Fashion Revolution Week 2021

This Saturday will mark the 8th anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, which killed 1,100 people and injured another 2,500. Rana Plaza was a building in Bangladesh housing factories where people were manufacturing clothing for many of the biggest global fashion brands. The collapse highlighted the need for transparency and reform within the fashion industry, and Fashion Revolution was created to keep the conversation going and push the biggest fashion brands to be better.

What is Fashion Revolution Week

Fashion Revolution Week is the time when we come together as a global community to create a better fashion industry. The campaign calls for consumers to challenge brands by using social media to ask ‘Who Made My Clothes?’ hopefully encouraging transparency throughout supply chains within the fashion industry.

Fashion Revolution began the campaign as a group who love fashion but don’t want clothes to exploit people or destroy our planet. The manifesto offers an insight into how things should be done, and what fashion should mean.

Rights, Relationships & Revolution

This year Fashion Revolution Week will focus on the interconnectedness of human rights and the rights of nature. The campaign aims to amplify unheard voices across the fashion supply chain and harness the creativity of our community to explore innovative and interconnected solutions.

Fashion Revolution have partnered with 5 global organisations to highlight the urgent need to shift from exploitative actions and instead to become regenerative, equitable and accountable. This week they will be sharing the stories of those affected by change, with those who are asking for change, to pressure those who need to change. Their aim is to be part of a global fashion industry that conserves and restores the environment and values people and planet over profit.

What’s Wrong With the Fashion Industry Now?

The global fashion industry today relies on fast changing trends to make a profit at the expense of people and planet. Cheap clothing may boost sales, but for the big brands to make their money, the people at the bottom are being exploited.

And it’s not only the people who are being exploited, it’s also the environment. From using pesticides in cotton growing to chemical dying processes, there is a lack of regulation when it comes to environmental impact. We must also consider the life cycle of any fashion item, the industry today encourages consumerism and so clothing is made to go out of style quickly. Many of these fashion items are simply thrown our, with Clothes Aid estimating 350,000 tonnes of used but still wearable clothing going to landfill in the UK alone every year. Even worse – if this clothing is made from polyester it’s not going to biodegrade, leaving even more plastic on our planet.

What Can You Do?

Start by following Fashion Revolution on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with the work they are doing. Then upload a selfie holding a poster to any social media platform you use, making sure to tag the brand you are wearing and ask them #WhoMadeMyClothes? and keep asking the question until they respond.

You can also use Fashion Revolution’s handy template to send an email directly to 60+ major fashion brands and retailers.

You can always ask these questions in reviews on online retailer’s websites, hopefully they will respond quickly as no one likes a negative review!

Find out more about how to get involved here.