If you're an ordinary person joining Fashion Revolution Day, at the moment you're probably wondering who made the clothes you're wearing and maybe posting pictures of yourself on the social media, demanding an answer. If you're an artisan and you find yourself on the manufacturing side, you will instead be busy telling the world that you actually made the clothes that many of us may be currently wearing.
As you may remember, Fashion revolution Day was first launched last year to commemorate the victims of the Rana Plaza disaster. The factory complex collapsed in just 90 seconds in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2013, leaving behind a final death toll of 1,134 victims and around 2,500 people injured or permanently disabled. The tragedy was described by global trade unions as "mass industrial homicide".
While remembering the victims, the event - that boasts this year a total of 71 countries joining in - focuses on raising awareness about the true cost of fashion, showing that change is genuinely possible. We will probably be able to consider the real impact of the campaign and see if it produced any positively tangible results only in a few years' time.
In the meantime, we should all start considering new ways to make sure that the revolution doesn't last only one day by being more careful when we shop.
For example, it is a consumer's right to demand full transparency on the "Made in" labels, but they are quite often not enough to guarantee the real origin of our clothes. A garment may indeed be made in Italy, a country well known for its artisanal skills (but also for its illegal sweatshops...), using materials imported from other countries (think about skins of exotic animals that may have been produced without respecting certain standards, or even small metallic elements made in sweatshops located in Asia).
In a world that lives on global inequality and that manufactures billions of pieces of cheap clothing and accessories a year causing social and environmental catastrophes, the best thing is probably questioning more what we are buying and changing our spending habits.
Resisting being brainwashed by fast fashion trends, and refusing to be told by the next trendsetter - be them a celebrity with too many high tech luxury watches on their wrist or a high profile blogger with too many pairs of shoes in their closet - dictating us what to wear every week/day is probably one step towards changing our buying habits.
Using the Internet to search and find some smaller companies manufacturing products according to ethical standards is another. In a previous post we looked for example at Kenya-based knitwear company Toto Knits.
Kenya will be joining Fashion Revolution Day with a series of events analysing the local textile industry, shifting the attention on cotton farming and the decline the industry went through in the last few years, a decline that left only 15 textile mills still functioning.
Toto Knits' founder Erin Brennan Allan had to face this problem when she first started her knitwear company and was looking for the proper yarns to use. The company currently produces childrenswear, accessories and a selection of gifts and small decor objects at affordable prices.
Yet the most important thing about it is that Toto Knits employs a team of local knitters, women who work in a friendly environment and who sign all the pieces they make, so that consumers know the name of the special craftswoman in Africa who made what they ordered (yes, the company ships internationally).
Toto Knits recently started publishing on its blog a "Knitter of the Month" post: Milkah Wamaitha, a mother of two who has been collaborating with the company for nine years, is one of the latest knitters featured. In a short Q&A on the blog she states the best thing about her job is "Working as a team. We are all a family here."
Consumers visiting the company's Facebook or Instagram pages will also be able to meet other Toto Knits artisans such as head knitter Mary Wambui.
What's so unusual about them? They are all happily smiling because they are able to support through work their families earning a decent wage based on fair trade standards. Looks like a different approach to manufacturing may turn fashion into a healthier business for both manufacturers and consumers.
Image credits for this post
All images of Toto Knits workshop and artisans copyright Sean Dundas and courtesy of Toto Knits. Artisans: Catherine Nyaboke, Anne Nyokabi, Catherine Wamaitha, Eunice Wairimu, Mary Nduta, Sarah Wambui, Milkah Wamaitha, Mary Wambui and Margaret Wanjiku.
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