fashion revolution week: from #whomademyclothes to #whomademyfabrics
Fashion Revolution Week
Fashion Revolution Week takes place from April 19th to 25th, on the eighth anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh. Rana Plaza was a building housing several factories that made clothes for famous American and European fashion brands. It collapsed on April 24, 2013, causing the death of at least 1,132 people, and injuring more than 2,500. This tragedy put fast fashion under deep scrutiny, especially since it was an avoidable disaster. In fact, before the collapse, inspectors discovered cracks in the building and advised for its closure. Despite the safety risks, the owners of the factories ordered employees to go to work anyways, with tragic consequences. The Rana Plaza disaster put a spotlight on the poor labour conditions of those workers and forced fast fashion companies to intensify controls and improve working standards along their entire supply chain.
Principles of Fashion Revolution
Fashion Revolution was born with this purpose in mind - to raise awareness for the unheard voices of the fashion industry and sensitize the global community towards the creation of better policies, making respect of human rights a priority and avoiding any similar disaster that could happen in the future. Irt also campaigns for a deeper level of transparency in the use of certain fabrics, to stop the abuse of natural resources and support the health of our planet. For this reason, they added #WhoMadeMyFabrics to their famous #WhoMadeMyClothes, raising awareness and incorporating all ten principles of their manifesto, which imagines fashion to:
Empower workers to stand up for their rights
Advocate for fair and equal pay
Provide the possibility to negotiate for better work conditions
Promote respect for culture, heritage, craftsmanship, and creativity
Foster solidarity, inclusiveness, and democracy
Preserve and restore the environment to safeguard diverse ecosystems
Encourage a circular fashion, which does not destroy, but repairs, reuses, recycles, and upcycles
Embrace accountability and transparency
Value environment and people over sales and profit
Celebrate life
How you can get involved
During Fashion Revolution week, live panels, webinars, and social conversations will be organised with representatives from all over the world there to promote sustainable fashion, indigenous craftsmanship, local cultural heritage, and regenerative and equitable business models.
We should all have a proactive role in this campaign if we expect governments and companies to take concrete actions and recognize the close connection between human and environmental rights. With small contributions, we as individuals can support the fashion revolution together. Here’s an example of what we can do:
