What Is Fashion Revolution And The Transparency Index? — I Knock Fashion

Almost five years ago, a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed in the middle of a workday, killing over 1000 workers and injuring more than 2,500 others. The workers who perished in the worst tragedy of the world’s garment industry were making the clothes that we buy, from western retailers such as Benetton, Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Inditex (the parent company of Zara) and more, according to the Clean Clothes Campaign.

Igniting a long overdue call-to-arms by a concerned group of educators, designers, academics, writers, business leaders, policymakers, brands, retailers, marketers, producers, makers, workers and fashion lovers, FASHION REVOLUTION was created as a global movement that runs all year long, to commemorate those lives lost, while promoting a conversation around supply chain transparency.

Their mission is to unite people and organizations to work together towards radically changing the way our clothes are sourced, produced and consumed, so that our clothing is made in a safe, clean and fair way. They believe that collaborating across the whole value chain — from farmer to consumer — is the only way to transform the industry.

Three years after it’s inception, Fashion Revolution Day i.e. 24th April has become Fashion Revolution Week and thousand of consumers from across the world ask brands, #WhoMadeMyClothes as part of a global social media campaign.

Fashion Revolution is generously funded by private foundations, institutional grants, commercial organizations and donations from individuals. They follow strict and transparent guidelines about the funds they receive, thereby believing in a collaborative and inclusive approach where others are genuinely working towards a fair, safer, cleaner and more transparent clothing industry with positive outcomes for both the people and our planet. Here are a couple of organizations that came forward to support them: British Council, Bond, C&A Foundation, European Union, Concord Alliance, Avery Dennison, Instituto C&A, European Commission, AEG/Electrolux etc.

They’re currently funded by the C&A Foundation for core activities as well as special projects such as the Fashion Transparency Index.

Transparency is the first step to transform the industry. And it starts with one simple question: Who made my clothes?

This simple question gets people thinking differently about what they wear. It is needed to know that the questions raised, our voices, and our shopping habits can have the power to help change things for the better. With more citizens encouraging brands to answer ‘who made my clothes?’ Fashion Revolution has the power to push the industry to become more transparent.

Currently, The Fashion Transparency Index 2019 reviews and ranks 200 of the biggest global fashions, apparel brands and retailers according to how much information they disclose about their suppliers, supply chain policies and practices, and social and environmental impact.

Brands and retailers are assessed across five key areas:

• Policy & Commitments
• Governance
• Traceability
• Know, Show & Fix
• Spotlight Issues

The results weren’t altogether surprising: the average score for all 200 brands and retailers was 21% out of 250 possible points, proving that there is still a lot of work to be done.

However, it is observed that brands and retailers are making moves towards greater transparency.

Out of the 150 brands and retailers they reviewed in 2018, they have seen a 5% average increase in their level of transparency this year and the 98 brands that have been reviewed in the Index since 2017 there has been an increase of almost 9% in their average scores.

The highest scoring brands this year are Adidas, Reebok and Patagonia, who each score 64% of the 250 possible points.

No major brands score above 70%. Although, last year no brands scored above 60% and no brands above 50% in 2017.

At the highest score of 64% this year, it shows that even leading brands and retailers still have significant room for improvement when it comes to sharing their social and environmental policies, practices and impacts with their customers and stakeholders.

The good news is that more brands and retailers are opening up about their suppliers than they were three years ago.This progress is encouraging, but there is still so much we don’t know about the people who make our clothes, from farm to retail.

I Knock Fashion supports that the whole fashion industry needs a radical paradigm shift and that the way we produce, sell, consume and dispose of clothes, needs to be holistically transformed. Transparency helps to reveal the structures of fashion industry so we can better understand how to change this system in a fundamental, long-lasting and positive way.

So, what does this tell you? You have the power to change an industry that so desperately needs to be revolutionized

Originally published at https://iknockfashion.com on June 12, 2019.