Fashion Revolution Week: Who made your clothes?

Don't know? You're not alone. So let's all ask!

This week is our chance, as consumers, to collectively ask our favourite brands who made our favourite garments and products.

It's Fashion Revolution Week from 24 - 30 April and all over the world consumers are asking and brands are telling - leading to greater transparency and accountability from fashion brands.

Too many companies aren't even aware of their entire supply chain - so how can we expect a straight answer? The more we - the power-wielding consumer - ask, the more pressure we're putting on brands to figure it out and share with us.

Of course there are also many brands powering ahead with transparency and ethical production, building it into their start-up DNA, like new Aussie brand Mighty Good Undies. 

Instead of playing catch up, they took off on the right foot by paying their garment workers a living wage (and proving it!) and have ranked an A+ for the second year running in the Baptist World Aid 2017 Ethical Fashion Report.

They're launching a Bare for Good campaign as part of Fash Rev Week, featuring 11 celebs and change makers stripped down to their underwear.

Beloved Australian gardener Costa Georgiadis, of ABC's
Gardening Australia, joins Mighty Good Undies' Bare for Good campaign.
Image via Mighty Good Undies

"Each celebrity shares with us their intimate clothing ‘love stories’, to encourage people to fall back in love with what they wear," Mighty Good Undies founder Hannah Parris says.

Others, like Nudie Jeans, are taking responsibility for the lifecycle of their products, offering free repairs and DIY repair kits for all their denim goodies. There are Nudie Denim Repair Shops on the streets of Australia, London, US and Europe; they're accessible, visible and allow us to see and appreciate the art of mending.

Nudie Jeans repair all their denim for free. Image of a London shop via Everypeoples

So what can we all do? Start with this week and take to social media to ask, Who made my clothes?

1. Put on one of your favourite wardrobe items - only this time turn it inside out and put the tag to the front!
2. Take a selfie as a tag dag.
3. Share on social media, @ mention the brand you're wearing and ask them through the hashtag, #whomademyclothes.

There are so many other things we can do to slow the fashion industry down, much further than just this week.

Learn to love what we already own.

Can you pair it with something different? Experiment!

Would it look better a little shorter? Take the hem up! (see below re: investing in a trusted dress maker).

Try doing an audit of your wardrobe - you'd be surprised what you 'find' that may have gotten a little lost!

Share our wardrobes.

I'm getting behind the brand-spanking-new Undress wardrobe sharing app which connects us to the best of other people's wardrobes and allows us to share our own.

Borrow > new outfit > fun times > return!

I'll be sharing my wardrobe via Undress!

Me and more pleats!

Mend it (or find someone who can).

I have a trusted dressmaker that I take my fix-er-up-ers to - she works from home locally, and she has many years of experience.

Anything I can't do myself with a needle and thread or on the sewing machine, off to the dressmaker it goes. Ask around for recommendations - it worked for me!

Can you mend it yourself?

Support brands doing good.

We're not saying never buy new things. We all need to! Try using resources at your fingertips like the Good On You app which rates brands based on people, planet and animals. That way you're informed of your choices before making a purchase.

You can, of course, hit up Shift's Instagram feed, which is a treasure trove of brands doing things ethically and sustainably all over the world!

-  Ash