What did your outfit cost? Not how much did you pay, but what price did the person who made it pay, what did the price did the planet pay?
This is Fashion Revolution Week - a time when we come together as a global community to create a better fashion industry.
It is now 10 years since the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed. More than 1,100 people died and another 2,500 were injured, making it the fourth largest industrial disaster in history. This tragedy led to the Fashion Revolution movement. For many of us it was this disaster that made us sit up and think a bit more about where, and how, are clothes are made.
The Global Network of Fashion Revolutionaries are now working in 75 countries to bring people together to build a vision for radical change. And it is a radical change that is needed!
Far too many people are still buying (literally!) into fast fashion every single day. We get masses of clothes donated to us at the Wardrobe. Should be we pleased that so many of these cheap, often impulse buys, are at least being given a second life? Or should we be dismayed that so many of these garments are still being bought? Make no mistake about it, if we stopped buying cheaper clothes the industry would change.
If the fashion industry were more transparent, would it be harder to ignore what is going on? The more we all highlight the problems, the quicker we will see the change we so desperately want to see.
Weren’t we just saying last week that someone has to be the change. Maybe you will be the one to make the difference?
You can find out all about Fashion Revolution Week and how you can be part of the global community fighting for the human rights of factory workers and an end to the environmental degradation of the fashion industry. In short, holding the fashion industry to account.
While you’re there, why not sign their “Good Clothes, Fair Pay” petition, demanding a living wage for the people who make our clothes.
Of course, the work doesn’t stop this week. Every week should be Fashion Revolution Week.
Indeed, in some cases it is. There are many people – dare we say, many women - working hard to bring attention to these issues and persuade more of us to change our behaviour and help implement change.
Let’s highlight just two.
SOJO
A clothes repair app to make your clothes last longer. A team of over 20 people is currently working out of London, but the business is ready to expand across the UK. Maybe you can help it grow and receive the recognition it deserves?
We love their values – Fashion doesn’t fit.
Our bodies
Our values
Our planet
Sojo shares our desire to make people value their clothes, and the people who make them and wants to see us all take a slower, more considered approach to what we wear.
Next up, Remember who made them
Introducing a group of concerned feminists with networks in philanthropy, climate activism, the arts and sustainable fashion that wants to see an economy that prioritises the health and wellbeing of workers over corporate profits, cares about the social and environmental impact of the clothes we buy and builds power in the communities in which our clothes are made.
Its mantra? We should always remember the people who made our clothes
If you have time, please click on the links we have given you and get yourself a bit better informed about fast fashion and the problems it brings. There’s still such a long way to go.
When we last checked, Fashion Revolution’s petition – which, after all, is only asking us to confirm that we care enough about our fellow humans to consider them worthy of a living wage – had only 142,924 signatures. Please sign!
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