Fashion Revolution Week
Written by Camryn Mahnken
Tragedy struck the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh on April 24, 2013.
The building, which was home to several garment factories, collapsed leaving 1,134 people dead and over 2,500 others injured. The workers in the building were making garments for some of the world’s most well-known brands.
Cracks in the building had been noticed the day before the collapse, but the building owners chose to ignore it. Workers voiced concerns about the stability and safety of the building, but their voices were unheard. Instead, the owners ordered garment workers to return the next day, with some managers even threatening to withhold a month’s worth of pay if employees refused to come to work.
The Rana Plaza building collapse is known as the largest garment factory disaster in human history. Every year since, on the week of it’s anniversary, people all over the world remember the lives lost and demand that no one should die for fashion during Fashion Revolution Week.
Fashion Revolution Week is a global movement striving to end human and environmental exploitation in the fashion industry. Those involved with the movement promote safe working conditions, living wages, and resource conservation in all aspects of the global supply chain. This week, fashion activists took to social media to raise awareness of the challenges and inequalities that garment workers face and to make people aware of the impact of their wardrobes.
Using the hashtag #WhoMadeMyClothes and #WhatsInMyClothes, consumers ask brands and companies to question the ethics of their practices and be more transparent about them. Part of Fashion Revolution Week is thinking about where your clothes come from and who they affect, and asking the brands you love to think about those things too.
Over 50% of garment workers in countries like Bangladesh, the Philippines, and India are paid less than minimum wage. The textile and clothing industry is one of the largest in the world, and 80% of garment workers within it are women. Fashion Revolution Week encourages brands to ask how those employees are treated. Questions like ‘do your employees receive a living wage?’ and ‘are your employees in safe working conditions?’ need to be answered. In order to work towards ethical production, brands must look further into where their garments come from. Asking #WhoMadeMyClothes pushes companies to understand that their consumers care about the rights and safeties of garment workers.
Another aspect of the movement considers the environmental impact of clothing. Fashion Revolution Week encourages labels to think about what materials are used to make their products and what happens to those materials after they’ve been sold. Fashion is one of the most polluting and wasteful industries today. 85% of all textiles in a given year go to landfills, containing fibers that will not break down properly. This week focuses on what the fashion industry can do better to reduce that pollution and damage it causes. Asking #WhatsInMyClothes tells brands that consumers also care about how their products impact our planet.
Fashion Revolution Week does not seek to make people feel guilty about shopping fast fashion, but instead to help them recognize that they have the power to make a change in the industry by changing their consumption habits and raising awareness. You have that power, too.
As we near the end of this year’s Fashion Revolution Week, I challenge you to ask yourself #WhoMadeMyClothes and #WhatsInMyClothes. Reach out to your favorite brands on social media or email to ask them about their practices. Think deeply about whether the brands you shop at value people over profit. Ask yourself how you can get involved to change the harmful practices of the fashion industry.
No one should die for fashion. Not garment workers, and not our planet.
More information at https://www.fashionrevolution.org. ♥