Anyone can revolutionize moda. Me, you, all of us who seek decent work, better living conditions, respect for the environment and animals. THE advocacy – an important social tool for formulating and pushing for public policies – is one of these ways. And the fashion industry needs to be revolutionized, because if we continue producing and consuming at the current rate, the climate impact of fashion will will increase 49% until 2030.
O Fashion Revolution This is what it proposes: through research, education and advocacy, the movement encourages the search for more transparency and responsibility in the fashion industry. We are talking about an industry that, in Brazil alone, is the 2nd largest employer in the manufacturing industry (ABIT), containing a workforce of 1.33 million formal employees (IEMI 2023), with an additional 8 million, referring to indirect jobs. and income effect – of which 60% are women.
Still, the fashion industry conventional works under the logic of exploiting work, natural resources and knowledge of historically marginalized people. For example, the various cases of contemporary slavery in sewing trades, the impact of deforestation in the Cerrado due to cotton monoculturethe contribution of synthetic fiber clothing, derived from oil, to plastic pollution in the oceans.
Fashion needs structural changes and advocacy is a tool for its consolidation. Given this maximum, Fashion Revolution Brasil added four new indicators in the Brazil Fashion Transparency Index 2023 (ITMB23), the first being to find out whether brands disclose the average net monthly salary of workers at the installation’s entry-level level, excluding overtime. “This indicator seeks to contribute, from Brazilian brands, to the advocacy of the Fashion Revolution in the European Union for a proposal for legislation on fair wages in the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sector, the Good Clothes, Fair Pay”, points out the report.
Here, as the report highlights Women in Clothing“as a result of the outsourcing and quartering process within the fashion chain, 98% of national production is carried out by micro and small companies, focusing on a cheap product with low added value”. The relaxation of Brazilian labor laws and the increase in formalization via MEI brought more benefits to employers – states the document – who are not willing to guarantee better working conditions for their workers.
The search for better working conditions for industry workers through advocacy is a constant struggle for organizations such as Fever Institute, CNTVCUT, March of the Daisies.
Systemic changes
When present in COP28o Fashion Revolution Brasil joined the organizations Eco Age, Stand.Earth, Actoion Speaks Louder and Transformers Foundation to demand commitment from the fashion industry to combat climate change – and with solutions already present in the environment. One of them was the end of the use of fossil fuels in supply chains. It is not only present in the production of synthetic fibers, but also in the use of energy and transportation by suppliers.
The demands are that brands act in favor of decarbonization, publishing plans on how they would cut oil from their fibers, the annual emissions from the supply chain and the mix of fuels by country, among others. In times of debate about the Global Plastics Treatythese demands need support from all sides, as it is essential to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint.
Another point, which affects Brazilian legislation more directly, is about waste, which, as we have already said, is not even correctly quantified in the country. Textile waste is still outside the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS), a law that determines how the country deals with its waste.
There are attempts, such as PL 270/22which creates a national reverse logistics system for different types of textile waste, by Nereu Crispim (PSL-RS), which has been stuck at the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission since April 2022. Already at Alesp is the PL 610/2023which Establishes the State Policy for Payment for Environmental Services for recyclers.
Fashion in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is fashion that is concerned with sustainability in all its production links, which is why Fashion Revolution Brasil participates in campaigns Fashion Without Poison and Hemp is Revolution – advocacy actions that seek to encourage debates about more sustainable fibers and the end of the use of pesticides in the countryside.
It is possible for the fashion industry to undergo systemic change that tackles poverty, inequalities and environmental degradation, but to achieve this we also need to change legislation. Brands and retailers need to be held accountable for environmental abuses and human rights violations throughout their supply chains. We can all revolutionize fashion – you too can participate in this transformation with Fashion Revolution Brasil.
