Craftivist Collective current project is in support of War on Want’s Love Fashion Hate Sweatshops campaign, in the lead up to London Fashion Week (Sept 2013). The project makes a stand against sweatshops and other human rights abuses in the fashion industry using mini cross stitch protest banners.
With the hope to make people think about the side of the fashion that is often too easily dismissed by the industry, in a non-threatening but challenging way. Craftvists are urged to take a photo of their protest art in situ, with the aim of creating an exhibition of these photographs at the Knitting and Stitching Show’s Upcycling Academy in London in October. Craft author Perri Lewis, bloggers such as Tilly & the Buttons, Mr X Stitch and a number of key WI groups including Shoreditch Sisters and Manchester WI, have already pledged their support amongst others. The launch comes just a few months after the tragic deaths of more than 1,000 garment workers in a factory collapse in Bangladesh.We love the beauty and creativity that comes from fashion.
“We love the fact that we can express ourselves through clothes and feel confident in what wear. But there is an ugly unethical side of most of the fashion industry we shouldn’t ignore especially because as consumers & global citizens we have a lot of power over the shops that produce the clothes that we wear. As buyers of clothes on the high street, we have the power to put pressure on those brands to change their practices and stop putting profit before wages and welfare.The Bangladesh factory disaster must surely stir us to say that we won’t stand for sweatshop exploitation existing in the 21st Century. It’s wrong to think that we don’t have any power to change this ugly side of fashion. Please join us in celebrating our love of fashion and fighting for an industry without any ugly side, with no sweatshops. Wouldn’t it be brilliant if LFW 2014 was a show of only exploitation-free clothes? Let’s fight together for that reality one stitch at a time!
Craftivist Collective