Stripped Bare Fashion Ethical fashion, nothing hidden
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This is exactly why we need to have labels on our clothing which tell us whether the people who made each garment worked in a safe environment and were paid a living wage:
On Fashion Revolution Day, the anniversary of the deaths of 1133 people in the now-notorious sweatshop, Rana Plaza, Labour MP Stella Creasy asked H&M, Topshop and M&S who made your clothes? H&M and Topshop chose to stay schtum. (If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, right guys??)
M&S took the other classic High Street fashion retailer approach and tried to get warm and fuzzy: All our clothing is made in factories that apply our strict ethical standards and we always label with the country of origin. Not just any old ethical standards, strict ones, no less! The only problem is that a few months ago, I also asked them about their ethical standards and spent quite some time reading through the documents they sent me in response. And although they were/ are quick to reassure consumers that they are fashion good guys, they don’t pay living wages or ensure safe working conditions. They told me so back in January. Amongst other things they said:
“Because our suppliers often have their own complex supply chains, it would be impossible for us to monitor or control the working conditions of each individual who contributes to what ultimately becomes a Marks & Spencer product.”
But getting back to the Twitter conversation on Fashion Revolution Day… there I am sitting at my computer seeing M&S crowing about their “strict ethical standards”, and remembering that they told me their supply chain is impossible to monitor… so, I piped up with my two bob’s worth: you told me via email that your supply chain was so complex it is “impossible to monitor”
At that point M&S chose to follow H&M and Topshop’s strategy. They went silent.
Stella Creasy asked: is that true m&s? Their answer? Yep, more silence.
Now, in 2019, it’s taken me ages to trawl through my documents and find that letter… my Tweet doesn’t seem to be there any more, the original article on Diamonds and Daisychains is long gone and the email I received from which I quote M&S as saying their supply chain is “impossible to monitor” has a broken link to the letter. BUT… I found an old screenshot, took a new screenshot, and here it is (bottom paragraph, first two lines):
And that, my friends is why we need clothing labels which clearly indicate whether workers all along the fashion supply chain are paid living wages and work in safe conditions: If fashion retailers were required to label their clothing in this way they couldn’t just go silent and not tell us how they make our clothes.
- Consumers deserve the right to tell quickly and easily, at the point of sale, if clothes were made in sweatshops.
- At present, fashion retailers are under no obligation to tell us how our clothes are made.
- We know from incidents like Tazreen and Rana Plaza that severe human rights abuses occur in our name when fashion retailers don’t have to be transparent about their supply chain.
We know more about the chickens that lay our eggs than the people who sew our clothes.
That’s not ok.
Originally published on diamondsanddaisychains.com
