9th April 2024 – London. In 2013, the Rana Plaza factory collapse exposed the world to the exploitation at the centre of the global fashion industry. After the collapse, rescuers had to dig through the rubble looking for clothing labels to figure out which brands were producing clothes there, unearthing the urgent and vital need for transparency of where and how our clothes are made. Fashion Revolution was formed in response to this tragedy, and a year later we started to ask a simple question that proved impossible for brands to answer: “Who made my clothes?”. This question sparked the beginnings of a global movement for transparency, catalysing conversations and public education around the way our clothes are made to demand justice and dignity for the people who make our clothes. To increase pressure on the industry and give citizens the data they need to power their activism, we developed the Global Fashion Transparency Index in 2017 to measure what big fashion is telling us about their human rights and environmental practices because greater transparency is the starting point to accountability and systemic change. Now, brand transparency is a key evaluation point for investors and asset management funds – showing that transparency is a requirement for power brokers and decision makers. A decade later, the Fashion Revolution movement is now strong across 80 countries globally, united by a common vision of a global fashion industry that conserves and restores the environment and values people over growth and profit. As Fashion Revolution marks its tenth anniversary with Fashion Revolution Week 2024, we reflect on what progress has been made in the global fashion industry over the last ten years, and look ahead to the key areas we still urgently need to address.
HIGHLIGHTING PROGRESS
Transparency
Over the last decade, we have seen transparency enter the mainstream, with some of the world’s largest fashion brands making encouraging progress. Since its beginnings in 2017, through the Fashion Transparency Index (FTI) we have seen 86% of major fashion brands that have been analysed continuously increase their levels of disclosure with an average of fifteen percentage points, with some of these brands increasing their transparency by up to 54%. From just 100 brands initially, today the FTI has expanded to encompass 250 of the world’s largest brands, with 61% actively engaging with us. In 2023, for the first time, two brands scored 80% or higher in the Global FTI. After years of slow movement in the luxury fashion sector – when transparency of supplier lists seemed unimaginable – some luxury brands are now disclosing this information even down to raw material level, with the five biggest movers being all luxury brands in 2023. Overall, despite the FTI being in its eighth iteration, far too many brands still disclose nothing year after year, and industry-wide progress remains painfully slow, with brands’ overall average score currently only 26%.
Legislation
After tirelessly campaigning for action from governments alongside NGOs and fashion activists, we welcome the beginnings of a regulatory reckoning. But it’s clear that business and government lobbies threaten legislation urgently needed in fashion, as we recently witnessed with the landmark Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). The most notable development can be attributed to the Bangladesh Accord on Health and Safety. Now known as the International Accord on Fire and Building Safety, it was signed just weeks after Rana Plaza and remains the only legally binding agreement in the fashion industry to date. Its achievements are remarkable in terms of life and limb worker issues and saving lives that shouldn’t have been jeopardised in the first place. We must continue to advocate for its protection and expansion.
Citizen Engagement
Underpinning these industry and legislative shifts has been a huge uplift in citizen engagement. Since the beginning of our movement, we have seen people discover the power they hold as citizens first, whose voices are essential to demand better from brands. Transparency has grown from being radical to an expectation from many consumers who are actively seeking ethical fashion alternatives. The fashion industry is very aware of the change in consumer sentiment, and this shift has been disappointingly coupled with a rise in empty promises and misleading claims. In recent years, there has been a growing backlash towards greenwashing, with some citizens launching legal cases against offending brands and calling out public figures online for aligning with them. Within our global community, conscious consumers have evolved into consumer activists. From asking brands “Who made my clothes?, “Who made my fabric” and “What’s in my clothes?” to joining 240,000 EU citizens in calling on the European Union to demand living wage legislation at EU level for garment workers worldwide. Citizens globally have mobilised in their hundreds of thousands to campaign for social and environmental justice, and stand with garment worker movements. To highlight the valuable contribution of citizen engagement in driving change, Fashion Revolution Week 2024 will bring together our global community to share a decade of learning, advice and their hopes for the future through a series of in-person and online events running from the 15th-24th April.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
After a decade of slow progress, it seems the fashion industry is, for the most part, still failing to do what is the bare minimum: taking accountability for its decisions and actions. Looking ahead, we believe there are five key areas the industry must focus on in order to make meaningful progress.
Purchasing Practices
Unfair purchasing practices continue to be the backbone of exploitation in the fashion industry. By paying late, changing orders last minute, or outright cancelling fulfilled orders, brands are perpetuating an abusive and volatile cycle that systematises poverty, as factory owners and suppliers may be forced to make workers stay late to finish orders and are unable to pay their workers on time or even at all. Meanwhile, customers are sometimes wearing clothes before big brands have paid the factories that made them. Covid-19 order cancellations saw unprecedented wage theft and devastation for the people who make our clothes. With the intensifying climate crisis, it begs the question if and how brands will ensure fair purchasing practices, as their track record has shown otherwise. Brand commitments to sustainability will always ring hollow if they continue to perpetrate these unfair purchasing practices that drive labour abuses for the people who make our clothes. If this does not change, nothing will.
Living Wages and Freedom of Association Rights
Despite big fashion brands promising fair pay to the workers who make their clothes, they have little to show on progress over the last decade. In-work poverty has actually deepened at worker level, resulting in consequences such as worker health worsening, workers moving to even less safe industries, and workers taking second jobs to cover everyday living expenses. Living wages are the most important issue to the people who make our clothes – bar none – and yet still, 99% of the brands in the Global Fashion Transparency Index do not disclose the percentage of workers in their supply chain paid a living wage rate. Poverty pay is perpetuated when workers’ rights to Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining are repressed. It is by no coincidence that big fashion sources from regions of the world where these rights are limited, despite resounding commitments to protect them. With workers bravely protesting for higher pay, Freedom of Association is even more critical after the recent crackdowns on garment worker protests, where workers lost their lives demanding an increase in Bangladesh’s minimum wage negotiations. Living wages are not a luxury – they are a fundamental human right.
Decarbonisation and the Just Transition
The climate crisis is growing in intensity and urgency and yet, in 2023, little more than a third of the world’s largest brands disclosed a time-bound and measurable near-term target for decarbonisation verified by the Science-based targets Initiative, with even less (12%) disclosing a long-term target for 2040-2050. Despite this, just 9% of brands reviewed disclosed their level of annual investment in decarbonisation. Raw material production and processing are the most carbon intensive stages in the supply chain and require the most investment, innovation and long-term planning.
With an estimated USD $1 trillion required to cut roughly 50% of emissions by 2030 – it’s high time for big fashion to put its money where its emissions are and support suppliers to transition to clean energy. The dire need for investment in decarbonisation is underlined by the fact that stakeholders across global value chains are experiencing the impacts of the climate crisis now, like increases in heat stress, rising sea levels, earthquakes and other devastating climate hazards. As key drivers of the climate crisis, big fashion must enable a just transition led by the needs of suppliers and workers, whose voices are critical in co-creating local solutions and mitigations to climate adaptation. Just transition is more than upskilling for a green economy – it is an opportunity to redress the extreme power imbalance which led us into the intersecting climate and inequality crises in the first place.
Waste Colonialism, Overproduction and Overconsumption
Churning out enormous volumes of clothes each year and promoting a culture of overconsumption is antithetical to sustainability and climate justice. Yet, overproduction remains the elephant in the room. The fashion industry must be held accountable for driving overconsumption and significantly reduce production levels. Big fashion brands must also take responsibility for the waste they create and provide financial support to countries where it ends up which are most affected by waste colonialism. Echoing the OR Foundation’s Speak Volumes campaign, we need brands to tell us exactly how much clothing they are producing annually to give greater visibility on this issue and to hold producers accountable. The 2023 Global Fashion Transparency Index revealed that only 12% of brands disclose their annual production volumes, highlighting a clear lack of transparency on information any viable brand intentionally tracks. Looking towards solutions for the waste crisis, the industry must collaborate with communities working on the ground to deal with the clothing waste flooding their countries. Many local economies rely on the current system and their perspectives and opinions must be at the centre of the conversation.
Legislation
The fashion industry must be held accountable for the human rights abuses and environmental destruction within its supply chains by binding legislation. If the last ten years have shown us anything, it’s that voluntary schemes don’t work. Governments must regulate the fashion industry by focusing on addressing the root cause of the issues and putting an end to brands’ self-assessments. Progress on corporate accountability legislation globally is welcome, but in its current forms it fails to deliver worker justice. As the Good Clothes, Fair Pay campaign highlighted, we urgently need legislation at importing-country level to ensure fashion brands pay garment workers worldwide a living wage, and respect workers’ freedom to associate and collectively bargain on issues like pay. Converging climate and social injustice is the crisis of our time. Business as usual is not an option.
About Fashion Revolution
Fashion Revolution campaigns for a clean, safe, fair, transparent and accountable fashion system through research, education and advocacy. Fashion Revolution is a global movement across 75 countries with a collective vision for a fashion industry that conserves and restores the environment and values people over growth and profit.
years, and look ahead to the key areas we still urgently need to address.
