Hear Ye, Hear Ye: It’s Fake News Season!
The latest fake news victim? That’d be the fashion industry itself
Fashion is dodging rumours faster than it changes seasons. The industry is caught up spreading stories that may never have been, only to trip on its own laces of misinformation. It’s high drama and high fiction at its finest.
Once upon a time, in a continent not so far away, luxury fashion whispered sweet nothings about artisan hands in candle-lit ateliers, nestled somewhere between the Alps and a bottle of Barolo. Silk draped itself in French whispers; cashmere hummed in Italian. It was a cinematic seduction. And we, wide-eyed and Instagram-scrolling, believed it all.
But now, in the age of algorithmic scepticism and TikTok exposés, the spell is starting to crack. The fairy tale of fashion is being rewritten in real time. According to a growing murmur across social media, luxury fashion’s romantic, Eurocentric origin story might be less La Dolce Vita and more… Shenzhen.
Luxury’s sacred mythology is now under forensic review. The receipts are being demanded, and the latest victim in the fake news fallout? The fashion industry itself. Maybe that's why the FHCM, Comité Colbert and UNIFAB are calling on policymakers to take action and put an end to an ‘unprecedented widespread disinformation campaign’ about the origin of luxury goods.
Of course, the fashion industry has always been a master illusionist, dazzling us with the romance of legacy while quietly outsourcing the logistics. But in an era where transparency is the new black, the veil is wearing thin. The problem isn’t necessarily that fashion globalised, it’s that it did so while pretending not to. It’s not where the clothes are made that irks us — it’s why the story had to be so beautifully false.
And so, fashion now finds itself at an inflexion point: continue with the carefully constructed bedtime story, or wake up and embrace a more honest, pluralistic narrative. Because in a world where brand trust is a rarer commodity than Hermès crocodile, the new luxury might just be the truth.
Fashion’s Fake News Flirtation
Welcome to the era where the most scandalous runway moment isn’t a bare breast or croc-embossed crocs — it’s a fashion news #factorygate exposé accusing your $3,200 handbag of having a Chinese zip code instead of a Florentine one.
Social media, armed with grainy factory footage, secondhand employee anecdotes, and a dangerous cocktail of outrage and aesthetic fatigue, is pushing the idea that those Made in Italy labels might just be a costume in fashion’s biggest performance.
Let’s be clear: the issue isn’t whether factories exist in China (they do, and they produce exquisite quality goods). It’s that the internet’s fashion police, often with the nuance of a sledgehammer, have adopted a stance that equates “Made in China” with betrayal and “Made in Europe” with gospel, without engaging in the in-between: actual investigative practices, putting the future of fake news and the future of journalism into the spotlight.
The irony? Fashion has already danced with the fake news and misinformation narrative.
Back in 2018, Topshop, Sacai, and Balenciaga flirted with the fake news theme — embracing irony before it was gaslit into oblivion. Topshop released a pair of jeans with the words “Fake News” down the side, Sacai’s menswear AW18 collection featured oversized t-shirts with the New York Times’ slogan, “Truth, it’s now more important than ever,” and Balenciaga, ever the avant-garde prophet of post-truth aesthetics, debuted a monochrome-print twinset, patterned with what Gvasalia dubbed fake news.
A New World Order
Today’s fashion fake news saga is less theatrical, more existential. The digital mob doesn’t just call out fashion houses; it demands the total dismantling of the illusion. Craftsmanship? Heritage? Authenticity? Prove it or risk being memed into oblivion.
In this new world order, even the most storied brands are no longer gatekeepers of their own narratives; they’re defendants in the court of public opinion, where the judge scrolls fast and fact-checks never. Fashion news around the world is now taken with a pinch of salt.
Of course, brands share the blame. For decades, they’ve curated their heritage like a Wes Anderson film — all quaint villages and fourth-generation seamstresses. So when whispers emerge of outsourced production, opacity around labour practices, or suspiciously fast delivery times for handmade items, the trust deficit deepens.
The media — and yes, fashion journalism — isn't off the hook either.
While Vogue still sends love letters to Paris and Milan, independent journalists and watchdog accounts have taken up the burden of fashion news and trends truth-telling. But even their efforts are often swallowed by the content machine, flattened into a TikTok slide deck or a clickbait carousel.
The Fall of Fashion As Fantasy
The deeper issue at play? Escapism in fashion is being elbowed out by a cultural hunger for realism. In a world spinning from climate collapse, late-stage capitalism, and general existential whiplash, frothy editorials and glossy, overproduced ads no longer cut it. We, the people, want transparency. Accountability. Stories that reflect the world, not distract from it.
Which begs the question: Can fashion still dream without lying?
Maybe the future lies in a new kind of storytelling. One that celebrates craftsmanship, whether it comes from Tuscany or Taipei, that’s honest about supply chains, and doesn’t require sepia filters and sentimental origin myths to justify a four-figure price tag.
Perhaps the true luxury now is knowing who made your clothes, where, and under what conditions, not just what logo is stitched on the outside.
In an age where truth is a moving target, the fashion industry has a choice: either retreat further into myth-making or engage with the messy, complicated reality that people demand.
Just don’t expect a TikTok to tell the whole story.
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