Fashion Revolution Day - Ethical and fair-trade clothing .

Fashion Revolution Day - Ethical and fair-trade fashion - Moonlit Sleep

On the 24th of April 2013 the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed. 1133 people were killed and another 2500 injured. As well as sparking worldwide outrage, this horrifying incident also sparked worldwide awareness. Awareness that the cheap, fast fashion so many had come to love and expect has a very serious and very real human consequence.

Fashion Revolution Day is the day when industry leaders, factory workers, producers, designers, campaigners, academics, press, consumers, cotton farmers and many others just like you and I, come together to commemorate the anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, to remember the victims and to help forge positive change for the future. I remember watching the images in horror as news of the Rana Plaza factory complex collapse was reported. There was an image of a couple embracing with the lower parts of their bodies buried in the rubble and a tear of blood running down the man’s cheek. It’s an image I’ve not been able to forget.

I truly hope that Fashion Revolution Day will be a catalyst for real and long lasting positive change. I hope that it grows each year, sparking awareness and reminding everyday consumers why fair and ethical fashion manufacturing is so crucial and important. It’s an opportunity to celebrate fashion as a positive influence and to raise awareness of the fashion industry's most pressing and serious issues. It’s a day to show that positive change is truly possible and  starting to happen! It’s a day where we're asked to consider, “Who made my clothes”….  In answer to this, on the 24th you may see people wearing their clothes inside out in the press and on social media with the hashtag #whomademyclothes..... Please join in and help raise awareness!

Awareness is the absolute key…. We buy our clothes and other fabric items from a store or on-line…. but we usually don’t stop to think about who actually MADE them. Who sewed them? Who coloured the fabric? Who cut the fabric? Who made the trims on them? Who ironed them? …… Were these people paid fair wages, wages that they can actually live off? Were these people working in safe conditions? Had they chosen their employment freely? Did adults make my clothes or were children involved? All these questions are usually not even considered. We look at the style, the colour, the design, how it fits, but usually not how that garment came to be. This needs to change if we are to avoid another Rana Plaza disaster.

Throughout my career in the fashion industry, I travelled overseas and visited many different factories. I visited sewing factories, dyers, printers and some trim manufacturers too. I must say that all but one of these factories ticked all the positive boxes for me.

There are many fantastic factories out there that are doing all the right things. I’ve visited factories that provide hot meals for all their workers in a huge lunchroom, the staff were laughing and joking with each other and lunch was a social occasion that they all enjoyed. I visited a factory that had a mid morning and afternoon Tai Chi break where all the machinists stopped and exercised beside their sewing machines. I’ve seen many happy, healthy workers in clean, safe factories. I’ve seen amazing machinery and fabulous new technologies in work. But in that one awful factory, what I saw horrified me (and I’m sure it’s not the worst out there). The workers had a look on their faces that has stuck with me for years. The conditions were dirty and dark, the machines old and poorly lit. Worse still, on the second and third floors there were a couple of huge almost floor to ceiling holes in the brick walls which had a straight drop to the ground below….they weren’t fenced off and shockingly there was a machine a worker was using only a couple of meters in front!!

There is a lot of negative talk about factories in the press and very rightly so, but there are also some truly wonderful factories in the world, and all the wonderful factories I’ve worked with have had various independent certifications. This means that they are tested and verified to adhere to and meet specific criterias and standards.

In the years leading up to starting Moonlit Sleep I’d been researching the benefits of and had been choosing organic cotton items for myself and my family wherever possible. The pesticides used on cotton crops are some of the most toxic known to man, yet I seriously LOVE my cotton! I LOVE how it feels to wear and sleep in, it’s just so breathable and comfortable against the skin. So when I started Moonlit Sleep, I wanted all our sheets and quilt cover sets to be made to the GOTS standard in a GOTS certified factory. Why was this so important to me? Well, GOTS is the holy grail of certifications in my opinion as it independently tests and verifies in all of the following areas:

·       Organic farming, so no toxic chemical pesticides, defoliants or fertilisers. This not only means there are no harmful chemical residues in your bedding, but also that cotton farmers, their families and communities are not exposed either. It means toxic chemicals don’t enter water supplies and drift onto food crops, it means less stress on water supplies and it’s kind on the environment. See our WHY we LOVE our Organic Cotton page for more info. 

·       Control of chemical use and water use during production, eg: non-toxic eco-friendly dyes, no toxic heavy metals, formaldehyde etc. Active environmental policies and procedures must also be in place. See our What is Certified Organic page for more specific details.

·       No toxic chemical residues in the end item.

·       Fair-trade, Sweatshop Free, and NO child labour. Both the working and social conditions must meet strict criteria.

So when you see the GOTS certification on any item, whether it is clothing or bedding like mine, it’s not just about being organic. It also tells you that it’s been ethically and sustainably made with both people and the planet in mind.

As you can imagine, doing the right thing, paying workers a fair living wage, using safe dyes and colourants, ensuring garments meet high quality standards….. all of these things understandably cost money. So when you see a kids t’shirt in a store for $3.00, either the store is seriously losing money, perhaps they’re using that cheap t’shirt to lure you into store in the hope you’ll impulse buy other things? Or perhaps someone somewhere in the process, hasn’t been paid a fair living wage? Perhaps the cheapest, nastiest, skin irritating synthetic dyes were used to keep costs down? Perhaps the building it was sewn in was in unsafe and poor condition like Rana Plaza? Perhaps children did the sewing as they get paid less? Regardless, we need to stop and think before we buy. We need to consider how that item could be manufactured so cheaply. Each time we purchase, we have real power to help forge positive change in the world!

We can all make a difference. Buy good quality so it lasts longer and you need to buy less. Buy from brands that echo your beliefs, brands that you know do the right thing. Support the brands that are ethical in the way they do business and if you’re not sure, pop them an email. If they’re doing the right thing they’ll be so excited to tell you all about it!! :)

Thanks so much for reading all the way to the end…. This is an issue close to my heart, so thank you!

Sweet Dreams in Organic Cotton xxx

Ethical fair-trade fashion and clothing - Fashion Revolution Day - Who made my clothes?