Ethical fashionistas will get the chance to discover the people behind the clothes at a ‘Meet the Makers’ event to commemorate Fashion Revolution Day in Chorlton tomorrow.
Non-profit co-operative Stitched Up are inviting people into their shop to meet producers, listen to their creative processes and peruse handmade garments and accessories on Thursday as part of the global campaign.
The event will take place on the first anniversary of the Rana Plaza garment factory tragedy which saw more than 1000 people, mainly women, killed when the Bangladesh factory building collapsed.
A Stitched Up spokeswoman said: “We’re hosting this event because we’re not prepared to sit in silence while the people who sew our clothes are dying.
“We want a fashion revolution! April 24 is a day which must be marked as a turning point – when shoppers finally said ‘enough is enough’.
DEVASTATION: Rana Plaza after the garment factory collapsed
“Our Meet the Makers event will bring together and celebrate the many ethical designers and makers quietly working away for a better fashion industry right here on our doorstep – we can’t wait to get everyone in the same room!”
Meet the Makers is one of hundreds of events taking places across the world. The theme of this year’s campaign is Who made your clothes? and is encouraging consumers to question fashion houses who the real people are behind the supply chain.
People are being asked to wear a garment inside out, photograph the label and share on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, using the hashtag #insideout, to ask fashion brands ‘Who made your clothes?’
The brains behind the campaign, Cary Somers, believes in a fashion industry that ‘values people, the environment, creativity and profit in equal measure.’
She said: “The idea for Fashion Revolution Day came to me in the bath. I saw that the Rana Plaza disaster could act as a catalyst, with the heightened awareness around ethical fashion providing a window to bring about real change.
TRAGIC: One of many relatives who searched for missing family
“Fashion Revolution Day represents an exciting opportunity to reconnect fashion lovers with the people who made their clothes.”
Cofounder Orsola de Castro said: “With one simple gesture,#insideout, we want you to ask ‘Who Made Your Clothes?’ this action will encourage people to imagine the ‘thread’ from the garment to the machinist that sewed it and all the way down to the farmer that grew the cotton it was made from.
“We hope that Fashion Revolution Day will initiate a process of discovery, raising awareness of the fact that buying is only the last step in a long journey involving hundreds of people – the invisible workforce behind the clothes we wear.”
Rana Plaza images courtesy of BBC, with thanks
