It’s Fashion Revolution Week. What does this mean? We’re demanding a fair, ethical, and sustainable clothing industry. One that is transparent about its supply chain. If a brand or company isn’t open about how something is made, then maybe they have something to hide.
The Origins of Fashion Revolution Week
We can’t talk about Fashion Revolution Week without remembering the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April of 2013. 1 134 lives were lost, and more than 2 500 people were injured. This movement was born after the incident as a way to ensure this never happens again.
What You Deserve to know
We’re the consumers who pay and keep the fashion industry going, so it’s only fair that we know the full story behind our clothes. Take a moment and scan your outfit. Do you know who made your top? What material is used? How about the resources that went into making it? The truth is that many of the brands we support hide this information from us. What’s worse is that some of them don’t even have the answers themselves.
One of the best ways for you to get active is through the “Who Made My Clothes” movement on social media. Wear your clothes inside out, exposing the brand, tag the brand while you’re at it, along with #whomademyclothes. This is a great way to pressure fashion brands to be more transparent with their supply chain. But also, when a brand responds with “I Made Your Clothes” (#Imadeyourclothes), we begin to see the human labour behind our clothes. This means we appreciate their lives and the story behind our clothing items.
How to Get Started
Let’s talk about what we can do for Fashion Revolution Week. How do we make better choices when it comes to our purchases? Where do we start? First things first: Take Action by sending an email to a brand, using your voice on Social Media and learning about the industry.
When it comes to your shopping, here are a few steps you can start implementing:
- Avoid fast fashion. Think through your purchases and choose quality pieces that will enhance your wardrobe and last for years.
- Instead of having a massive wardrobe with piles of clothes, curate one that meets your needs. It’ll save you money and time. But also, you’ll realize that you begin to move towards a capsule wardrobe that has all the items you love.
- Mend: sometimes, you can make small changes to your existing clothes to give them another life.
- Give second-hand shopping a try. It’s one of the best ways of spicing up your wardrobe without producing more waste. You can also get super lucky with vintage and unique pieces.
- When you do buy new, make sure you do lots of research. Do so with intention and support brands that keep your health, ethics and the environment in mind.
Fashion Revolution Week is about raising awareness and pressuring brands and companies to produce clothes in a way that honours and respects all lives. This goes beyond the clothes we wear. We have to think about anything we consume, from our personal care products to the food that ends up on our table. There’s a story behind everything we buy, and as consumers, it’s our responsibility to know how something ends up in our hands.
