Who made my clothes? #fashrev
Two years ago today, 1133 people were killed and over 2500 were injured when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Today is Fashion Revolution Day and you can show your support by taking a selfie showing the label of your clothing and sharing it on social media with the hashtag #whomademyclothes.
Ethical fashion is something that I have been thinking about more and more over the past year. The other week when Tara and I were browsing in Topshop, we came across a simple black lacy t-shirt that reminded us of our favourite Amber Whitecliffe Maketu Tee. To our surprise, the Topshop top was priced at $120, which is only $5 more than the AW tee. For those of you who are not familiar with Amber, she is an incredible designer who makes all her clothing here in New Zealand. It baffled me that a huge global business who mass-produces products could price their garment the same as a small local NZ made brand. To be honest, this put me right off Topshop and I haven't bought anything from them since.
This past year, i've been researching clothing brands that are fair trade and ethically made. I've slowly began to build a collection of bookmarked websites as well as a word document on my computer linking to articles and reports on ethical fashion. This weeks Viva Magazine is dedicated to ethical style and NZ made clothing. It was in that issue I discovered the Fashion Revolution organisation. The magazine has some INCREDIBLE interviews, so definitely check it out online if you can.
Now, it would be hypocritical for me to say that I am never going to buy something from a chainstore again because lets be honest, I probably will. You will still see me sporting Cotton On, The Warehouse and etcetera on the blog, but I want to start being more careful with what I consume. I am a big fashion lover, but that does not mean I should ignore what is going on in the industry around me.
If this is something you would like to hear more about on the blog, let us know! Tara and I would be excited to share some posts and videos on our process of finding and purchasing quality and ethically made clothing.
