Fashion Revolution, the world’s largest fashion activism movement, announces the dates for Fashion Revolution week 2024, which will also mark the organisation’s 10th anniversary
The campaign will mark a decade of active campaigning, with ten days of action running from April 15th to April 24th, 2024, while encompassing a wide range of locally-driven activities across the globe. The theme for the 2024 campaign is centred around ”How to Be a Fashion Revolutionary.”
Inspired by the work of their global community over the last decade, this theme will explore what it means to be part of the revolution, fashion’s role in driving social and environmental justice, and redefine what fashion activism looks like for the future. The campaign will hear from community builders, creative thinkers, and organisers to guide the next generation of fashion revolutionaries.
The organisation is reaching a tipping point, both in the context of the climate crisis and in witnessing industry transformation. Over the last ten years, they have seen sustainability enter the mainstream, with more people than ever thinking about the impact of their clothes.
They have similarly seen this demonstrated within the Fashion Revolution community, which has grown threefold in the last five years. This cultural shift is also supported by a wave of incoming legislation across the EU and the USA that aims to finally regulate the fashion industry. For a long time, fashion was considered frivolous, which is why the industry has remained largely unregulated compared to other sectors and change has been incredibly slow.
However, it is thanks to greater pressure from citizens, NGOs, and trade unions that policymakers are finally paying attention and trying to create legislation to address human rights and environmental issues in the sector. It is thanks to this global awakening, with the help of movements like the Fashion Revolution, that the fashion-loving community is finally seeing this shift.
The organisation’s annual Fashion Transparency Index has also helped to drive change by promoting transparency within the industry, with brands evidencing progressive increases in their scores year-on-year since 2017. Finally, more than half (52%) of 250 major brands reviewed are disclosing their first-tier supplier lists, a promising shift compared to 32 out of 100 brands (32%) in the first edition of the Index.
But even with these promising advances, systemic change is still too slow. The lack of progress in the face of an accelerating climate crisis, deepening social inequality, and environmental destruction is concerning.
The people who make our clothes remain trapped in poverty, while fossil fuels still power much of the supply chain and plastic fibres are widespread. Overproduction and consumption are causing a waste crisis that is crippling communities in the Global South and polluting environments around the world.
Over the next ten years, Fashion Revolution will be focusing on the intersections of these crucial areas to revolutionise the fashion industry: paying workers a living wage would help to slow down production, as brands are forced to assume the real cost of labour, which would in turn reduce overproduction and address the root cause of waste colonialism. By working towards gender and racial equality, the industry could uplift marginalised voices and help guide the organisation’s responses to the climate crisis.
Despite the growing understanding of sustainability, too many citizens remain unaware of the human and environmental problems within the global fashion industry, specifically its links to gender, race, and climate change, and their personal connection to them.
Public misconceptions around what fashion activism looks like can be discouraging, while a knowledge and skills gap prevents citizens from taking action to positively change the global fashion industry.
Fashion Revolution Week 2024 will change this. Through interactive workshops and knowledge sharing, it will equip a new generation of fashion revolutionaries with valuable skills in communication, community building, advocacy, and education.
Towards the end of the week, their entire community will come together for the first Mend in Public Day on April 20, 2024, a truly global day of action designed as an accessible form of activism to rebel against the disposable mindset of our current fashion industry.
“The story of Fashion Revolution is one of community. Over the last ten years, our grassroots movement has grown into a fully fledged global network across 75 countries and counting. Together, we have brought the people who make our clothes to the forefront of the conversation, pushed for greater industry transparency, and mobilised countless citizens and policymakers to take action.
”In the lead up to Fashion Revolution Week 2024, we will look back to look forward and invite Fashion Revolutionaries, new and old, to get involved with our next ten years of fashion activism, guided by the learnings from the last decade,” said Rudo Nondo, Acting Managing Director, Fashion Revolution CIC.
The Fashion Revolution believes everyone has a part to play in building a fashion industry that puts people and the planet first, from leading rallies and designing posters to teaching skills and raising funds. When we take individual action together, we harness the power of the collective to amplify unheard voices, engage new revolutionaries, and help drive systemic change.
For more information, visit FashionRevolution.org.
