Who made your clothes and why is it important

Varusteleka wants to be on the side of the good guys in all our functions. Therefore, when we heard in 2020 about the Fashion Revolution Week that demands a fairer and safer clothing industry, we jumped right in. And we participate also in 2023.

2023 - Our Part

Right now we are in the middle of a big change regarding the delivery chain thanks to our MEGA project, which we will open up a bit later this week. Thus, this year we will talk about our own brands and their changes and delve deeper into our own design process. Check back every other day to see the latest article!

• One Time at Varusteleka Brand Camp
• Behind the Scenes: Varusteleka Design Process

The highlights of 2022

We still found some of our partners to introduce - and certainly not the smallest one we thought of last.

• Who Made Your Clothes, part 14: DD Hammocks
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 13: Ozra Textiles Company
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 12: Savotta

Who makes your clothes in 2021?

Just like last year, we will publish articles on some of our partners during the Fashion Revolution Week, which this year is on April 19–25. This year, we introduced four companies that make your clothes and accessories:

• Who Made Your Clothes, part 11: Top-Knit
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 10: MD-Textil
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 9: Kolmituote
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 8: Omniteksas

These people made your clothes in 2020

In 2020, we published seven articles on April 20–26 about folks who make your clothes and accessories.

• Who Made Your Clothes, Part 7: Utenos
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 6: Sukkamestarit
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 5: Jämä
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 4, Laurin Metalli
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 3: Zhenpu
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 2: M.A.S.I Company
• Who Made Your Clothes, part 1: Agtuvi

What is this thing anyway?

This global fashion movement got its start when the Rana Plaza building collapsed in Bangladesh in 2013. Working conditions were appalling and people were forced to go to work even though the sweatshop was clearly falling apart. This criminal fuckery caused the death of 1,138 clothes makers and injured 2,500 more.

This disaster got Orsola de Castro and Carry Somers from England thinking that the whole industry needs a major shake, rattle, and roll. Thus was born the Fashion Revolution, the organization behind this movement.

This campaign wants to unite everyone in the fashion industry to change the way clothes are sourced, produced, and consumed. This all culminates in Fashion Revolution Week. The goal is to encourage millions of people to demand systemic change.

Brands and retailers need to pay their factory workers enough and improve the working conditions. They also need to reduce their environmental impacts. In other words, we need to value people and the environment more than profit or this whole thing will blow up pretty soon.

Why did Varusteleka join this revolution?

A business where huge brands pay factory workers almost nothing, plan their taxes to extinction, pollute this planet to death, and keep hoarding more and more for themselves is simply fucked up. And we want to show them that this doesn’t cut it anymore.

We want our activities to cause more good than bad. And we put a lot of effort into finding partners that share our values. We also keep monitoring that things stay as they should or we’ll find a new partner. This is part of our normal everyday business.

With this campaign, we wanted to show others how we do things and that you can do very well on the Light side, too. Maybe it will inspire others to join the good guys. During this Fashion Revolution Week, we publish a series of articles on the fantastic gang that makes your clothes and accessories.

How can we all join this fight?

Nobody should be forced to work in shitty conditions. However, as long as brands put profit before people, this exploitation will continue. Here we need everybody’s help. The easiest way to force them to change is to buy from companies that work ethically and transparently. This campaign will reveal those quite well. The others will become smarter too when they have to.

You can start by contacting your favorite brands and asking them this question: #whomademyclothes.