Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the Rana Plaza Factory Collapse in Bangladesh, 24th April 2013. There will be many events happening around the world to raise awareness; to find out about these go to the Fashion Revolution Day website.

An interview with founder Carry Somers gives us a greater look into Fashion Revolution Day and what we are asking from the fashion industry this year.

What is Fashion Revolution?

Fashion Revolution Day is a global movement in 66 countries.  We have created a worldwide platform which we can all use to ask questions, raise standards and set an industry-wide example of what better looks like.

 The movement is made up of designers, brands, retailers, press, producers, academics , organisations and charities calling for systemic reform of the fashion Supply Chain.  Whilst much has been done by individual organisations over the years to bring about change, Fashion Revolution provides a platform for best practice initiatives from across the supply chain. Everything from Fairtrade, which focuses on the cotton farmer at the beginning of the supply chain to the designers finding creative ways reduce waste.

 We know that the pressures and complexities of our global fashion industry make sustainability difficult to achieve, but by collaborating and collecting evidence, and by working alongside experts, Fashion Revolution will showcase realistic sustainable solutions and translating them into a reality that works for fashion.

What is Fashion Revolution Day?

Each year, Fashion Revolution will drive forward a different campaign to tackle some of the fashion industry’s most pressing issues. It will keep the most vulnerable in the supply chain in the public eye and challenge the industry to do better. It will also demonstrate that change is possible by showcasing examples of those who are already creating a better future for fashion.  

Fashion Revolution Day, on 24 April, will rally the high street, the high end, the designers, the brands, the shoppers, the media, the commentators, the activists and everyone in between. After the impact achieved last year, Fashion Revolution Day is set to become a significant annual, global event.

Why this date?

On 24 April 2013, 1133 people were killed when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many more were injured. Today, people are still suffering as a direct result of our Fashion Supply Chain. Fashion Revolution Day says enough is enough. We need to show the world that change is possible.

What are you trying to change?

We don’t know the true cost of the things we buy. The fashion industry supply chain is fractured and producers have become faceless. This is costing lives.  All over the world, people are suffering and our environment is at risk as a result of our fashion supply chain.  Fashion Revolution is aimed at making life better for everyone in the fashion industry: from cotton fields to cutting floors who work long hours for low pay, often in dangerous conditions.

This year want people to ask the question Who Made My Clothes? This should be a simple question, but a recent Australian Fashion Report found that 61% of brands didn’t know where their garments were made and 93% didn’t know where the raw materials came from. We need to re-establish the broken connections in the supply chain because greater transparency is a prerequisite to improving conditions.

What are you trying to achieve?

Fashion Revolution will become a catalyst for change through a number of routes. We want to raise awareness of the true cost of fashion and its impact at every stage in the process of production and consumption; show the world that change is possible through celebrating those involved in creating a more sustainable future; bring people together the length of the value chain to ask questions and share best practice; and work towards long-term industry-wide change, getting consensus from the entire supply chain around what changes need to happen.

This year, brands and retailers will be challenged to take responsibility for the individuals and communities on which their business depends.  By taking an inside-out selfie, posting it on social media and asking the brand Who Made My Clothes? people around the world can show support for greater transparency throughout the fashion supply chain. 

Much of the fashion industry is burying its head in the sand.  Fashion Revolution is a global movement and we will bring the message straight from the cotton farmer, the mill dyer, the seamstress, the knitter, the weaver directly to the consumer, to show the truth, to show where change needs to happen, and how we, as consumers, can make a difference.  For real change to happen, every part of the supply chain has to make a commitment to change, and that includes us.

2015 is the European Year for Development.  What do you hope to achieve this year?

The European Year for Development (EYD2015) is an opportunity to showcase Europe’s strong commitment to sustainable development and eradicating poverty worldwide.  The motto of the year “Our world, our dignity, our future” highlights the fact that the right to a life of dignity does not stop at the borders of Europe.  This year, we want to encourage people to recognise their potential to influence global issues.

In a new Eurobarometer survery (Jan 2015) 85% of respondents believed that it is important to help people in developing countries and 69% believed that tackling poverty in developing countries also has a beneficial influence on EU citizens.

2015 is a decisive year when we can make our mark on history. It is the target date for achieving the Millenium Development Goals and the year when we need to agree a new set of goals which will provide a framework for eradicating poverty over the next 15 years. 2015 is also the year that a new international climate agreement will be reached in Paris.

Do you think this campaign has a chance of changing anything. This large and well established industry that has resisted pressure to change over numerous other issues?

Rana Plaza has opened up a policy window for significant change in the sector.   Whilst this is a symptom of the problem, it gives us an opportunity to set a new agenda to overcome the causes. We need to change the fashion industry through a variety of routes: supporting producers and unions, working towards policy and legislative change, and through consumer pressure.

We want to buy clothing which makes us look good and feel good. Ultimately brands and retailers will listen because they care what their customers think.  I was told by an industry insider that for every person who took an inside-out selfie and contacted the brand last year, the brands took it as representing 10,000 other people who thought the same way, but couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it. We have incredible power as consumers, if we choose to use it.

What do you say to people who were horrified at the disaster, but can’t afford to pay extra for ethically–sourced clothing?  

We’re not asking people to boycott their favourite stores, we need to change the fashion industry from within.  By asking the brands and retailers where we like to shop Who Made My Clothes? we can put pressure on them to be more transparent about their supply chains.

In terms of the price, three quarters of those questioned in a YouGov/Global Poverty Project survey said they would be likely to pay an extra 5% for their clothes if there was a guarantee workers were being paid fairly and working in safe conditions.   It has been estimated that putting as little as 25p onto the cost of a garment made in Bangladesh would provide the producers with a living wage and pay for factories to meeting fire and building safety standards.

How can we get involved in Fashion Revolution Day?

·      Wear your clothing inside out on April 24^th and take a selfie. Tweet: I’m wearing my (item of clothing) inside-out because I want @ (brand) to tell me Who Made My Clothes? #FashRev

·      Put on an event, however large or small. Our website has plenty of resources and ideas.

·      Get your school involved – education packs for all ages are on our Resources page

Visit www.fashionrevolution.org for more information

Are the people directly involved in the fashion industry (farmers, workers, buyers, middle-men) part of the campaign

Yes, we have been liaising closely with the entire supply chain both directly, through our Advisory Committee members and through our 66 country coordinators and their teams around the world.  We have consulted with different actors across the industry throughout the development of Fashion Revolution Day.

Who is behind the campaign and how did you come up with the idea?

In 1992 I founded Fair Trade hat brand, Pachacuti, and have since worked to set an example of how a fashion brand can adhere to the highest social and environmental standards and yet still be profitable. We have participated in 3  international pilot projects over the past 5 years and were the first company in the world to be Fair Trade certified by the WFTO.

Our work as a pilot on the EU Geo Fair Trade project, brought about an unprecedented level of traceability to the fashion supply chain.  We collected 60 social, economic and environmental indicators, tracking progress over three years, which enabled us to measure the impact of our Fair Trade work on 165 women weavers from our Panama hat association. We traced production back to the GPS co-ordinates of each weaver’s house, not easy data to collect when only 45% of their houses are accessible by road and are high in the Andes. Our weavers are delighted that this helps correct a historical misnomer as consumers can track Panama hats back to their country of origin, Ecuador!

The key to making these projects a success has been finding ways to actively involve our producers in the assessments. The failings of the audit-focused model of social responsibility have become obvious in Bangladesh – we have to find ways to engage the workers as well as management in improving standards.  

In the aftermath of the Rana Plaza collapse, everywhere I looked, there were newspaper articles calling for a more ethical fashion industry. The Rana Plaza catastrophe was a metaphorical call to arms.

The idea for Fashion Revolution Day literally popped into my head in the bath a few days after the Rana Plaza disaster.  It seemed like a good enough idea to act on, so I got out of my bath and immediately emailed the most obvious person I could think of, Orsola de Castro, co-founder of Estethica at London Fashion Week and co-founder of From Somewhere.   The next morning, having received Orsola’s enthusiastic response, Lucy Siegle, who writes the Ethical Living column for the Observer, phoned me and she was equally convinced that an annual Fashion Revolution Day was exactly what was needed to channel current concern into a longstanding campaign so that the victims of Rana Plaza and all the other tragedies that have occurred in the name of fashion will never be forgotten. So the Fashion Revolution was born.

Rana Plaza: A tragedy waiting to happen

Rana Plaza was inevitable.  There are ever longer supply chains, and a resulting shift in responsibility. However, this was a tragedy that could have taken place in any fast fashion producing country. Rana Plaza happens to be in Bangladesh. What happened reflects a global trend of increased ‘demand’ which feeds the fast fashion supply chain.  

Since 1990 at least 2,200 Bangladeshi garment workers had been killed at least 300 safety incidents. In 2005 when the Spectrum factory collapsed killing 64, also as a result of building cracks ignored, trade unions and labour rights campaigners called for immediate action to address systematic issues such as illegal building construction; overcrowded factories; dangerous electrical systems; blocked emergency exits and training. These calls went largely unheeded by government and industry alike.

Rana Plaza was built in 2006, originally as a six story building, it was poorly-constructed and located on a drained swamp. The original building did not have proper permits, the two floors built later were illegal. A ninth floor was under construction at the time of collapse. This all went either undetected or ignored by the western companies that had repeatedly audited the factories.  In the aftermath of Rana Plaza it became clear that not a single brand, retailer or audit scheme was properly incorporating building inspections as part of their standard audits.

Has much has changed since Rana Plaza? 

There have been many improvements in the fashion supply chain since the dust has settled on the Rana Plaza disaster, although it is unfortunate that it has taken a tragedy of this scale to start to bring about change. 

Standards had been based on factory and supply chain audits. These were usually preannounced and carried enormous weight with factory owners, who stand to win or lose millions of dollars in orders depending upon their ratings.  The Rosita Knitwear factory in Bangladesh got the highest grades in every category, yet 10 months after that inspection the workers rampaged through the factory, accusing management of reneging on promised pay, sexual harassment and beatings. Under the heading Working Conditions, the auditors wrote: No complaints from workers.

The Bangladesh Accord is a significant milestone towards better working conditions in Bangladesh, and hopefully throughout the industry. The new business model being developed is based more on a bottom up than a top down approach, with stakeholder engagement throughout the supply chain, trade union engagement, amendments to labour law, improved training and investment in improvements to fire and building standards.

However, there is still more to be done. The increase in the minimum wages in Bangladesh seems good news, but workers have seen little real benefit as this had a knock on effect on prices charged by slum landlords and food shops. The minimum wage still only covers 60% of the cost of living in a slum. There is a need for more, and stronger, trade unions, and more building inspectors.

What will really keeps factories compliant is when all workers have a voice and they can speak out when something is wrong.  Again, this is why Fashion Revolution’s aim to re-connect supply chain is so important. We will give a voice to the makers of our clothes, highlight their stories through our Meet Your Maker blog, and show where changes needs to happen.

What are the difficulties faced by cotton farmers in the developing world?

An estimated 100 million rural households are involved in the production of cotton in 70 countries around the world. Two-thirds of this cotton is produced in the developing world. For most cotton farmers in cotton-producing communities it is their only means of income and their only cash
crop. In West Africa for example, cotton makes up to 40% of export income. Many cotton farmers also live in poverty – trying to survive on less than $2 a day. World prices on cotton have been unstable for a long time and farmers have been severely affected by the falling prices. Things are getting harder – not easier. Cotton farmers are under pressure from rising input costs of fuel, pesticides and insecticides. This means that few farmers can cover the cost of production, because they cannot pass these costs on when cotton is sold at such a low price.

Cotton farmers in the United States, the EU and China are highly subsidised leading to overproduction. When their huge volumes of cotton are dumped on world markets, prices are driven down and small scale cotton farmers cannot compete.

What do you think we can achieve if we change the way we consume?

Consuming is about fulfilling needs: and one of our fundamental needs is the need to belong. I believe that our need to belong within society can be satisfied not just through buying beautiful garments, but also by building connections with the wider community of people who made our clothes. Knowing the story and seeing the faces behind a garment will help to satisfy our need for identity and participation far more than affiliation to any brand or logo. Consumer demand can revolutionise the way fashion works as an industry. If everyone started to question the way we consume, we’d see a radically different fashion paradigm.