PARIS — After years of sustainability reporting, certification programs and environmental disclosures, fashion consumers say they still don’t understand sustainable fashion.

That was among the biggest findings from a consultation conducted by Paris Good Fashion and Make.org, which found that information, transparency and education have become consumers’ top priority when it comes to ethical and sustainable fashion.

The consultation, conducted between Feb. 19 and April 16, gathered 168,587 participants across France, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S., generating 1,680 proposals and more than 481,000 votes. Of the 1,449 proposals validated for analysis, 915 received more than 70 percent support.

Presented Wednesday at the Institut Français de la Mode, the findings suggest a growing disconnect between the language used by sustainability professionals and policymakers and the actual understanding and concerns of consumers.

“The first thing that came back everywhere was: ‘We don’t understand sustainable fashion. We don’t know how to buy sustainable fashion,'” said Isabelle Lefort, cofounder and general delegate of Paris Good Fashion.

Calls for information, transparency and education were up from 15 percent in the organization’s first consultation in 2020. Within that category, 43 percent of respondents said they wanted first and foremost to understand the environmental and social impacts of clothing, alongside 28 percent wanting greater transparency on products themselves.

At the same time, some of the concepts that dominate fashion industry lingo barely registered among respondents. For example, the word “decarbonization” was completely absent from all responses, while environmental labeling and newer tools like digital product passports were barely mentioned or noted as poorly understood.

“We may have been so focused on being rigorous and avoiding greenwashing that our messaging became too technical,” said Karine Viel, director of sustainable development at Galeries Lafayette, adding that the proliferation of certifications and sustainability messaging may be failing to resonate with shoppers.

Beyond transparency, circularity remained a major priority. Within that category, repair emerged as a particularly strong theme, reflecting a growing desire for extending product life spans over continually purchasing new items.

A majority of responses called for more action on education, raising awareness, and creating value for existing products, compared with fewer focused on regulation alone. Still, demand for policy intervention remains strong, with respondents calling for government regulation to structural change.

The results also pointed to the need for easy-to-understand, consumer-facing sustainability labeling, similar to the Nutri-Score — France’s A to F food grading system, which appears front and center on all packaging — cited by respondents as a potential inspiration for fashion. That suggests consumers could be responsive to a scoring or pass/fail approach to clothing.

On a related note, respondents called for clearer ways to communicate repairability, highlighting the need for a standardized “repair score” or similar indicator that would make it easier for consumers to understand how easily a garment can be mended, maintained, or kept in use over time.

Health also emerged as a growing concern — and may be a new way for brands to communicate with consumers.

While largely absent from the 2020 consultation, this year’s responses included several references to allergies, as well as concerns about “forever chemicals” PFAS, endocrine disruptors and potential carcinogenic risks linked to textiles and garment production.

The uptick in responses suggests that consumers are increasingly connecting sustainability to the emerging category of “wellness” as much as environmental impact.

Respondents also called for a slowdown in the pace of fashion, ranking “slower fashion” as the third-largest priority overall, ahead of questions of quality, materials and production relocation. Lefort noted that while ultra-fast fashion remains part of the conversation, participants more often framed the issue in terms of overconsumption and information overload.

The organization will share the results with participating brands as well as policymakers to seek solutions to translate consumer expectations into action items.

Following the presentation of the consultation, winners of the fourth edition of the Inclusive Design prizes were unveiled, highlighting a new generation of designers using fashion and product design to rethink accessibility.

Launched in 2019 by Eyes on Talents and Paris Good Fashion in partnership with APF France Handicap, the biennial award recognizes projects that improve the lives of people with disabilities through functional innovation and new aesthetic approaches.

The 2026 edition was supported by Zalando, which also sat on the jury.

“In fashion, inclusion goes beyond size and practicality. It is about enabling everyone to express their individuality and strengthen their self-confidence,” said Laura Toledano, Zalando’s managing director for Western Europe. “We have been developing adaptive fashion collections since 2020 through our own brands, and I was impressed by the creativity, technical skill and commitment of this year’s candidates.”

The jury included key figures from across fashion and design, including Comité de Développement et de Promotion de l’Habillement director general Clarisse Reille, Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode executive president Pascal Morand, ANDAM founder and director Nathalie Dufour, as well as representatives from advocacy organization APF France Handicap, among others.

“This edition confirms that inclusive design is no longer a niche; it is a necessity,” said jury member Astrid de Montessus, senior consultant and talent recruiter at Floriane de Saint Pierre. “The Grand Prix acts as a catalyst for change, pushing designers to rethink how fashion can respond to everyone’s needs.”

First prize went to “Embrace3” by Silke Hofmann, a research-driven project developed through extensive co-design with people affected by breast cancer and body asymmetry.

The resulting design is a hybrid of textile innovation, a proprietary fitting system, and garment engineering for a piece that wraps around the body, giving a personalized support system to wearers. “We developed a form where, through body dimensions and an algorithm, individual support needs can be considered,” she said.

The fabric is now being tested at AMPA Federal Textile Laboratory in Switzerland. The prize comes with a 10,000 euro grant.

Second prize, which includes a 5,000 euro grant, was awarded to “Point of Return” by Isabel Louise Niemann, a collection developed in collaboration with wheelchair and exoskeleton users.

“My collection is dedicated to the fact that our environment is developing even more into a hostile environment due to human actions, and I had the idea to develop a collection that leaves nobody behind,” she said. The design process paid close attention to individual anatomy for a collection heavy on references from space suits and workwear. She cited the film “Interstellar” as a major design inspiration, and used touches like double collars to protect the posture of wheelchair users, for example.

Jury members praised the thoroughness and ambition of the project, highlighting both its technical sophistication and its scope, with particular emphasis on its ability to combine medical sensitivity, function and an overall strong art direction, which included a 100-page brand book.

A special mention went to Roubaix-based studio U-Exist for “U-Dress,” a changeable accessory system to transform prosthetics and assistive devices into customizable fashion objects through more than 400 interchangeable motifs.