Fashion Revolution Week Around the World
Our global community is made up of hundreds of passionate Fashion Revolutionaries. With over 70 coordinators across the globe and hundreds of team members, Fashion Revolution would not be what it is today without the incredible teams activating year on year.
Whilst we see teams such as Brazil and Australia that have been with us since the beginning and continuously expanding and excelling, our network is constantly growing. We have recently welcomed coordinators from Laos, Kenya and Mauritius to the network.
This year we saw a staggering number of incredible events across the world, as well as a phenomenal level of engagement across social media. This impact is down to the hard work of our global community and whilst they are busy all year round, there’s an unbelievable amount of planning, organisation and dedication that goes into the build up to, and execution of, Fashion Revolution Week. Here we showcase just a small proportion of the incredible campaigns from around the world that we saw this year.
To get in touch with a team near you please use our contact form.
Slovakia
The highlight of Fashion Revolution Week in Slovakia was a fashion show presenting middle school students work from educational projects organised by Fashion Revolution Slovakia and student group (NGO) Young & Eco. During this project students were educated about current topics within the fashion industry and possible solutions to environmental and social issues. They were taught basic skills and how to remake clothes and with local designers they got an insight into up-cycling and fashion design.
Their own designs were presented on 25 April 2019 in public fashion show, which they help to organise with Fashion Revolution Slovakia. The fashion show was in an old building changed into a mock textile factory for this show (tables with sewing machines, etc)… It gave a really unique and relevant atmosphere for show. The aim of this pilot project was to bring information and basic skills to students and allow them to design, make and present their own clothing. The pile of clothes oin the image is the estimated textile waste waste produced every 10 minutes in Slovakia (from consumer and industrial textiles).
Laos
Fashion Revolution Laos and Fair Fashion Lao launched for Fashion Revolution Week at Crown Plaza Vientiane. Guests included the U.S Embassy, Lao Handicraft Association, Fashion Designers, Media, FFL Young Designers contestants, Professional Fashion Designs, models, and more. They spoke about Fashion Revolution’s goals for a sustainable, ethical, and transparent fashion industry in relation to Made in Lao brands and within the global fashion industry.
The following morning, the team held a Women’s Empowerment luncheon for merchant partners, designers and the general public. They showed Catwalk to Creation II followed by a discussion on the current global issues of the mass fashion industry, Rana Plaza disaster, and gender inequality within garment factories.
The team will be releasing their short film and footage to the public shortly.
Germany
Fashion Revolution Germany aimed for wider audience this year, reaching out to more cities and universities. The team focused on their ambassador project which included more than 10 locations all over Germany, this is an area they want to grow together in order to have a bigger impact across a wider demographic.
The teams main format of action was a public demonstration: Fashion Revolution – The move. Berlin, Hamburg and Kassel organised movements that aimed to point out the current issues with the fashion and textile industry but also show positive solutions. A colourful dancing audience walked through the hearts of each city attracting attention and reaching out to start a dialogue. The team were incredibly happy with the hard work and participation of many cities and their teams!
Vietnam
Fashion Revolution Vietnam hosted a ‘Who Made My Clothes?’ free exhibition from the 22nd to the 28th of April.
The exhibition revealed the true lives of the people working in the fashion industry through interactive art, photography, film and workshops. It aimed to leave guests armed with a set of actions they can take to support the people who made their clothes and to help fast fashion slow down.
On the first day the Vietnamese Women’s Museum had over 1,000 visitors, many being introduced to Fashion Revolution for the first time through this project. Ellen Downes Country Coordinator said ‘it’s been such a privilege to spread word of the movement.’
Luxembourg
Fashion Revolution week 2019 was very special for Luxembourg. The team decided to become vulnerable and real by asking for help. Creating an open call for volunteers to assist with the Big Clothes Swap organisation and clothes collection. Piles of clothes kept coming, and the people who saw that the team were unable to sort them in time stayed to help on a whim. Happy faces then searched for treasures, it was super crowded and everyone was telling us to do it again soon in a bigger venue.
“The quote “It always seems impossible until it’s done” totally applies to us this time. We organised not only the swap, but a second event; Smart Casual Talks, this was the first event to start the conversation on sustainability, innovation and technology in fashion again only relying on the kindness of people. Both venues were free of charge, the photographers volunteered their time and services and a nice team has formed to support all operations. A big thank to you to all the lovely people I met, this wouldn’t have been possible without them.”
Croatia
Fashion Revolution Croatia ran two days of inspiring exhibitions, talks, workshops. On Friday the 26th they opened an #imadeyourclothes Exhibition with 15 young local designers. This was followed by three presenations: ‘The Slow Fashion Movement’ (Maja Pavlek- Croatia team), ‘The State of the Croatian Textile Industry’ (Ana Vragolovic, journalist form Workers Portal) and ‘Fashion as it Once was in Rijeka’ (Sonja Tudor – Croatia team). Each presentation had a great reaction and the discussion continued until late.
Sunday was an all day Swap Party as well as workshops in recycling plastic (Tanja Blaskovic), Zero Waste for beginners (Anamarija Prgomet, zero waste Croatia Initiative) a Haulternative – Haute Couture from Daddy’s Old Shirt (Chris Mrsic and Visnja). The weekend attracted people from all generations and brought people together talking, working and swapping.
Colombia
Fashion Revolution Colombia developed a Manifesto city crawl map, where individuals could interact with narratives about fashion and the habit of buying clothes, articulating the content and the narrative of the 10 points of the Fashion Revolution Manifesto.
The team engaged with brands, designers and communities focused on sustainability, offering the Fashion Revolution Week as a platform to come together in a single objective.
Argentina
Argentina had a great response around Fashion Revolution Week with a lot of events and activities organized by universities, academies, academics, students, brands and movements and NGOs with many people attending the events around the campaign in the different provinces of our country. The team feel they are slowly generating more awareness around the fashion industry and at the same time, the local fashion industry is becoming more awareness of their own processes and supply chains.
One event Conciencia Moda Cordoba lasted a whole week and consisted of different activities around the city of Cordoba, from April 22nd to 28th. It included: talks and workshops explaining the work of the different NGOs, movements, professionals and brands around sustainability and fashion issues; two performances and two flash mobs in the street; two clothing swaps; a repair workshop and the projection of the documentary The True Cost on the cinema of one of the main spaces of the National University of Cordoba.
This project was created by two students of Fashion Design of the Provincial University of Cordoba as their final work in collaboration with Fashion Revolution Argentina and within the contribution of many organisations and people around fashion industry in Cordoba and from the rest of Argentina. Each event was a call to action to create awareness around the themes that Fashion Revolution is highlighting this year: connecting social impact with environmental impact, fair and decent work, environmental protection and gender equality.
Iran
Fashion Revolution Iran held a 5 Day Fashion Revolution Exhibition in “Comode Design Space”,Tehran. This mall is located in one of the famous and busy streets of Tehran attracting busy shoppers.
The exhibition showcased the design of local fashion designers, who have integrated some concepts of sustainable design (e.g. zero waste, fair payment of workers) into their collections. These local designers as well as textile students then assisted the public in upcycling and handcrafts workshops.
The deficiency of water is a issue in Iran, they will focused on water pollution caused by textile industry in the country. Local artists working on the concepts of environmental and social problems of fashion industry displayed installations at the event. Whilst international experts on sustainable fashion, local Iranian manufacturers and university professors hasted presentations and panel discussions, across the five days.
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Italy
Fashion Revolution Italy ran a screening of “Fashion Victims”, new documentary by Alessandro Basile on the spread practice of the Sumangli Scheme in India. Followed by a Q&A session discussing women inequality issue and child labour in the fashion industry.
The Sumangli Scheme is a very unknown practice especially in the western world and
“Fashion Victims” is the first entire documentary presenting the issue in very open way. The
screening was an open event for all consumers attracting around 200 people interested in the topic and the ethical side of the fashion industry.
Myanmar
Fashion Revolution Myanmar celebrated Fashion Revolution Week, with a Swap Up Revolution hosted by Sofaer & Co and Swap Up Yangon. Together they celebrated fashion as a positive influence by raising awareness of the fashion industry’s most pressing issues, showing that change is possible and celebrating those who are on a journey to create a more ethical and sustainable future for fashion. More than 75 clothes now have new homes and soon new stories to tell.
Together with Doh Eain and SMART Myanmar, the team also organised a live art painting at one of Yangon alleyways, right next to the iconic Bogyoke market in Yangon. Beautiful, colorful and educational murals were drawn by artists together with the residents of 29th -Shwebonthar Street (upper block) alleyway. These murals focused on the impact of fast fashion in the city.
Julie-Ann Pedida, focused on the social impact of the garment industry. She portrayed women who work tirelessly on creating fashion – in Myanmar/Yangon. “90 % of female garment workers in Myanmar usually work around 11 hours a day in the factories and consequently this fact leads to them having very limited time for either spending with their families or for learning skills that could improve their careers”.
Kenya
Fashion Revolution Kenya are a newly formed team and have hit the ground running. The team launched with a screening of the True Cost movie at the Alchemist, followed by an engaging conversation about what this means for us as Kenyans.
Guests included Ann McCreath of KikoRomeo, Rozan Ahmed of The Magic Drive leading the discussion joined by Ria of Lilabare, Khadia of ShakeTheTree, Jess of Wildlife Works, Wangari of Peperuka, Tunde of Ethnik (all the way in Lagos!) as well as an audience of many fashion lovers.
This was followed by a conversation covered traceability, scaling ethically, balancing profitability with ethos, producing locally and much more at Village Market. The audience heard from Wandia Gichuru – Vivo, Ria Ana – Lilabare, Adele Dejak, Lucy Lau – Tosheka Textiles, Gladys Macharia – Ubuntu and Yugala Priti – Wildlife Works.
Singapore
Fashion Revolution Singapore took over the city’s largest shopping street in aid of Fashion Revolution Week. The event lasted a full day and included several activities from workshops, installation artwork, panel discussions and photoshoots. Coming to a close with a national wide fashion show of secondhand and alternative clothing products.
Their aim was to mobilise the wider public of ‘non-sustainable’ fashion consumers in Singapore to the critical challenges the garment industry faces. Aiming for a shareable, trendy and local take on awareness building, bridging the gap between mindful consumers and those who have not yet understood the need for a fashion revolution.
Netherlands
Fashion Revolution Netherlands gained an overwhelming amount of attention this year. Kicking off the Saturday before Fashion Revolution week in the DAM Square in Amsterdam. They collaborated with No Sheep to show the citizens of Amsterdam that to shop in your own closet is the new sexy. Roosmarie, coordinator of Fashion Revolution Netherlands spoke in front of more than 1000 people about the need for a Fashion Revolution.
They went on to host more than 25 events, including a panel discussion with G-Star and the Sorting Machine, at Impact HUB / SDGHouse talking about the SDG goals about the impact of fashion on the climate. Next to it there was a market with examples of recycled fabrics, bathing suits made out of recycled fishing nets.
The whole week Fashion Revolution Netherland teamed up with universities and schools including them in panel discussions, classes or giving lectures. Online Fashion Revolution Netherlands had its own campaign showing dutch designers answering questions like a. What is the effect of the RanaPlaza news on your work? b. How important is sustainability for you in your designs?
The team closed the week at the fashion museum Fashion for Good, they host a free tour and the team of Fashion Revolution was there to answer the questions of the visitors!
