The clothes we wear rarely tell the full story of how they were made. Behind a shirt or pair of jeans is a global supply chain that spans farms, factories, and lives. Increasingly, HRF research has found that the majority of fashion and textile supply chains exist in authoritarian regimes where human rights are most at risk.
According to HRF’s Tyranny Tracker, 76% of the world’s population lives under fully authoritarian or hybrid authoritarian regimes in 106 countries and territories. In authoritarian systems, workers cannot freely choose where to work, negotiate wages, or organize. This suppresses basic market dynamics and enables forced labor to persist at scale. Countries ruled by authoritarian regimes often house the most labor-intensive stages of clothing production, where worker protections are weakest and coercion is hardest to detect. This leaves workers extremely vulnerable to human rights violations without any path to recourse.
When you think of fashion, you think of trends, aesthetics, and the color of the moment. However, beneath the surface lies a global industry deeply intertwined with human rights abuses. The fashion industry is one of the top five contributors to modern slavery worldwide. From labor exploitation to restricted freedoms, authoritarian governments shape many of the conditions under which our clothes are produced.
The global fashion industry does not exist outside of political systems. In many cases, it operates directly within regimes where workers have limited rights and little ability to advocate for themselves. Understanding how authoritarianism influences the fashion industry is essential to understanding the human rights abuses that are embedded throughout global supply chains.
Why Fashion?
Fashion is a multi-trillion dollar global industry that accounts for roughly two percent of global GDP and produces more than 100 billion garments each year. This scale makes fashion one of the largest and most complex industries in the world when it comes to supply chains, labor, and regulation. In authoritarian contexts, the scale of production is matched by a lack of worker protections and transparency.
A single garment typically involves materials grown in one country, processed in another, and assembled in yet another. These fragmented supply chains allow brands to reduce costs and increase production speed, but they also make it easier for labor abuses to remain hidden. Many major clothing manufacturing hubs exist in countries where regimes tightly control civil society, restrict press freedom, and where a lack of judicial independence precludes domestic recourse. When these political realities intersect with an industry built on low production costs and a rapid pace, the risks for workers increase significantly. Forced labor persists across multiple stages of fashion supply chains, particularly in environments where authoritarian state control suppresses worker freedom. Prioritizing the people behind the clothes means supporting systems where workers can participate freely and are not subject to coercion.
Why Wear Your Values?
HRF launched Wear Your Values in 2017, at a time when the conversation around ethical fashion was largely focused on the environmental impacts of the industry. WYV broadened that lens, bringing attention to the human rights conditions within global fashion supply chains. A garment made from recycled materials or designed to minimize waste cannot be considered truly ethical if it comes at the expense of workers’ rights, safety, and dignity.
Labor
Between 70 and 80% of the world’s clothing production countries are under authoritarian rule. When civil liberties are restricted, workers often have fewer protections and limited opportunities to advocate for themselves. In many manufacturing regions, garment work is one of the few available sources of employment. Workers may be forced to accept long hours, and dangerous working conditions where alternatives are limited. Labor unions or worker organizations that can push for improvements in democracies can be restricted, discouraged, or closely monitored under authoritarian regimes.
Fashion production is particularly vulnerable to these dynamics because garment manufacturing is highly labor intensive. Unlike industries that rely heavily on automation, clothing production still depends on large numbers of workers performing repetitive manual tasks. This creates an environment in which brands searching for “lower costs” often shift production to countries where labor protections are nonexistent or significantly weaker. For companies competing in the fast-paced fashion global market, producing clothing cheaply, with little regard to worker safety and wellbeing, becomes a priority. However, those savings often come at the expense of workers who have limited ability to demand fair treatment.
Supply Chain Transparency
Transparency is one of the most significant challenges in fashion supply chains, especially when production occurs in authoritarian countries. Authoritarian regimes often restrict the ability of journalists, researchers, and outside investigators to report on human rights violations. As a result, it can be extremely difficult to obtain reliable information about working conditions inside factories or farms. Even when workers are interviewed, more often than not, they hesitate to speak openly out of fear of retaliation.
Many brands attempt to monitor labor conditions through third-party factory audits. While these audits can provide some oversight, they have significant limitations. Auditors are often allowed to visit only pre-approved facilities, and inspections are frequently scheduled in advance. In these circumstances, factories may temporarily adjust conditions for inspections. Workers can be coached on what to say, and management may prepare facilities to appear compliant with labor standards. There have also been documented cases of factories manipulating records or negotiating audit outcomes. Because of these realities, supply chain monitoring alone cannot guarantee transparency, particularly in environments where governments tightly control information and restrict independent investigation.
Clothing Regulation
Authoritarian influence on fashion is not limited to the conditions for garment producers. In countries where freedom of expression is curtailed, the everyday decision of choosing how to dress can carry social or political consequences. Regimes can enforce dress codes and restrictions on clothing through law, punishing those who violate these rules with fines, harassment, or imprisonment. In these contexts, clothing becomes a site of political control.
In some cases, certain clothing garments are banned altogether. Banned garments are often clothing articles that authoritarian regimes prohibit citizens from wearing because they are associated with identity, beliefs, or personal expression. These garments can include religious attire, traditional or cultural pieces, or items that may signal political views. By banning garments, authoritarian regimes further enforce conformity and restrict individual expression.
The Politics of What We Wear
Where political competition and markets are free, workers have the power to walk away. Where authoritarianism prevails, that choice disappears. Fashion is often perceived as distant from politics, but the industry operates within a global system where power, labor, and human rights intersect in ways often hidden from consumers. Freedom from forced labor, the ability to advocate for fair working conditions, and the freedom to express oneself without repression are all fundamental human rights impacted by global networks of labor, production, and governance. When fashion supply chains intersect with authoritarian political systems that restrict these freedoms, the consequences shape the lives of both workers and wearers.
