MILAN—Fashion brands like Benetton are increasingly turning away from globe-spanning supply chains and low-cost manufacturing hubs in Asia, in a shift that could prove a lasting legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic. Italy’s Benetton is bringing production closer to home, boosting manufacturing in Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Tunisia, and Egypt, with the aim of halving production in Asia from the end of 2022, Chief Executive Massimo Renon told Reuters. Renon gave an insight into the economics driving a trend affecting much of the industry as strained supply lines have driven up shipping costs and times, undermining a business model that’s proved popular for the past 30 years. “It’s a strategic decision to have more control on the production process and also on transport costs,” he said, adding the group had already shifted more than 10 percent of output out of countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, and India this year. “Today a shipping …