The ‘Who Made My Clothes’ Movement

The ‘Who Made My Clothes Movement’ is an organisation set up by the Fashion Revolution, that looks at where our clothes actually come from and who produces them. The movement concentrates on the fast fashion industry and the impacts it has on the people working amongst it, including: the poor working conditions, low pay and the long working hours they endure. After the collapse of the Rana Plaza.

The Collapse of the Rana Plaza

On the 24^th April 2013 in Bangladesh DHAKA: a building housing several factories in Bangladesh that produced clothes for many brands in Europe and America collapsed. 1,138 people died and 2,500 were injured. This made the collapse the fourth largest industrial disaster in history. Images of the collapsed Plaza circulated across the world from Bangladesh, leading to an immediate public outcry due to the unprecedented magnitude of the disaster.

The Collapse took place just 5 months following a horrific fire at a similar factory, which lead to many multinational brands to pledge to improve safety in Bangladesh’s booming; yet poorly regulated garment industry. The Plaza disintegrated into a deadly heap, demonstrating the repeated failure of Government inspectors to ensure safety standards and inspecting that the building codes are met in such massive factory buildings. The Rana Plaza stacked numerous clothing factories on top of one another dangerously in a multi-storey structure.

Labour Activists found labels and production records that indicated the factories had been producing garments for major European and American brands such as Spanish brand ‘Mango’ and the low-cost British chain, ‘Primark’.

Survivors of the collapse described an earthquake-like sensation: deafening, terrifying cracking sounds and feelings of the concrete floor rolling beneath their feet. Mahmudul Hasan is a quality inspector at Ether Tex (a garment factory within the Rana Plaza). He was struck by a falling ceiling during the collapse. ‘My heart started pounding, I lay down near a pillar and started thinking that perhaps I was going to die’.

The problem is that poorly constructed buildings have constantly been an issue in Bangladesh. In 2005, at least 64 workers at Spectrum Garments were killed in a building collapse which again, was due to a structural failure just like the Plaza. This further illustrates the failure of checks taking place on constructions and the absence of care that is going into creating them.

Issues with Fashion Employees in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the world’s second-leading garment exporter, trailing only China. Nevertheless, the country has been flooded with concerns over safety, due to the multiple structural failures in factories. There have also been many indignant protests over the rock-bottom wages.

The fashion industry using factories in Bangladesh to manufacture their garments has grown precipitously in the past decade, particularly as there has been an increase in wages in China; this has led to companies and brands considering places elsewhere to find cheaper workers to produce for them, to keep labour costs down. Bangladesh is extremely popular as it has the lowest of these labour costs, with the minimum wages being approximately only $37 a month. This is nothing compared to the average wage of men and women combined in the UK of £2,951 per month. These low labour costs have meant many major clothing companies including GAP and Tommy Hilfiger have been attracted and enticed to the country.

Bangladesh has more than 5000 garment factories, employing more than 3.2 million workers. Many of them are women and people credit the industry for lifting people out of poverty even though it is such a low wage.

The Fashion Revolution

The Fashion Revolution began the #whomademyclothes movement. They believe in a Fashion Industry that values people, the environment, creativity and profit in equal measure. They’re a global movement that operates all year round. Fashion is celebrated as a positive influence while industry practises are scrutinised, and awareness is raised surrounding the fashion industry’s greatest issues.

The organisation has a plethora of aims they wish to achieve. The Fashion Revolution try to illustrate that change is possible while encouraging those that are in the process of a journey to create a more ethical and sustainable future for fashion; seeing this as a change that is adamant. They aim to be action-orientated and solution focused. They look at what needs to change in the fashion industry to prevent incidents like the Rana Plaza disaster repeating itself and working towards the most efficient solution to these problems. They help individuals to recognise they have the power in order to make a positive change to improve the industry.

The people behind the Fashion Revolution refer to themselves as ‘Pro-Fashion Protestors’. They are people who love fashion; they do not want fashion to be seen as a damaging thing but more so how the industry can evolve to be more of a source for good. They avoid things such as: negative protesting and victimising, alongside naming, shaming and targeting specific companies as they believe the industries problems are bigger than any, one companies actions.

The organisation came up with ‘Fashion Revolution Week’. This is centred around the ‘Who Made My Clothes’ campaign which launched in April and falls on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza Factory collapse. This was the day the Fashion Revolution was born. During Fashion Revolution Week, brands and producers are encouraged to respond with the hashtag ‘I made your clothes’ and to demonstrate transparency in their supply chain.

‘The Fashion Revolution Foundation’ is the charitable arm of the organisation’s website. It is a registered charity that funds fashion revolution’s: education, research, awareness-raising activities as well as public events. Anyone can donate to the charity in order to assist the organisation create a change within the fashion industry.

Who Made My Clothes?

Six years following the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh our clothes are remaining to be made by some of the poorest, most over worked and undervalued people in the world. A report written by the Workers’ Rights Consortium, shows a devastating image of repression, violent attacks and intimidation of garment workers in Bangladesh who are trying to campaign for a living wage. The report says: ‘The industry and the government seem to be driven by a desire to maintain control of low prices, irrespective of the risk to workers lives and well-being’. A raise was in fact provided to these workers in November 2018, however this was to the equivalent of £17 a week; less than 35p an hour.

The Fashion Industry accounted for 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2015. It’s uses of non-renewable resources including oil to make synthetic fibres, is estimated to increase from 98 million tonnes in 2015 to 300 million tonnes by 2050. Dyeing and textile treatment processes contribute to 20% of the worlds industrial water pollution. It takes 2.720 litres of water to make one t-shirt. That is three years’ worth of drinking water for one person! Fast Fashion is a way of describing the way fashion has gone from being split into two seasons, to multiple; changing quickly and constantly.

Fast Fashion also captures the way in which garment workers in low- and middle-income countries are compelled to produce garments quickly and relentlessly to meet deadlines for export. This is what the ‘who made my clothes’ stands against. There is a responsibility for consumers, brands and governments to act when it comes to making fashion more ethically friendly and sustainable. As a consumer we can think more consciously about our fashion purchases and question brands on their policies regarding how they source their clothing. Governments should encourage businesses to become more sustainable through incentivising sustainable practises and penalizing unsustainable practises. The work done to create the Modern Slavery Act in the UK is a great start on this but needs refinement and for similar laws to be created.

The ‘Who Made My Clothes’ movement was created by two women: Orsola de Castro and Carry Somers. This global campaign has participation in over one hundred countries and was launched in the United Kingdom in 2013. Orsola’s background is internationally recognised as an opinion leader in sustainable fashion. However, prior to this her fashion career began as a designer with an upcycling label which was launched in 1997 until 2014. In 2006, she co-founded the British Fashion Council initiative Estethica at London Fashion Week, which she curated also until 2014. The co-founder, Carry Somers was inspired to act after the Rana Plaza factory collapse.

With backgrounds at the core of sustainable fashion, Orsola de Castro and Carry Somers were well placed to precipitate the call for a fairer, safer, more transparent fashion industry. The collaborative efforts from the whole value chain – from farmers to consumer – are the only way to transform the industry into any semblance of workability. Their mission is to inspire a change in an industry renowned for not always valuing people, value or creative and more so valuing profit over all of these.