Fashion Revolution Event

Do you wear clothes? Do you know who made your clothes?

I don’t mean which shop they were bought in or which brand they are. Do you know who sat at the machine? What were they paid? How old are they? Were their working conditions safe? How long were their working hours?

Fast cheap fashion means that many of us have so many clothes, we don’t wear most of them very often. In the UK as much as 73% of our clothes were not worn last year.

When the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed in 2013, 1,134 workers lost their lives and 2,500 were injured. Many clothing companies were not aware of the working conditions or even knew if their garments were made in that factory. There have been fires and other building collapses, both before and after this one, but still we don’t think about our involvement in what is ultimately happening. Manufacture of our clothes is the second biggest contributor to Climate Change and our garments have caused harm to many communities.

Fashion Revolution Week is from 22nd – 28th April 2019. Events will happen all over the world with an emphasis on looking at the issues of modern fashion and what it means to our world.

The Belper event will take place at St Peter’s Church, Belper, DE56 1EZ on Friday 26th April from 19.00-21.00

The evening will include a clothes swop, a fabric swop, some craft activism, workshops including how to mend your clothes. There will be a cafe and time to chat and think about the issues.

This is a concern for all of us.

By Anne Clark