Your clothes already tell a story about who you are. Now they can tell a better one.

The global fashion industry is coming together to highlight the challenges of the fashion supply chain, from exploitation to pollution, with the inaugural Fashion Revolution Day on the 24th April 2014, when a series of global events and initiatives will highlight the fashion industry’s most pressing issues and engage local communities to demand greater transparency throughout.

On April 24th last year, 1133 people were killed when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Many more were injured.

The textile industry is widely regarded as a major contributor to global pollution but, according to research by Deloitte, 2 in 3 fashion companies are not focused on engaging consumers with regard to sustainability. According to the Australian Fashion Report in 2013[1], 61% of companies surveyed didn’t know where their garments were made.

Fashion Revolution Day says enough is enough.

Fashion is a force to be reckoned with. It inspires, provokes, leads and entertains. And, from April 2014, it’s going to do even more. Because we’re turning fashion into a force for good.

With one simple question: ‘Who Made Your Clothes?’ we’re asking everyone who’s taking part in Fashion Revolution Day to be curious, find out, do something about it, by wearing an item of clothing inside out, photographing it and then sharing it with the hashtag #insideout on all social networks.

That way, people all over the world – designers and icons, high street shops and high couture, cotton farmers and factory workers, campaigners, academics, the media and any individual who cares about what they wear – can come together to demand greater transparency.

There will be events and activities from Somerset House to the House of Lords and all around the UK catwalks and panels discussions, film screenings and knitting evenings, quiz nights and gatherings. Global events will include a mass catwalk in the centre of Barcelona; a workshop in Nepal on how to clean up waste water from dye houses; a fashion show in Bangladesh with producers wearing the clothes they make; a touring exhibition in Swaziland documenting the lives of local artisans and fashion boutiques the world over will turn their window displays #insideout to show their involvement.

Supported by some of the biggest names in ethical fashion, including activist Bianca Jagger and journalists Lucy Siegle and Tamsin Blanchard, Fashion Revolution Day marks the anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh, but represents much more than that, as this is only the beginning of a long journey of transformation.

Over 20 celebrities, including eco-fashion icon and Fashion Revolution Day Board member Livia Firth, retail expert and broadcaster Mary Portas and television and entrepreneur Jo Wood, have already lent their support to the campaign by being photographed with their t-shirt insideout by iconic British portrait photographer Trevor Leighton.

As well as the multitude of global events to mark the day, there will be a series of global ‘social media takeovers’ hosted at @Fash_Rev. These are scheduled events, held on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to allow like_minded people to connect and discuss a topic of choice. Subjects for discussion will include how to revamp unworn clothes, first hand accounts of life for workers in factories that supply our best_known retailers, Twitter Q&As from organisations such as Greenpeace and Fairtrade Foundation and Centre For Sustainable Fashion, as well as Facebook mini blogs from Fashion Revolution board members and supporters.

“The idea for Fashion Revolution Day came to me in the bath,” said Founder of Fashion Revolution and ethical fashion pioneer, Cary Somers. “I saw that the Rana Plaza disaster could act as a catalyst, with the heightened awareness around ethical fashion providing a window to bring about real change. Fashion Revolution Day represents an exciting opportunity to reconnect fashion_lovers with the people who made their clothes.”

“Fashion Revolution Day promises to be one of the very few truly global campaigns to emerge this century” says Baroness Young of Hornsey who set up the All_Party Parliamentary Group on Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion.

Co-founder Orsola de Castro says: “With one simple gesture, #insideout, we want you to ask: ‘Who Made Your Clothes?’ this action will encourage people to imagine the ‘thread’ from the garment to the machinist that sewed it and all the way down to the farmer that grew the cotton it was made from. We hope that Fashion Revolution Day will initiate a process of discovery, raising awareness of the fact that buying is only the last step in a long journey involving hundreds of people: the invisible workforce behind the clothes we wear”.

Find out more at www.fashionrevolution.org. Like Fashion Revolution on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fashionrevolution.org and follow @Fash_Rev on Twitter.

For more photos, information or to arrange an interview please contact:
• Martine Parry _ martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk
• Jen Harris – jen@kaper.uk.com _ +44 (0)203 301 2210
• Lisa Shetabi – Lisa@kaper.uk.com
How to support Fashion Revolution Day:
• On the 24th April, wear an item of clothing inside out
• Photograph yourself in it
• Ask the brand Who Made Your Clothes?
• Share the picture on social media with the hashtag #insideout.

About Fashion Revolution:
Fashion Revolution is composed of key figures from the fashion industry and beyond: industry leaders; press; campaigners; consultants; representatives from charities and campaign organisations; academics and more. With a wide range of expertise, the Fashion Revolution Advisory Committee will work to ensure that this day becomes a significant, annual global event. We have country co-ordinators in over 50 countries who will be participating in the first Fashion Revolution Day on 24 April 2014.

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