Fashion Revolution Day. Who Made Your Clothes?

By Tim Wilson

Fashion Revolution Day takes place this Thursday (24th April 2014), highlighting the challenges of the fashion supply chain, from exploitation to pollution, by encouraging consumers to ask “Who made your clothes?” #insideout

Historic Futures supports Fashion Revolution Day, and is one of the few organisations that offers a solution to the challenge of value chain mapping. Its world-leading ‘String’ technology makes it possible for companies to know the precise history of the products they sell - all the way from primary production to finished product - and then verify the claims they make. Founder and CEO, Tim Wilson said,

_“Fashion Revolution Day will help to raise some hugely significant questions about the traceability of the clothes we wear. We hope it will persuade consumers to demand more information about these products, so that the task of mapping value chains becomes something that retailers no longer see as an option but as an obligation. It’s not that retailers are hiding information about where their garments come from; very often companies just don’t know who is in their supply chain beyond their immediate suppliers. However, disasters like Rana Plaza in Bangladesh prove this no longer good enough, and companies now need to know more about their supply chains. Not only where their garments are made and by whom, but where the materials come from, and how these are made. _

“We have worked with some of the UK’s leading brands and retailers and proven that obtaining and maintaining this information is possible. However most businesses are wary of taking on this responsibility because it is a huge undertaking, and many have concerns about sharing details about their supply chains.

_“Fashion Revolution Day is the perfect opportunity to show that confidentiality need not be a barrier. Retailers need to recognise that while all information about a value chain needs to be collected to enable traceability, competitively sensitive data can be protected. _

_“When it comes to greater traceability and accountability in the fashion industry things are gradually improving, but slowly. There is a lot of talk about QR codes and apps which aim to give consumers information about who made the garment they purchased or grew the cotton that went into it, but the data needs to flow through the value chain to get these answers, and very few companies have that level of data about their supply chains, yet.” _

Historic Futures Ltd, 22nd April 2014.