Dressed to Kill

The report exposes how major fashion brands continue to indirectly fund the Russian economy through their reliance on polyester produced by Reliance Industries and Hengli Group, both of which import Russian oil. It further highlights the industry's lack of transparency regarding synthetic supply chains and the risk of brands sourcing polyester made from coal or fracked gas.

• Many global fashion brands continue to contribute to the Russian economy despite publicly suspending operations in the country, because they source polyester from manufacturers importing Russian oil.
• Reliance Industries significantly increased its imports of Russian oil following the invasion of Ukraine; the monthly average landed import value rose from €67.4 million ($65 million) between August 2021 and February 2022 to €663.5 million ($640 million) per month from April 2022 onwards.
• Hengli Group is linked to Russian oil through a 2018 cooperation agreement with Rosneft and has received significant crude oil import quotas from the Chinese government to purchase discounted Russian oil.
• There is a severe lack of transparency in the synthetic supply chains of fashion brands; 84% of the 31 brands that responded to a questionnaire provided scant details on their synthetic suppliers.
• Hengli Group has invested $20 billion in a project in Shaanxi province to produce polyester from coal, which is expected to be operational by 2025, potentially contradicting the climate commitments of brands sourcing from them.
• Reliance Industries imports substantial amounts of ethane from the US, specifically from BP Products North America, which is linked to unconventional shale gas (fracking) in Texas and Louisiana.
• The investigation linked 39 out of 50 investigated brands and parent companies directly or indirectly to the supply chains of Reliance Industries or Hengli Group.

APA

Trunk, U., Harding-Rolls, G., Banegas, X., Urbancic, N., & Rautner, M. (2022). Dressed to Kill. Changing Markets Foundation. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CM-Dressed-to-kill-online-reports-layout.pdf

Chicago

Trunk, Urska, George Harding-Rolls, Ximena Banegas, Nusa Urbancic, and Mario Rautner. Dressed to Kill. Changing Markets Foundation, 2022. https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CM-Dressed-to-kill-online-reports-layout.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Trunk |first1=Urska |last2=Harding-Rolls |first2=George |last3=Banegas |first3=Ximena |last4=Urbancic |first4=Nusa |last5=Rautner |first5=Mario |title=Dressed to Kill |publisher=Changing Markets Foundation |date=November 2022 |url=https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CM-Dressed-to-kill-online-reports-layout.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{trunk2022dressed, author = {Trunk, Urska and Harding-Rolls, George and Banegas, Ximena and Urbancic, Nusa and Rautner, Mario}, title = {{Dressed to Kill}}, institution = {Changing Markets Foundation}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://changingmarkets.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CM-Dressed-to-kill-online-reports-layout.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }