Women's rights & #whomademyclothes

[QuarksandLeptons]

Apparently 80% of the world's garments are made by women. And the textile industry is very murky, supply chains are hidden and those making our clothes often work in terrible conditions. Women are endangered by dangerous work practices, they face abuse at work and in the worst cases can end up dying (like the awful Rana factory in Bangladesh)

If we can change attitudes so that the supply chain can be made transparent, millions of poor women's lives will be transformed. Giving them a proper job to support themselves and their families.

www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/08/fashion-industry-protect-women-unsafe-low-wages-harassment

This group have an easy to use form that you can send off emails to various clothes companies to ask them about who makes their clothes. #whomademyclothes
Its just a starting point as clearly lots more needs to be done. But still, if everyone sent a message, it would push things in a better direction.

www.fashionrevolution.org/

Would be really interested to hear if anyone else has suggestions or knows of other groups that are focused on increasing women's rights in the textile industry.

This looks interesting but sadly, it's a bigger transformation needed I reckon OP.
While we indulge ourselves with a 'throw away' culture and accept a race to the bottom in terms of pricing, those in poor societies will never get the income that they need. We have a massive personal responsibility in all this.

The real problem is, millions of poor women's lives won't be transformed, because we can't or won't buy more expensive items that give them a better deal. If the clothes were more expensive, only a small percentage of women would benefit. the rest would have no work at all and they would starve.
Its the same in every industry. People cant or wont buy high standard tuna fish at a pound a can, so poor people are left working in slave like conditions.
The entire system of capitalism is designed to work in this way. We are strip mining the planet for consumerism. It's not sustainable, its not humane, and it only benefits a minority.

We need a cultural transformation away from consumerism and towards building small, sustainable communities.

Totally agree that the entire throwaway culture and the general business model should change but as baby steps, greater transparency of the existing system will start to help the women who work in it today.

If the supply chain was transparent and trustworthy, then I probably would pay a premium for something ethically produced. I pay more for free range eggs and pork ( I know I am lucky to be able to do so. When cash is short I go veggie). I agree that could be one strand towards pushing towards a fairer world.

I have read that it's not just cheap clothes that are frequently made by people who are little more than slaves, it's expensive ones as well, a high price tag means nothing related to the pay of the people at the other end of the chain.

I think that every little helps and this is a good idea. People can do this and do other things as well if they wish.

I haven’t bought new clothes all year. I want to remove myself from this throwaway culture entirely and then really think about where I get my clothing after that...

Ah, the liberation that comes with the purchase of a sewing machine and a short course on how to make template patterns for clothes that fit me and mine. Ah, the joy of having enough floorspace to cut out five baby/toddler joggers and jackets at a time.

And then there's my investment in turbo stainless steel circular knitting needles and classes on professional fitting and finishing.

The satisfaction of people saying 'Did you make that? Wow - can you make me one if I buy the materials?'

And the answer is always NO. My time isn't cheap and plentiful - it's in short supply. My knowledge has been acquired and updated through experimentation and study. My materials are ethically sourced in the UK (sometimes I can even name the herd of sheep or alpaca) and appear expensive to the uninitiated. I've only acquired the skills because I perservered.

I much admire the incredibly skilled and unappreciated women who have to work for slave wages on this, my night-time hobby.

Where is this short course? I’ve largely got to grips with a sewing machine but my clothes still fall apart after being worn a few times.

And then it brings up the question, who made this material? I bet its no nicer

You can collect material from charity stores

theOtherPamAyres I sew too and make my own simple patterns. one of the great joys in life.
You can do a lot with second hand/ charity shop stuff and a sewing machine. take things apart and remake them.

This is an area I'm a complete ignoramus about (and I don't buy clothes unless I absolutely must) but I found this video good and easy to follow. (She has a lot of other good short videos on the topic also.)

Those of you that sew your own (me too!), do you have any tips for sourcing reasonably ethical fabric? I suddenly realised the other day that the stuff I’m sewing with shares lots of the crap supply chain issues with RTW garments.