Exactly two months from today, the second annual Fashion Revolution Day will take place. The 24th April 2015 marks two years to the day since the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1133 garment workers and injuring over 2500 people. In response to this disaster, Fashion Revolution Day (FRD) was co-founded by Carry Somers, founder of Fair Trade hat brand Pachacuti and Orsola de Castro, founder of designer label From Somewhere to inspire change in the industry, as Somers explains:
‘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.’
The inaugural Fashion Revolution Day in 2014 was a resounding success; tens of thousands of people in over 60 countries took part, the official hashtag #insideout trended globally on twitter, and mainstream worldwide media more than sat up and took notice. But if you find yourself wondering how much impact this can really have on the global fashion supply chain and whether your single voice can actually make a difference, Somers has some very good news for us all:
'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.'
This year on 24th April you can get involved by wearing your clothes inside out, then take a photo, and tweet: I’m wearing my (item of clothing) inside-out because I want @ (brand) to tell me Who Made My Clothes? #FashRev
To offer a little inspiration, here's a short film by Sarah Keeling of the event we took part in last year on 24th April when we teamed up with Designer Jumble to run a Sew It Forward drop in at their Westfield pop-up. The film features our very own Zoe Robinson along with Designer Jumble founder and former editor of Vogue.com Abi Chisman, blogger Susie Lau from Stylebubble.co.uk, designers Finchittida Finch and designer Katie Jones.
Two months gives you plenty of time to decide how you can join in the Fashion Revolution:
You can also have a peek behind the scenes of the FRD 2015 photo shoot, styled by our good friend Alice Wilby in the below film created by Christopher Cunniff and Rachel Mann.
Fashion Revolution Day photoshoot credits:
The good stuff
The bad stuff uncovered
Hint and tips
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Fashion Revolution Day 2015
I'm thrilled to see there is a day to make people think about how their clothes are made and the conditions they are produced in. Recognizing these situations will help people see how conscious efforts to improve the fashion industry standards as well as how we purchase as clothes as consumers.