Fashion Revolution Week: What's Next?

This post was supposed to go up on Sunday the last day of Fashion Revolution Week. But unfortunately I was unwell, as per, always. Not the point of this post at all but I swear to god I always get ill at the most inconvenient of times.

Anyway as this post was about what comes after Fashion Revolution Week, I thought it was still relevant to post now.

So What Next?

I really enjoyed taking part in Fashion Revolution Week, I met some great people, learned about some amazing initiatives happening around the world, supported some ethical brands that I absolutely love and even fit in some sewing! Thanks so much to Izzy for organising bloggers for Fashion Revolution Week, make sure to check out their blog.

But now the hard work continues, it's all very well and good caring about garment workers for one week for the year but what happens the other 51 weeks. Unethical brands go back to funding sweatshop and slave labour and consumers turn a blind eye.

So what can you as a consumer do?

Firstly you can consume less. I'm not saying you have to give up fast fashion over night, there are plenty of reasons people have to shop fast fashion, for example, because finacially they cannot afford to shop elsewhere.

But if I could ask everyone reading this to do one thing, it would definitely be think about the amount you consume. Do you really need new stuff? Especially right now in the midst of a pandemic. Think about the items you already own, and if just a little mending could make them useable again. Think about if your desperate need to buy new trainers is linked to your own self esteem and mental wellbeing, and does that really serve you in the long run.

Secondly ask brands to do better. We need to keep the pressure on brands year round to do better across their entire supply chain. If you shop fast fashion are you really ok with your money being used to fund human rights abuses. If not, tell the brand, it's your money and they owe you an explanation.

Fashion Revolution has some great templates you can use to ask brands #whomademyclothes ect, find them here.

Finally I'm asking the brands myself what next?

Ultimately Garment Worker Rights are human rights. I have shared the articles of the UN's human rights conventions that fast fashion breaks time and time again. According to The Walk Free Foundation, the fashion industry is the second major global industry contributing to modern slavery. And personally I'm sick of profit being put before people's fundamental rights and our planet.

I'm sick of seeing greenwashing from the likes of H and M and Zara. I'm sick of seeing #sustainable on collections made by people who can't even sustain their own family.

So where's your Fashion Revolution, Adidas, Asos, Arcadia, Benetton, Boohoo, H and M, Fashion Nova, Missguided, Next, Nike, Primark, Topshop, and Zara? And all the countless other fast fashion brands. I will be contacting all these brands, sending them a link to this blog post, and tagging them on Instagram. Join me! And hopefully by next Fashion Revolution Week we will see some real change.