The quiz is a good opportunity to playfully deal with the topic of fashion & human rights and to get into conversation with each other about it. It is about the dark side of the fashion industry, working conditions of textile and shoe workers and the struggle for work in dignity. It also looks at what a supply chain law is all about and why it is so important. No prior knowledge is required.
Recherchetool für Materialien
Research Tool for Materials
The materials database contains media on our key topics of working conditions in the textile and clothing industry and the environmental impact of clothing. The types of media include studies, guidelines and reports, as well as films, podcasts and web tools.
No living wages, overtime and gender discrimination. The ‘Light in the Dark: A Look at Exploitation in the Fashion Industry’ report of the Clean Clothes Campaign highlights the need for a supply chain law.
The report uses the latest data from the online tool FashionChecker to show how little German fashion companies really pay their workers: The company survey shows that not a single company pays a living wage to all workers in its supply chain. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the situation for workers due to wage losses and job losses, as countless brand companies have cancelled orders and demanded discounts from suppliers.
In the report, the Clean Clothes Campaign brings together results from company surveys and field research in producing countries in 2019 and 2020: 108 brand and retail companies from 14 countries received questionnaires, 490 workers from China, India, Indonesia, Ukraine and Croatia gave interviews and showed their pay slips.
H&M, Zara, Primark and Co. promise us stylish clothes for little money. But producing new trends and current fashion so cheaply is only possible if people and the environment suffer as a result. In the fashion industry, this includes poor working conditions. This has been known for years - and so far little has been done to curb "fast fashion". Germany now has the Supply Chain Act, which obliges manufacturers to ensure good working conditions in their factories. In our episode Pancake Politik Vreni from the blog Fashion Changers explains where exactly the problems in the textile factories are (02:54). We then ask Eva from the Supply Chain Act initiative whether they are satisfied with the government's work and whether the law goes far enough (10:43). She has been fighting for such a law for years. We ask SWR Capital Studio reporter Kilian Pfeffer (17:02) why this took so long and whether the supply chain law will also have the desired effect in the end.
Secondhand, vintage, pre-owned – or simply used clothes. The business with old clothes is booming, because sustainability and recycling are in trend. Market analyses (ThredUp Resale Report 2019) confirm that the second-hand market has grown 21 times faster than the rest of the fashion trade in recent years.
Large online fashion retailers such as Zalando and About You now want to get away with the ‘eco hype’. With their own apps, they offer their customers to sell their old clothes. Sounds sustainable, but is it? Y-Kollektiv reporter Frederik Fleig took out his closet and tried out Zalando’s second-hand app ‘Zircle’.
An inspiring Weltspiegel report on new design strategies for used clothing:
She is working on a fashion revolution: Swedish designer and scientist Anna Lidström says the world doesn't need a single new piece of clothing anymore. It is committed to keeping existing garments alive for as long as possible.
At the School of Textiles in Borås in southern Sweden, Anna is developing methods for companies to bring unsold and sorted goods back into a commercial cycle.