, equity, and long-term impact.
In this new infrastructure, transparency, regional resilience, and supplier empowerment aren’t exceptions or feel-good extras; they’re the baseline.
Every product can be traced, every supplier is a partner, and every decision is made with foresight and shared intelligence.
That may sound idealistic, but as we’ve outlined, the building blocks are already being laid in practice through collaborative networks, traceability pilots, and new partnership models that break with fashion’s old habits.
For fashion brands of all sizes (from global players to independent labels), embracing this new operating model could determine who sinks or swims in the years ahead.
Smaller and mid-sized brands, in particular, stand to gain a credibility and agility boost by tapping into structures like World Collective – it gives them access to robust supply chain capabilities that were previously out of reach, leveling the playing field with larger competitors.
Larger brands, on the other hand, can regain trust and innovation by infusing more transparency and fairness into their vast networks, something stakeholders are increasingly demanding.
In short, what fashion needs now is a collective upgrade: from linear, brittle supply chains to collaborative, resilient supply ecosystems.
As World Collective advocates, this is the moment to stop frantically firefighting and start re-architecting the system for good. The turbulence of recent years has been a wake-up call that the old ways won’t carry us forward.
This is just the first step in understanding how World Collective is reimagining the infrastructure behind fashion’s supply chains — built for a world shaped by disruption, innovation, and urgency.
Dive deeper into what the future of sourcing really demands:
Written by Maria Eugênia Lima, Junior Digital Content & Social Media Producer at World Collective
