Fashion Revolution Day 24th April
Your clothes already tell a story about who you are.
Now they can tell a better one.
The global fashion industry is coming together to highlight the challenges of the fashion supply chain, from exploitation to pollution, with the inaugural Fashion Revolution Day on the 24th April 2014, when a series of global events and initiatives will highlight the fashion industry’s most pressing issues and engage local communities to demand greater transparency throughout.
Photo Credit: Livia Firth by Trevor Leighton
On April 24th last year, 1133 people were killed when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many more were injured.
Fashion Revolution Day says enough is enough.
Fashion is a force to be reckoned with. It inspires, provokes, leads and entertains. And, from April 2014, it’s going to do even more. Because we’re turning fashion into a force for good.
With one simple question: ‘Who Made Your Clothes?’ we’re asking everyone to be curious, find out, do something about it, by wearing an item of clothing inside out, photographing it, sharing it with the hashtag #insideout on all social networks and asking the brand to tell them who made their clothes. According to the Australian Fashion Report in 2013[1], 61% of companies surveyed didn’t know where their garments were made.
That way, people all over the world – designers and celebrities, high street shops and high couture, cotton farmers and factory workers, campaigners, academics, the media and any individual who cares about what they wear – can come together to demand greater transparency.
The idea for Fashion Revolution Day came to me in the bath. I saw that the Rana Plaza disaster could act as a catalyst, with the heightened awareness around ethical fashion providing a window to bring about real change. Fashion Revolution Day represents an exciting opportunity to reconnect fashion-lovers with the people who made their clothes.
There will be events and activities from Somerset House to the House of Lords and all around the UK – catwalks and panels discussions, film screenings and knitting evenings, quiz nights and gatherings.
Pachacuti’s Ashbourne shop will have a window display showcasing over 20 photographs taken by famous British portrait photographer Trevor Leighton, a project co-sponsored by Pachacuti.
Photo Credit: Harold Tillman by Trevor Leighton
At Pachacuti’s Ashbourne shop, you will have the opportunity to find out Who Made Your Hat? through a display showcasing our Fair Trade weavers and the production process of the panama hat. There will also be quiz sheet for children to help them think about the clothes they wear and where they are made.
Global events will include a mass catwalk in the centre of Barcelona featuring ethical brands; a workshop in Nepal on how to clean up waste water from dye houses; a fashion show in Bangladesh with producers wearing the clothes they make; a touring exhibition in Swaziland documenting the lives of local artisans, and fashion brands and retailers the world over will turn their window displays #insideout to show their involvement.
Over 20 celebrities, including eco-fashion icon Livia Firth, retail expert Mary Portas, Olympic gymnast Louis Smith and entrepreneur Jo Wood, have already lent their support to the campaign by being photographed with their t-shirt insideout by iconic British portrait photographer Trevor Leighton.
Photo credit: Louis Smith by Trevor Leighton
As well as the multitude of global events to mark the day , there will be a series of global ‘social media takeovers’. These are scheduled events, held on Twitter @Fash_Rev, Facebook and Instagram to allow like-minded people to connect and discuss a topic of choice. Subjects for discussion will include how to revamp unworn clothes, first hand accounts of life for workers in factories that supply our best-known retailers, Twitter Q&As from organisations such as Greenpeace and Fairtrade Foundation and Centre For Sustainable Fashion, as well as Facebook mini blogs from Fashion Revolution board members and supporters.
“Fashion Revolution Day promises to be one of the very few truly global campaigns to emerge this century” says Baroness Young of Hornsey who set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion.
Photo Credit: Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey by Trevor Leighton
Co-founder Orsola de Castro says: “With one simple gesture, #insideout, we want you to ask: ‘Who Made Your Clothes?’ this action will encourage people to imagine the ‘thread’ from the garment to the machinist that sewed it and all the way down to the farmer that grew the cotton it was made from. We hope that Fashion Revolution Day will initiate a process of discovery, raising awareness of the fact that buying is only the last step in a long journey involving hundreds of people: the invisible workforce behind the clothes we wear”.
I have been nominated for Campaigner of the Year in the Observer Ethical Awards in recognition of my work creating the Fashion Revolution. Voting opens on 18 April – please vote for me to help us to continue to give everyone in the fashion supply chain in voice! http://www.theguardian.com/observer-ethical-awards
Find out more at http://www.fashionrevolution.org/. Like Fashion Revolution on Facebook at facebook.com/fashionrevolution.org and follow @Fash_Rev on Twitter.
[1] The Australian Fashion Report launched 19th August 2013 by Baptist World Aid and Not For Sale Australia
Photo Credits:
Livia Firth Photographer: Trevor Leighton Stylist: Alice Wilby Hair / Makeup: Khandiz Joni
Harold Tillman Photographer: Trevor Leighton Stylist: Alice Wilby Hair / Makeup: Khandiz Joni
Louis Smith Photographer: Trevor Leighton Grooming by Lauren Baker
Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey Photographer: Trevor Leighton Stylist: Alice Wilby Hair: Oscar Alexander Makeup: Lauren Baker
All: T-shirt: Continental Clothing Oversized label by Mrs Bowtie www.fashionrevolution.org
“These photographs have been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of these photos are the sole responsibility of Fashion Revolution Day and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.”
