The only way to identify these apparel companies and advocate for accountability was to interview survivors and rummage through the rubble afterward to find brand labels.Ī system of corporate accountability that requires people to scramble on the ground for brand labels is the antithesis of “transparency.” Until these tragedies occurred, virtually no public information was available concerning apparel companies that were sourcing from the factories involved. These were the deadliest garment factory fires in nearly a century. In the year before the collapse, two factory fires-one in Pakistan’s Ali Enterprises factory and another in Bangladesh’s Tazreen Fashions factory-killed more than 350 workers and left many others with serious disabilities. The Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh on Apkilled over 1,100 garment workers and injured more than 2,000.
©2013 Jeff Holt/Bloomberg via Getty Images Such transparency is a powerful tool for promoting corporate accountability for garment workers’ rights in global supply chains.Ī man removes clothing bearing a brand label from the devastated area of the collapsed Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Friday, April 26, 2013. There is a growing trend of global apparel companies adopting supply chain transparency -starting with publishing the names, addresses, and other important information about factories manufacturing their branded products. A T-shirt label might say “Made in China,” but in which of the country’s thousands of factories was this garment made? And under what conditions for workers?
When global supply chains are opaque, consumers often lack meaningful information about where their apparel was made. Factory workers in Bangladesh or Romania could have made clothes only weeks ago that consumers elsewhere are eagerly picking up. They are cut and stitched in factories in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, or other regions. Clothes and shoes sold in stores in the US, Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world typically travel across the globe. The garment and footwear industry stretches around the world.
Please refer to Annexes I and II for the most recently updated information about companies. Annexes I and II of Fashion’s Next Trend will be periodically updated. Since Follow the Thread was published in April 2017, there has been a significant increase in the number of companies that have published names, addresses, and other details of their tier-1 supplier factories. Building on our previous efforts, Fashion’s Next Trend takes stock of supply chain transparency as of late 2019, updates information from the 2017 report, provides an overview of positive new developments in the industry, and makes additional recommendations aimed at improving apparel companies’ due diligence practices on human rights. In December 2019, Human Rights Watch published a follow-up report to Follow the Thread titled Fashion's Next Trend.
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