This article describes and discusses the relation between living wages as an integral part of meeting several human rights in the Indian cotton supply chains, and fashion marketing practices. We use the concept of institutional logics in a novel way to bring attention to the sets of material practices, assumptions, values, and beliefs that shape firm cognition and are thus appropriate to understand the absence of living wages in this cotton supply chain. We build on a comparative case study of two different empirical representations of sustainable cotton in cotton supply chains –Organic/Fair Trade Cotton and Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). Our analysis of the multiplicity of logics that govern the sustainability of cotton and are incorporated into fashion business models showcase the dominance of a competitive and demand-driven logic. We argue that BCI standards are incompatible with requirements of living wages because its dominant demand-driven and competitive ethical marketing logic collides with the logic of social justice represented by the living wage. Organic/Fair Trade Cotton, on the other hand, appears to be highly compatible with the logics of the living wage but is largely positioned outside the realm of competition which implies less outreach in terms of market visibility and consumer attention.