CUTS - Fashion Revolution Magazine

VIVA L A RE VOLUTION!

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Calling out all fashion revolutiona-

Contents: IN T RODUC T ION

P. 0 4

W E A L L C A N BE RE VOL U T ION A RIE S

E DI TOR I A L

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I T ’ S T IME F OR A FA SHION RE VOL U T ION

# 01 P. 10 T HE HUM A N SIDE OF FA SHION

# 0 2 P. 14 W H Y T R A NSPA RENC Y IS IMP OR TA N T IN T HE FA SHION INDUS T R Y ?

# 03 P. 18 FA SHION ’ S EN V IROMEN TA L IMPAC T

# 0 4 P. 2 2 T E X T IL E REC YCL ING IN INDI A

# 05 P. 24 W H Y I T M AT T ER S W HERE YOUR CLO T HE S C OME S F ROM

# 06 P. 2 8 T HE RE A L FA SHION RE VOL U T ION C A MPA IGN

We can all be fashion revolutionaries.

IN T RODUC T ION Like you, Fashion Revolution loves clothes. But we want our clothes to make us feel proud, to express who we are, to make us feel better about ourselves. We don’t want to feel guilty that our clothes have been made by machinists who are not paid enough to send their children to school and live in fear of reprisals if they join a union to stand up for their rights. We don’t want the cotton in our shirts to have been grown with pesticides that poison both the earth and the farmers who grow it.

Fashion Revolution was started in May 2013 as a reaction to the outrage that was the Rana Plaza factory disaster. Who could fail to be shocked by the industry’s worst ever industrial disaster?

What Rana Plaza did was to rub our noses in a dirty business that has been allowed to grow out of control. It has galvanised a generation to question how and where we spend our money, and completely rethink the contents of our wardrobes. Fashion Revolution’s one basic call to action in the aftermath of Rana Plaza was to ask “Who Made My Clothes?” It’s a question that has been asked far and wide.

A global resistance movement has exploded and the brands are having to listen – and take action.

Since 2013, thousands of brands have replied to the question, and over 150 major brands have published factory lists. More than 1,300 factories have been inspected and 1.8 million garment workers have received factory safety information.

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Working conditions are improving and some wages are increasing too. The Bangladesh government has delivered a 77% increase in the minimum wage to $68 per month for garment workers. But workers continue to be and underpaid where $68 is still far from a living wage. Brands continue to be in the dark about the working conditions and inhuman overtime at the factories that are subcontracted to make their clothes. And while brands may sign up to every accord going, set up recycling initiatives and pledge to use better cotton, when it comes to the crunch, they still want to make more clothes – and cheaper.

As well as seeing how the industry exploits the dollar-a-day hands that make our clothes, we have become increasingly aware of how disgustingly polluting the fashion industry is. We have seen our rivers stripped of fish and filled instead with microfibres, harmful chemicals and toxic waste. We have seen how much water it takes to grow cotton, (over 6000 litres to make a pair of jeans and a t-shirt) and how many pesticides are required to grow conventional cotton. And yet we continue to produce (and buy) more jeans and t-shirts. Overproduction has become a huge issue, with recent revelations that brands – both luxury and high street – are routinely burning what they can’t sell.

So now more than ever, the question remains. Who Made My Clothes? Do you know? Do the brands themselves know? While some progress has been made, the industry that makes the jeans, t-shirts, pants, trainers and fleeces we all rely on to clothe us every day, is far from clean, and is still as exploitative of the world’s poorest people as ever. As we now know, the fashion supply chain is about as easy to untangle as a nest of vipers. And it’s not going to do it of its own accord.

What is clear – and encouraging – from the global engagement with Fashion Revolution’s campaign is that each and every one of us can make a difference. We all have a role to play if we want to demand a safer, fairer, cleaner industry.

In the following pages, we set out a range of ways you can make more informed choices about the clothes you buy, ways to inspire your friends, family and the rest of your community, steps you can take to engage with policy makers and brands, and how your everyday actions can create lasting improvements, to make an industry that we can feel proud to be part of and to invest in.

Together, we will – we must - make the change.

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It’s time for a fashion revolu-

On 24 April 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed.

1,138 people died and another 2,500 were injured, making it the fourth largest industrial disaster in history.

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That’s when Fashion Revolution was born.

There were five garment factories in Rana Plaza all manufacturing clothing for the western market.

The victims were mostly young women. We believe that 1,138 is too many people to lose from the planet in one building, on one terrible day to not stand up and demand change.

Since then, people from all over the world have come together to use the power of fashion to change the world. Fashion Revolution is now a global movement of people like you.

WE A R E FA SHION R E VOL U T ION We believe that positive change can happen if we all think differently about fashion and demand better. We want a cleaner, safer, fairer, more transparent and more accountable fashion and textiles industry.

We want fashion to become a force for good. We believe in an industry that values people, the environment, creativity and profit in equal measure.

We are designers, academics, writers, business leaders, policymakers, brands, retailers, marketers, producers, makers, workers, trade unions and fashion lovers.

We are the industry and we are the public. We are world citizens. We are you.

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The human side of fashion.

MIL L IONS OF PEOPL E WOR K IN T HE FA SHION INDUS T RY. WE BE L IE V E T HE INDUS T RY C A N A ND SHOUL D WOR K BE T T E R FOR A L L OF T HEM .

HUMAN RIGHTS. Forced labour, child labour, sexual harassment, discrimination and dangerous working conditions. These are some of the things that the people who make our clothes have to go through.

Despite there being international standards and national laws that should protect people, human rights abuses are prevalent throughout the fashion industry. The Global Slavery Index estimates that 36 million people are living in some form of modern slavery today; lots of these people are making clothes for western brands.

FAIR PAY. The legal minimum wage in most garment-producing countries is rarely enough for workers to live on. For example, in Bangladesh, it’s estimated that the minimum wage only covers 60% of the cost of living in a slum. Low wages keep garment workers in a cycle of poverty and add to the pressure to work long overtime hours, which impacts on their health and safety, as well as the quality of clothes.

ARTISAN CRAFT. Mass-produced clothing and accessories have eroded the artisanal, heritage craft skills passed down through generations in communities around the world. Millions of people in the developing world – mainly women – depend on the handicraft trade. But right now, that trade faces an uncertain future.

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Fast fashion isn’t free.

Someone, somewhere is paying. − L UC Y SIEGL E

Buy less.

Choose well.

Make it last. − V I V IE NNE W E S T WOOD

Why transparency is important in the fashion industry?

In some cases, it took weeks for brands and retailers to determine why their labels were found amongst the ruins and what sort of purchasing agreements they had with those suppliers. Many clothing brands sourcing from the factories inside Rana Plaza didn’t know their products were being made there.

FR AGME N T E D SUPPLY CH A INS OB S CUR E AC C OUN TA BIL I T Y

The vast majority of today’s fashion brands and retailers do not own their manufacturing facilities, making it difficult to monitor or control working conditions across the highly globalised supply chain. This can

sometimes be used as an excuse for brands to evade responsibility for how their products are made.

Brands and retailers may work with hundreds or even thousands of factories at any given time – and that is just the suppliers that cut, sew and assemble our garments. There are many facilities further down the chain that weave, dye and finish materials and farms that grow fibres used in our clothing.

During the manufacturing process our clothes are touched by many pairs of hands before they ever

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reach the shop floor or, increasingly, the screens of our phones and computers.

A brand might place an order with one supplier, who carves up the order and subcontracts the work to other factories. This happens regularly across the industry and makes it extremely difficult to monitor human rights and environmental impacts. Unauthorised subcontracting causes workers to become effectively invisible in the supply chain, and this is where the highest risk of human rights violations and environmental degradation tends to occur. But these subcontracted facilities are not the only places where poor conditions persist, sometimes it’s right under our noses in manufacturers and communities close to home too.

L ACK OF T R A NSPA R E NC Y COSTS LIVES

Right after Rana Plaza happened, it became very clear to us that the fashion industry needed urgent, transformative change, and that the first vital step towards this change entailed far greater visibility and

transparency of the people working in supply chains, the business relationships at play across supply chains and information about working conditions and environmental impact.

Progress is happening but but it’s still difficult to know #whomademyclothes. Of course, much has changed since Rana Plaza, especially in Bangladesh. Many factories have been upgraded, and with all the great attention put on Bangladesh since then, some very real and positive progress has been made towards improving working conditions.

However, not enough has changed in global fashion supply chains and business practices on the whole across the industry are still very secretive. It is extremely challenging, if not almost impossible, for a consumer to find out where their clothes have been made, by whom and under what conditions — which means it is hugely difficult to know what real-world impacts, both positive and negative, our clothing purchases are having on people’s lives and on the environment.

This is why we are still calling for a revolution of the fashion industry. Never again should a tragedy like Rana Plaza happen, yet factory fires, safety accidents and faulty buildings continue to harm people in the places where our clothes are made. Pollution and waste created as a result of the way our clothes are produced and consumed continues to damage the environment.

PEOPL E WA N T TO K NOW #WHOM A DEM YCLOT HE S

Consumers don’t want to buy clothes made by people working in danger, exploited, paid poverty-level wages, in polluted environments but there is simply not enough information available about the clothes

we wear. Fashion Revolution wants to change that. This is why we are pushing for more transparency

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from the fashion industry. The annual Fashion Transparency Index is one of the tools that helps us do this.

When we are equipped with more — and better quality, credible — information about the human and environmental impacts of the clothes we buy, we are able to make more informed shopping choices. As a result, transparency builds trust in the brands we buy.

People are increasingly asking for greater transparency from the fashion industry. In 2018, more than 2.5 million people across the world participated in Fashion Revolution through events, posting on social media, viewing our videos or downloading resources from our website.

Over 113,000 posts using our hashtags, including #whomademyclothes, reached 533 million impressions during April 2018 alone – an increase of almost 250% on the previous year.

1/3 OF T HE C A R BON FOOT PR IN T OF CL OT HE S C OME S FROM T HE WAY WE C A R E FOR T HEM .

Transparency helps mitigate human rights and environmental violations. As Jenny Holdcroft, the Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, explained in last year’s report, “knowing the names of major buyers from factories gives

workers and their unions a stronger leverage, crucial for a timely solution when resolving conflicts, whether it be refusal to recognise the union, or unlawful sackings for demanding their rights. It also provides the possibility to create a link from the worker back to the customer and possibly media to bring attention to the issues.”

Increased transparency and accountability means issues along the supply chain can be addressed and solutions found faster. But it also means positive examples and positive stories can be highlighted, shared and potentially replicated elsewhere.

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CARE. REPAIR. REWEAR.

Fashion’s environmental impact.

R IGH T NOW, M A NUFAC T UR ING CLOT HE S USE S UP M A SSI V E A MOUN T S OF WAT E R , E NE RGY A ND L A ND. WE NE E D TO FIND NE W WAYS TO M A K E T HE CLOT HE S WE LOV E , WI T HOU T I T C O S T ING T HE E A R T H .

TOXIC FASHION. Growing the fibres for our clothes, processing, dyeing and treating garments requires a cocktail of chemicals, some known to be toxic. Cotton farming uses 22.5% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of all pesticides.

Dyes for textile products may contain hazardous chemicals. Dyes and chemicals in fabric and other components of clothing and shoes can seep into the soil, contaminating groundwater. In fact, industrial effluents and chemical fertilisers pollute over half of China’s rivers. Rivers in China have even turned red from dyes.

CO2 EMISSIONS. Our clothes account for around 3% of global production of CO2 emissions. And that’s not just because of how clothes are made. It’s also down to the way we take care for them at home.

Around half of these emissions occur while your clothing is being worn, washed, tumble-dried, ironed and disposed of, and mostly by North American, European and Japanese consumers.

WASTE. In the last 15 years clothing production has approximately doubled. In the same time, the number of times a garment is worn has decreased by 36%. Around 300,000 tons of used clothes go to landfill in the UK every year.

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Fashion should become waste-

How long does it take clothes to decompose in landfill?

V IS C O SE T-SHIR T:

C OT TON SO CK S:

T HE R M A L TOP:

DE NIM JACK E T:

SIL K C A MI:

WOOL J UMPE R:

L E AT HE R BAG:

N Y LON T IGH T S:

LYCR A SP OR T S CLOT HING:

P OLY E S T E R DR E S S:

1 - 6 WE E K S 9 MON T HS

1 - 3 YEARS 50 Y E A R S

20 - 200 Y E A R S

1 WE E K - 5 MON THS 10 - 12 MON THS 1 - 5 YEARS 50 Y E A R S

200+ Y E A R S

Textile recycling in India.

BY L UC Y NOR R IS

Used winter clothing can be hard to sell into global re-use markets, which either have hotter climates (subSaharan Africa, South Asia) or customers who value only high quality, branded garments (Eastern Europe, Russia). The Indian textile recycling industry imports coats, jackets and jumpers to shred them and reclaim

INDI A IMP OR T S OV E R 100,000 TONNE S OF USE D CLOT HING A Y E A R TO SUPPLY I T S T E X T IL E R EC YCL ING INDUS T RY

their fibres. The fibres can be spun into recycled yarns. These are then woven into cheap blankets, shawls and even fabric for new garments.

But these are prime examples of down-cycling, where poor-quality recycled materials mean that products often don’t last long.

The economic, social and geographical distance between disposer and recycler means that they know little about each others’ lives,

and reveals cultural differences around the value of clothing. Indian families tend to use and reuse cloth until it literally falls apart, and clothing is never simply thrown away. The film Unravel shows sorters at a processing factory wondering how the huge piles of nearly-new clothing can be simply discarded, imagining that there must be a water shortage abroad, and that it is cheaper to give them away than wash them. Reshma, who is a sorter, reflects on the situation with both wonder and pity at the lifestyles she imagines women in richer countries enjoy — free to wear want they want and then discard it so easily. But her husband concludes, “you tend to get dressed for other people… but at the end of the day you’ll be as beautiful as God made you. All people have a natural beauty.”

Profits in this global second-hand trade have depended upon brokers in the middle connecting dealers, while those at either end know very little about the system as a whole. The workers who sort,

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prepare and shred the used clothing regard it as a resource upon which their livelihood depends, but working conditions in the recycling factories are often poor and unregulated. While expensive new technologies are promising to transform the landscape of textile recycling in the global north, will these marginal industries in the global south be incorporated into reconfigured recycling economies in such a way as to ensure that they are transparent, equitable, and sustainable?

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Why it matters where your clothes comes from.

BY JE S SIC A SHIFFE R

Fashion Revolution Day, a day of remembrance and action that launched last year in honour of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, which killed 1133 people working at the facility in Bangladesh. The goal is to raise awareness of the true costs of fashion—on both the environment and the lives of people all over the world who produce it—by calling for brands to expose every detail of their production process.

Curious as to how such a step would benefit the larger fashion world and us as consumers, we spoke to Maxine Bédat, a co-founder of the slow fashion platform Zady and the U.S. Chair (with her business partner Soraya Dorabi) of Fashion Revolution Day. Why is it so important to know exactly where our clothes come from?

Today, the clothing industry is the second most polluting industry in the world—second only to oil—and it’s also one of the largest employers of slave and child labour. Knowing where our clothes come from helps us understand the connection between these huge problems and what we can do to solve them.

As consumers we have enormous power to vote with our money: we can buy clothing with known origins (from the farm through to the final finishing factory) and, by doing so, we’ll have better quality

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clothing while also sending a message to brands that don’t have a traceable supply chain (i.e. all the steps it takes for our clothing to come into being) that they’ll have to change and clean up their system if they want our support.

What are some reasons that brands hesitate to reveal this information?

A lot of brands just don’t know their supply chain and that’s why we have the clothing crises that we have. With the rise of fast fashion stores (the ones that are super cheap and focus on really trendy items to woo you back into their stores), the focus for companies has become about getting the lowest price possible for themselves rather than doing what’s best for the people making the clothes or the environment. These big companies use middlemen to do their dirty work: finding the cheapest labour with the lowest environmental standards.

When we buy clothing from a brand, we’re often just buying the label—the brands don’t always design their own clothing! So the reality of the system is very hidden, and most brands just want you to keep buying their product while remaining ignorant of their process.

What are the best resources for tracking down this information?

Right now it’s really hard. Other than shopping at places like Zady or Patagonia for your athletic wear, there aren’t many places yet that are sharing this information. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything to create change. For starters, before you buy your next item of clothing, turn the piece inside out and look at the seams. A lot of times clothing that we buy at fast fashion stores is falling apart even before we get it home! So look at the construction of the piece—make sure that it looks solid.

Next, don’t let sales people pressure you—only buy things you really love. It turns out that we each throw out 70lbs of clothing a year, and 20% of that is brand new! But if we buy only the things we really love, even if those pieces are a little more expensive, we’ll actually end up saving money, owning nicer things and doing good by the planet.

So what are the biggest challenges to making all fashion production totally transparent?

It requires a real sea change within the industry, because over the past 20 years as brands have moved their production overseas in an effort to find the cheapest manufacturers, they have just lost track of their production. They don’t know where their cotton comes from, they don’t know where their fabric comes from and they don’t even know where their clothing is sewn. But just because they don’t know that now doesn’t mean that it’s inevitable forever.

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Who made your clothes?

Wear clothes that