What is Fashion Revolution and how can you support the textile workers?

Some of might have seen, heard of or had a glimps of Fashion Revolution with the #Whomademyclothes?! We have spoken to Fiona Sjöberg who is the country coordinator in Sweden to tell us a little bit more about the organisation and what you can do to make a difference. If these answers inspired you, please share this post with others! Thank you, together we’re ending fast fashion for good.

What is Fashion Revolution (Week) and why and when did it start?

Fashion Revolution was founded in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, and Fashion Revolution Week is our global campaign that happens every year in the week coinciding with April 24th, the anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster. This tragedy took the lives of 1,138 people, mostly young women, and injured about 2,500, making it the fourth largest industrial disaster in history. In its aftermath, it became clear that this accident could have been avoided. In the days preceding this tragedy, cracks appeared in the building walls and workers expressed their fears. Several other businesses that housed the building, including a bank, closed down their businesses. But management told the textile workers to return to work. Although, it wasn’t just managers, but deadlines and quotas from powerful corporations that drove this fateful day, and the fact that garment workers systematically are denied collective bargaining. The factory manufactured clothes for several large, well-known brands, many of which were unaware that part of their production was taking place in the building. The lack of supply chain transparency allowed brands to avoid accountability.

Every year, we come together as a global community to remember the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse. Fashion Revolution was formed to ensure that no tragedy like that will ever take place again. However, 8 years later, conditions in the global fashion supply chain remain unacceptable, so we will not stop until every garment is made in conditions where workers are safe. We believe that no one should die for fashion and that’s why we need a fashion revolution!

Fashion Revolution has become the world’s largest fashion activist movement. The Fashion Revolution movement mobilizes citizens, industry, and policymakers around a shared vision: a global fashion industry that sustains and restores the environment and values people over growth and profit.

Can you tell us more about the yearly campaign and its purpose?

One of the many ways we engage in Fashion Revolution Week is by creating tools for people to use their voices and make changes in their personal lives and work. An example of this is our social media campaign taking place during Fashion Revolution Week, where we encourage people to post pictures of their clothes with the questions "Who made my clothes?", “What’s in my clothes?” or “Who made my fabric?” and tag a clothing brand, to raise awareness among friends, family, colleagues, and others of one's followers to draw attention to the lack of transparency that exists in the fashion industry. And to put pressure on clothing brands! You can do this by turning your clothes inside out and showing the label, printing one of our #WhoMadeMyClothes posters to hold up, or creating your own physical or digital materials. You can also go directly to the brands’ own social media channels and ask them #WhoMadeMyClothes in the comments or DMs. We also have templates for contacting a brand via email to bring these issues forward.

So, why do we ask these questions? Because ‘ethically made’ goes far beyond the country of origin on the clothing label. Fashion should provide dignified work, from raw material to finished product. It should not endanger, exploit, overwork, harass, abuse, or discriminate. Fashion should liberate, empower and unite! The research of Fashion Revolution has shown that brands are paying close attention to the demands of their customers. These simple pleas for transparency can affect major changes in even the biggest fashion brands. Understanding transparency is crucial for connecting the dots of the problems in the fashion industry and understanding how to fix them. Transparency underpins transformative change but unfortunately, much of the fashion value chain remains opaque while human and environmental exploitation thrives with impunity. Transparency is a first step; it is not radical, but it is necessary. 

But Fashion Revolution as a global organization is more than a yearly campaign. We engage in change on three levels: cultural change; industrial change; and policy change, which all serve a purpose and speak to the magnitude of the organization. This includes, for example, to conduct research that shines a light on the social and environmental impacts of the global fashion industry, to highlight where the industry is moving too slowly and push for faster change and advocate for policy changes and influence governments to play a more active role in better enforcing laws and regulating the industry.

What do the country based organisations do like Fashion Revolution Sweden?

For us here in Sweden, our mission is to advocate for change across citizens, industry, and the government in Sweden to build and strengthen relationships and movements, as well as empower consumers and citizens to know about the impact of and to care for their clothes. So, basically what we're working on is to bring the aims of Fashion Revolution into a Swedish context. 

Last spring, we teamed up with the organization Fair Action, in an effort to advocate for Swedish companies to renew a safety accord for garment workers in Bangladesh, which initially were to expire in May. But, after a lot of pressure, the accord was successfully renewed by a bunch of Swedish brands in September. This is a huge win for garment workers!

As for the upcoming season, we are focusing on engaging with our community of consumers and citizens, and their relationship with clothes, through workshops and events. Among other things, we are organizing a clothing swap in October. By doing this, our aim is to inspire people to consume less, value quality, and take better care of their clothes. 

How can I get involved and make a difference for the textile workers?

There are plenty of ways to get involved in the Fashion Revolution movement! Fashion Revolution strives to be action-oriented and solution focused. Rather than making people feel guilty, we help them recognise that they have the power to do something to make positive change. On the Fashion Revolution website at https://www.fashionrevolution.org/about/get-involved/, you can find detailed information on how to contact a brand, download any of our Get involved-packs, which are digital guides with concrete actions and ideas. For anyone wishing to support the work of Fashion Revolution more passively, you can also make a donation. 

Fashion Revolution is a global movement with teams all over the world. Anyone interested can join our country team here in Sweden! Find us on Instagram @Fash_rev_sweden or @Fashion Revolution Sweden on Facebook to get up to speed with our team. You can also send an email to sweden@fashionrevolution.org to get more information!