Are Your Fashion Brands Safe? MUSINSA Reveals Shocking 8.5% Non-Compliance in Down and Cashmere Items

Musinsa said on the 25th that it completed a full inspection of brand products made with down and cashmere after recent controversy.

The company finished composition-rate testing for all 7,968 down and cashmere items sold by brands on its platform. It wrapped up nearly all procedures 100 days after announcing on Dec. 16 that it would launch the sweep under its Safety Trade Policy. Some brands continued to submit additional explanations or file objections during the process.

Musinsa confirmed valid test reports from accredited laboratories for a majority of the items—4,577 products, or 57.4% of the total 7,968 inspected.

Originally, Musinsa planned to accept test reports only through the end of December 2024, but it extended the deadline to Jan. 31 to accommodate brands’ production and marketing schedules and concerns that testing labs could become overwhelmed.

For roughly 43% of products that didn’t submit test reports, Musinsa purchased samples itself and sent them to accredited labs for testing. About 20% of those tested items violated the Safety Trade Policy’s ban on false or exaggerated advertising. Overall, roughly 8.5% of the 7,968 inspected products showed incorrect reporting of down and cashmere composition.

Following the investigation, Musinsa suspended all sales of products from brands found to have violated the Safety Trade Policy for periods ranging from five to 35 days.

To avoid unfairly penalizing brands, Musinsa ran a prompt appeal process during the inspection. It initially suspended 215 products that lacked test reports and were flagged for violations. After additional test reports and explanations were submitted, Musinsa cleared 23 of those items—about 11%—determining they did not breach the policy.

In response to the incident, Musinsa teamed up with leading domestic apparel testing, certification, and analysis bodies to help brands strengthen quality control and certification processes. For the first time among fashion platforms, it signed consecutive agreements with the three major institutes: △KOTITI Testing & Research Institute △KATRI Testing & Research Institute △FITI Testing & Research Institute.

To address unfair competition in the fashion industry, Musinsa recently met with the Korean Intellectual Property Office and proposed coordinated government–private sector responses.

Musinsa said it will use this episode to overhaul brand admission criteria and screening procedures, building a curated selection that customers can trust. The company also plans to conduct ongoing monitoring of fashion materials that require stricter quality control.

A Musinsa spokesperson said the company disclosed the issues quickly and transparently so customers can trust Musinsa and to sound the alarm across the fashion industry about the seriousness of composition misreporting. The spokesperson added that stakeholders across Korea’s fashion ecosystem are working earnestly to restore trust.