Fashion Revolution makes life better in the textile factories

A disaster was the starting point of Fashion Revolution – a global movement that cares for all the people who make our clothes.

“Fashion Revolution has enabled factory workers to stand up for their rights and join together in unity to negotiate better working conditions”, says Rafia Sultana, KappAhl’s sustainability developer in Bangladesh.

Six years ago, the eight-storey factory and office building Rana Plaza Building in the Dhaka province of Bangladesh collapsed. 1.138 people died and 2.500 were injured. A horrible tragedy and a wake-up call for the whole fashion industry. What did the working conditions for textile workers really look like?

“The catastrophe was the start of the Fashion Revolution movement, which works for a fairer, safer, more transparent, traceable and responsible fashion industry”, says Rafia Sultana, sustainability developer at our office in Bangladesh.

Fashion Revolution works for better conditions for everybody and everything the clothing production influences, all the way from fiber to garment in store. Transparency is vital.

“Consumers from all over the world are concerned about human rights and environmental practices in the places where their clothes are produced. Fashion Revolution can help them to get right down to the factory where the garment was made, or even the name of the person who sewed the garment”, says Rafia Sultana and continues:

“At KappAhl, our supplier factory list shows which factories manufacture our clothes and if someone wants to know specifics, we are completely open with how, where, by whom and under what conditions our clothes are made. We have always been an open company but I think Fashion Revolution has contributed to our supply chain being even more transparent.”

These people make our clothes

One week in April each year, at the anniversary of the Rana Plaza Building disaster, Fashion Revolution Week takes place. Many fashion companies then show how they work for better conditions and increased transparency in their supply chains. Under the hashtag #imadeyourclothes, the people who produce the clothes are highlighted.

At KappAhl, we have supplier factories at several different places in the world, where skilled women and men sew according to our design ideas so that our clothes become exactly the way we want them.

In the pictures below you can see some of our fashion sewing heroes in Bangladesh and Turkey.