Holding Fashion Brands Accountable; The Fashion Revolution

Have you ever thought about how far your clothes have travelled before they even got to you? Or checked the label to see where they were made in?

So many of us take this consumerist approach to clothes, forgetting that what we wear didn’t just come out of a machine. In a fast fashion world, we hoard our garments, take pride in what we wear, but forget to take pride in just who made them for us.

In 2013, the commercial building Rana Plaza in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,138 people. Many of those people were garment factory workers, mostly women, who laboured for years in an unsafe environment making cheap clothes for poor wage. In memory of this tragic event, two women, Orsola de Castro and Carry Somers, created a global campaign called The Fashion Revolution. With participation in over 100 countries, the campaign is against the exploitation of people and the planet within the clothing industry.

So what does this campaign do, you ask?

The Fashion Revolution aims to “empower women by providing them with access to the global market for their skills and products that they make.” They explain in their manifesto (found on their website) their dreams to achieve bettering the industry through dignified work, equal pay, respect of culture and heritage, and conservation of the environment.

The Fashion Revolution has garnered millions of supporters over time. Every year, the week of the anniversary of the terrible collapse – April 23 to April 28 – is Fashion Revolution Week.

Before the hashtag, Fashion Revolution asked their followers to wear their clothes inside out, inherently to show labels, to give presence and voice to all those “Made in Bangladesh”, “Made in Vietnam”, “enabling cheap labour”. But it was not getting as viral and as visual until the use of the hashtag began.

During Fashion Revolution Week in 2018, 3.25 million people asked #WhoMadeMyClothes? And the 2019 edition of the non-profit campaign group’s Fashion Transparency Index – which assesses brands on how much information on human rights policies, environmental practices and supply chains it will disclose to the public – saw participating companies receive an average score of 35 per cent for the data published on factory lists, increasing from 12.5 percent three years prior.

The Revolution has begun a change in the industry, but until the brands with clout put people before profit, the exploitation of workers will continue, and we need to hold those accountable.

Factory owners are placed in a difficult situation knowing that if they refuse to accept the work it will be offered to another factory for less, so it is our duty as consumers to give voices to those who made our clothes.

The project manifesto can be found on their website here; https://www.fashionrevolution.org/manifesto/

In light of what you have now been told, will you be asking #whomademyclothes?

Written By Chloe Sutherland