What is Ethical Fashion?
“No blood. No sweat. No tears.” This should be the mission statement of every single fashion brand but we are sadly not there yet. The reality is truly heartbreaking and we hope this post opens your eyes and minds to the power you have as consumers, influencers, and humans.
The fashion industry is not only the second most polluting industry after oil, but it’s also one of the most unethical ones. Especially when it comes to fast fashion and the big stores that mass produce clothing paying the hands that make every piece below minimum wage. We are talking about paying young women and men less than $2 per day to work in inhumane, unstable and unhealthy factories for hours while they make millions of dollars selling these fashion pieces.
(Image by Clean Clothes Campaign)
On April 24, 2013 an eight-story commercial building with garment factories located in Dhaka's outskirt Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed, killing 1134 workers and leaving thousands injured. This day is known as the “Rana Plaza Disaster”. The brands found linked to these unstable and inhuman garment factories: Benetton, Mango and Auchan.
We would assume that such a catastrophe would educate consumers on the consequences of buying cheap fashion, or fashion companies on the importance of protecting their workers, but we are still facing the same issues 9+ years later. Not only do garment workers, especially women, in countries like India, Thailand and Bangladesh find themselves forced to take on these jobs because of gender discrimination and lack of work but they also face abuse and sexual harassment at work, like the terrifying story of 20-year old Jeyasre Kathiravel, a garment worker for H&M in India who was murdered by the factory’s supervisor in January 2021 after filing many reports of sexual harassment.
Two very informative platforms that show the reality of workers behind brands like Nike, Forever 21, Zara, Mango, Adidas, Levis, Urban Outfitters, H&M and others are Clean Clothes Campaign and Fashion Revolution. Also, we recommend watching these documentaries:
“The True Cost” - an investigative film sharing the stories of today’s garment workers, modern slavery, and the environmental impact of the fashion industry.
“River Blue” - a groundbreaking documentary that examines the pollution of our rivers and waterways by top fashion companies.
There is also a very user-friendly app that ranks companies based on the materials they use, their impact on the environment, and their practices around human labor. This app is called: “Good on You”.
(Image by Unsplash)
Change starts by educating ourselves, researching brands before we support them, and reading labels. Wee must ask companies the right questions, and demand brands for transparency. If a company’s website doesn’t show its practices, or where their products are coming from, ask them. Email them. DO something! Let’s stop being robots that add products to carts without analyzing the impact of each item. We can’t afford to play blind anymore. Choose sustainable and ethical brands that care about their workers’ well-being as well as the materials they are using. Make the connection so innocent people, and our planet, don’t suffer for a $9 t-shirt you will probably wear once or twice. Together, we can heal what’s broken. Including a broken system and politics.