Fashion Revolution Week 2018

Lady Farmer wants YOU to join the Fashion Revolution!

It’s been five years now since the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 24th,2013. Over 1,000 workers died and another 2,500 were injured when the eight-story building, known to be unstable, came crashing down on employees that were sent to work in spite of a large crack that had been identified in the walls. Now known as the worst disaster in the history of fashion, the event opened the world’s eyes to the grim realities of the apparel industry. Though blame might have been largely placed on local standards and regulations, most Americans had only to look in their closets to recognize our country’s complicity in the tragedy, as many major north American brands were made at Rana Plaza, including J.C. Penny, Walmart, North Face and Benetton.

Each anniversary is now highlighted by a global awareness campaign known as “Fashion Revolution Week,”during which consumers worldwide are encouraged to ask the brands #whomademyclothes? It’s an easy but powerful step on the part of the masses that have allowed the fast fashion machine to become a reality such as Rana Plaza, a simple exercise in consciousness and inquiry.

We ask of ourselves and the brands who make our clothes:

• Whose hands measured and cut the cloth, sewed the pieces together just so and added the buttons or trim that caught our eye in the first place? Most likely it was a woman.
• Is she a mother?
• Where is her child while she’s at work?
• How far does she have to travel to the factory every day?
• Does she make enough to live in clean and safe housing and to provide her household with food?

These are simple and reasonable questions. In asking them, we’re not trying to move all of apparel production out of these countries and shut down her job. We’re not trying to take away her only means of income. But we do want to make it clear to these large companies that their lack of transparency in the supply chain will not work anymore. Consumers all over the world are making their buying decisions based not on price and quantity, but integrity of materials and production. In doing so, producers will have to comply with the demands of an increasingly discerning public and make the changes necessary to prevent the Rana Plaza incidents of the future.

Want to be part of the Fashion Revolution? It’s easy. All you have to do is ask #whomademyclothes?