Southwest Fashion Forum

Fashion is becoming a highly regulated industry.

For UK brands and retailers, the cost of selling into Europe is changing fast. EmpCo, ESPR, Digital Product Passports and CSRD are shifting regulation from the company to the product. Many businesses have invested in sustainability strategies and impact reporting — but product compliance demands supply chain evidence that few can gather on their own.

Most fashion brands are micro businesses and SMEs that depend on access to the EU market. With more than 50 pieces of sustainability legislation now in force worldwide, knowing how to collect and present that evidence has become a condition of market access, not a nice-to-have.

The Southwest Fashion Forum exists to help regional companies get ready.

Join us on 5 November for our inaugural conference at Porton Science Park, just outside Salisbury, to hear how British brands are approaching product compliance, what European retailers will expect of their suppliers, and how to prepare for the new era of fashion regulation.

As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, we'll unravel the complexity of European legislation and set out plainly what EU Digital Product Passport rules will require of UK companies.