QR Codes in Fashion - Anti-Counterfeiting, Runway Experiences and Supply Chain

Runway QR Codes - New Fashion Show Experiences

The way QR codes are used at fashion shows is simple. They are printed on seat cards, invitations, and venue signage, and the scan destination holds material that would never fit on paper: the collection lookbook, the designer's commentary, backstage footage. Because only the forwarding address is printed, the content can be swapped the night before the show without reprinting a single card.

A show is a closed event that only invited guests can attend, and a QR code adds a digital layer without disturbing that structure. Guests in the room experience the physical show plus the extra content, while people who are not there can reach part of it through a shared link. How much is shown is decided by the destination settings, so the scope can be narrowed again later.

Printing a code onto the garment itself is technically possible, but fabric is a harsher surface than paper. Stretching and creases distort the modules (the small squares that make up the code), and the weave blurs the boundary between black and white. The QR code standard offers four levels of error correction, and choosing a level that tolerates damage absorbs some of that distortion. If the code has to be read from a distant seat, the modules must be large and the quiet zone around the code must be kept clear.

Anti-Counterfeiting - The Roles of QR Codes, NFC, and Blockchain

Goods whose price rests on the brand itself are easy targets for counterfeiting, and with bags, watches, and sneakers, appearance alone is no longer enough to tell real from fake. The technologies used for this purpose fall into three groups - QR codes, NFC tags, and blockchain - and each protects a different range. Confusing them leads to the assumption that a product must be genuine because it carries a code.

A QR code costs almost nothing to add because it is only printed, and it can sit inside a tag or behind a seam allowance. But the code is a visible pattern: photograph it, print it again, and you have the same code. The judgement therefore has to happen on the server the code points to, not in the code itself. The usual design gives every individual item its own unique identifier, then looks for suspicious items through the number of lookups, their geographic skew, and duplicates where the same identifier is queried from distant places at the same time.

An NFC tag embeds a contactless chip, which makes physical duplication much harder and lets the tag answer with a key-based response. In exchange, it costs more in parts and assembly, and reading it depends on a compatible device. Blockchain makes records hard to alter after the fact and suits keeping a history from manufacture through distribution, but it does not guarantee the step that ties the physical product to the digital record. Aura Blockchain Consortium, a non-profit whose members include luxury groups, states that it was founded by LVMH, OTB, Prada Group, and Cartier (Richemont) and provides blockchain-agnostic infrastructure for recording product information (as published on the consortium's own site, as of August 2026).

Sustainability Information Disclosure

The EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781) sets out the "digital product passport" (DPP) as its framework for disclosure. Article 9 establishes the passport itself and Article 10 its requirements: the DPP must be connected through a data carrier to a persistent unique product identifier, and that carrier must be physically present on the product, its packaging, or the documentation accompanying it. The recitals of the regulation name the QR code as one example of such a carrier.

What is required of which products, and when, is settled not by the regulation itself but by delegated acts per product group (Article 4). The regulation lists the product groups to be prioritised in the first working plan - iron and steel, aluminium, textiles (in particular apparel and footwear), furniture, tyres and others - and provides that the first delegated acts under Article 4 shall not apply before 19 July 2025. Article 13 requires the Commission to set up a registry for digital product passports by 19 July 2026. For textiles, too, there is no single deadline that arrives all at once; the requirements are fixed step by step, one delegated act at a time (regulation text as of August 2026).

The disclosure itself is expected to cover materials, manufacturing processes, environmental impact, and how a product can be repaired or recycled. Some large apparel companies are already testing ways to trace materials and production sites from a QR code on the tag, without waiting for the rules to take effect. What the QR code guarantees, however, is only that everyone arrives at the same destination - and the brand can rewrite what sits at that destination later. Whether this answers the distrust created by greenwashing (presenting a product as environmentally sound when it is not) depends on how granular the disclosure is and whether a third party can verify it.

Secondhand and Resale Market Applications

The global resale market is projected to reach $350 billion by 2027 (ThredUp). QR codes provide provenance verification: blockchain-linked codes create tamper-proof records showing purchase location, date, and resale history. For luxury watches and vintage bags, digital certificates via QR codes are replacing paper warranties as more reliable provenance proof.

The Future of Fashion Tech

QR codes in fashion are evolving from information tools to core brand experience elements. Combined with AR, scanning a garment's QR code enables virtual try-on. QR codes also serve as gateways to digital fashion, where scanning a physical garment's code dresses your metaverse avatar in its digital twin, expanding the very concept of fashion.