Fashion Revolution Week (NL/EN)

(For English, see below)

Today begins Fashion Revolution Week, an annual recurring fair fashion campaign launched to commemorate the Rana Plaza disaster, the Bengali textile factory that collapsed in 2013, taking the lives of 1,138 textile workers.

Fashion Revolution Week 2020 is one in a minor way

There is still a long way to go before the fashion world is fair, sustainable and transparent. And unfortunately, the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is creating even more obstacles on that road. Large chains withdraw orders already produced, new orders are delayed or limited in number, the lockdown prevents textile workers from working (safely), a large number of workers lose their jobs and in many cases are not entitled to (dignified) benefits.

Our partners

The small brands we work with do their best to keep things bearable for both themselves and their producers: e.g., by having garment workers sew at home with a sewing machine, continuing to pay technically unemployed workers, having mouth masks made for individuals (more on this later), or raising donations to have official mouth masks made to donate to hospitals. This is how they try to keep their staff safe at work and provide for their livelihood as much as possible.

Employees of Coq en Pâte (photo taken before the corona crisis)

Slow fashion

Our suppliers have a more revolutionary way of working anyway: they don't work with 4-6 new seasons a year where all the "old" items are replaced with new ones. New items are added regularly, but that does not mean that the older collections have to be discarded (or in many cases thrown away). Instead, we all choose beautiful but relatively timeless designs, allowing many items to remain in stock for years. Of course, this does not mean that we do not grant our customers discounts, but it does mean that with a fair way of working, the profit margins are much smaller which unfortunately means that the discounts are also smaller. We hope to compensate for this by making our customers happy with good quality clothing made in an ethical and ecological way.

Due to the lockdown, there are obviously no real life events to highlight the campaign, but online events can be found through Fashion Revolution Belgium's Facebook page or website.

The annual Fair Fashion Fest in Ghent, where you will also be able to find us, has been postponed to Nov. 28-29.

Today is the first day of Fashion Revolution Week, an annual campaign for fair fashion which marks the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, where 1,138 people were killed and many more were injured.

Not much to celebrate

There is still a long road ahead before the fashion industry will be fair, durable and transparent. And sadly, the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is a very big obstacle. Large fashion chains withdraw already produced orders, new orders are postponed or limited in number, the lockdown prohibits textile worker to work (safely), a lot of them have lost their jobs and for many of them that means they will have no income.

Our partners

The small brands we have in our webshop all try their best so that their workers can maintain a sustainable livelihood. Textile workers who own a sewing machine can work from home, people whose factory is closed still get paid, the workers that still can safely work in their factory make cloth masks for non-medical purposes (more on that later) or make official medical masks that are donated to hospitals.

Textile workers in the Coq en Pâte factory (picture taken before the coronavirus outbreak)

Slow fashion

Our suppliers already work in a more revolutionary way: they don't replace every "old" item (i.e. from the previous season) at the launch of the new season collection. They regularly make new items, but that doesn't mean the older items lose their value (or get burned or thrown away). We all work with beautiful, but relatively timeless designs which make it possible to keep them in stock for a long time, sometimes even years. This obviously doesn't mean that we don't want to give our customers a nice discount. It only means that our margins are a lot smaller which unfortunately also makes our discounts smaller. We hope we can compensate this by making our customers happy with high-quality clothing that is manufactured in an ethical and eco-friendly manner.

If you want more information about Fashion Revolution Week and the online events that are planned, you can visit the official website or Facebook page.