Carry Somers
THE VALLEYS OF THE PEAK DISTRICT where I live are dotted with buildings that bear witness to the legacy of the textile industry in the Midlands.
At Arkwright’s spinning mill in Cromford, built in 1771, two thirds of the 2,000 workers who once toiled there were children. Some textile factory owners employed children as young as five, but Arkwright had a more enlightened approach — and did not employ children until they reached the age of six, providing them with clothes, accommodation and a basic education. He was seen as a model employer of his time.
The British government had made it illegal for textile workers to immigrate to the United States because they wanted to keep their monopoly on this new spinning technology. However, another Derbyshire man, Samuel Slater, made the trip disguised as a farm laborer, and in 1790 he reconstructed Arkwright’s spinning machine from memory. Known in the United States as the Father of the Industrial Revolution, and in the U.K. by the less-flattering Slater the Traitor, Samuel Slater founded the U.S.’s first cotton mill. He continued to grow his business to 13 mills, all of which employed children.
Three centuries later, the fashion and textiles industry still employs millions of children throughout the supply chain. The Uzbek government forces about two million children as young as nine to miss school for two months a year in order to help with the cotton harvest. Young girls migrate to work in the spinning mills of Tamil Nadu, lured by the promise of earning enough money for a dowry.
Meanwhile, the owners of cotton fields, spinning mills and factories around the world continue to abuse national and international legislation and, like Samuel Slater, put personal gain ahead of ethics. From the cotton fields to the cutting floors, there has been progress globally, but the scale of the problem continues to grow as fast as the issues are being addressed. All over the world, people are still suffering, and our environment is at risk as a direct result of the fashion supply chain.
On April 24, 2013, 1,133 people were killed and many injured when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A disaster on this scale made it hard to ignore the true cost of the current fashion business model.
Rana Plaza opened a policy window for significant change in the sector. Whilst this is a symptom of the problem, it has provided an opportunity to set a new agenda to overcome the causes. The Bangladesh Accord has seen an unprecedented level of collaboration and cooperation on a global level as all the actors involved worked together to strengthen due diligence along the entire length of the fashion supply chain. Brands and retailers are being challenged to take responsibility for the workers, communities and environment on which their businesses depend.
Fashion Revolution, founded in the days following the Rana Plaza disaster, is a global platform that asks questions, raises standards and sets an industry-wide example of what better looks like. Each year, on April 24, Fashion Revolution Day tackles some of the industry’s most pressing issues.
Knowing who made our clothes is the first, small step toward transforming the fashion industry. The fashion supply chain is fractured, and the people who make our clothes have become faceless. A recent Australian Fashion Report found that 61 percent of brands didn’t know where their garments were made, and 93 percent didn’t know where the raw materials came from. This is costing lives. Greater transparency is the first step toward building a future in which an accident like the Rana Plaza collapse never happens again.
As consumers, we too must realize that we are not just purchasing a garment or accessory, but a whole chain of value and relationships. When we buy a new item of clothing, it holds within its threads the DNA of the workers who have touched it, sewn it, pressed it, and wrapped it throughout its journey. Consumer demand can revolutionize the way fashion works as an industry. If we start to think more about the stories behind the clothes that we wear every day and put pressure on the brands to become more accountable, we could see a radically different fashion paradigm.
Carry Somers, Co-founder, Fashion Revolution/Fashion Revolution Day, www.fashionrevolution.org