FASHION REVOLUTION WEEK IS HAPPENING 19-25TH APRIL, 2021

Fashion Revolution week happens every year in the week surrounding the 24th of April. This date is the anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse.

Rana Plaza, a building in Bangladesh, housed a number of garment factories, employing around 5,000 people. The people in this building were manufacturing clothing for many of the biggest global fashion brands. More than 1,100 people died in the collapse and another 2,500 were injured, making it the fourth largest industrial disaster in history. The victims were mostly young women.

RIGHTS, RELATIONSHIPS AND REVOLUTION

Human rights and the rights of nature are interconnected and interdependent; we are part of the wider living world and our right to a healthy environment depends on the health of our planet.

The human exploitation and ecosystem degradation we see all around us today are the product of centuries of colonialism and globalised exploitation. 

• They stem from a western-focused worldview in which human and environmental prosperity are seen as isolated and disconnected from each other.
• They stem from a fashion industry that reinforces inequality and devalues the voices of minority groups, people of colour, women and non-western perspectives. 
• And they stem from a fashion industry which operates opaquely and continues to sidestep responsibility. 

We cannot continue to extract dwindling resources from an already stressed natural world, pollute our land and our oceans, fall far short of climate change targets and dump our waste on the shoulders of countries we have culturally depleted.  Nor can we continue to allow big business to profit whilst supply chain workers struggle to live in dignity.

At Fashion Revolution, we believe we need a radical shift in our relationships – our relationships with each other, with our clothes, within fashion supply chains and with the natural world. We need this revolution for our own prosperity and wellbeing, and for the health of our earth and our oceans. And it’s already starting to happen. Covid-19 has prompted growing numbers of people to reassess what’s meaningful in their lives. We have begun to reimagine the values at the essence of a new fashion system and explore new relationships with our clothing. 

Now we need brands to change their relationships with each other, replacing competition with collaboration to solve the major challenges facing the industry. 

We need a shift in the relationships between brands and suppliers, so that the rights of people and the rights of nature hold more of the power wherever decisions are being made. 

And we need environmentalists, human rights groups, industry, governments, unions and citizens to work together to ensure that human rights and the rights of nature are addressed in unison. Collaboration and mutual support are essential, because we are more powerful voices for change when we all work together. 

Now is the time for a fashion revolution. This Fashion Revolution Week, we are bringing people together from across our community, amplifying unheard and marginalised voices, and working together to explore interconnected solutions. 

Now is the time for a fashion revolution.

Help us call on more than 60 major fashion brands and retailers to publicly disclose the processing facilities and textile mills in their global supply chains.

Tag brands on social media to ask #WhoMadeMyFabric, and make sure to use our #WhoMadeMyFabric poster in your photos (or make your own!) and tag us at @fash_rev. If you’re a producer working in the fashion supply chain, you can also use our #IMadeYourFabric poster and hashtag to share your story with the world.

Brands and retailers listen closely to their customers, so one of the most effective ways to share your concerns about working conditions in their supply chains is by leaving them a product review. How do you leave a product review? Copy the paragraph below and paste it in the review section of one of these brand websites. You can also use customer review platforms such as Trustpilot to help amplify the campaign.

Copy this text:

I am your customer, and I love your style. However, I would like to know more about the people who make your clothes and the materials they are made from. Please publish a list of all the textile production facilities in your supply chain. This is a vital first step to take accountability for the working conditions of the people who make your products. Can you tell me #WhoMadeMyFabric?