Labour Behind The Label

The London 2012 Olympics provides a fantastic opportunity for pupils in the 9-14 age group to learn more about who makes the sportswear and sporting merchandise they buy.  Fair’s Fair brings alive the concepts of human rights, equality and fairness by telling stories of people who make these goods in poorer countries, often working with few rights, and for poverty wages.

This publication presents three case studies, alongside ideas of how to use them in fashion education, to illustrate different ways sustainability is being approached and interpreted in Bangladesh by diverse companies.

This item is available to download or to order.

To learn more about sweatshops in the garment industry, students can stage their own one-day sweatshop for charity, living through the experience of working in an exploitative garment factory in their own school, just for one day.

The students plan and lead their own project, deciding how to stage the one-day event, what product to manufacture, what rules to abide by (for example, 'no talking', 'no toilet breaks', which is common in the sweatshop world), and how to sell the product they have produced afterwards. All profits from this event go to Labour Behind the Label to support garment workers' struggles for better working conditions in the real world.

Fashion connects us to people across the world. Fashion students - the next generation of industry players - can have a role in transforming the industry so that in the future beautiful clothes are produced whilst respecting the rights of people and the planet.

This short film, which is available to watch online, introduces Fashioning an Ethical Industry and the work the project has been doing with fashion schools, colleges and universities to equip them with the tools and resources to teach their students about ethical issues. It features interviews with representatives from London College of Fashion, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Traid, Soil Association, Asia Floor Wage and Bangladeshi Garment Workers.

The film was shot in spring 2010 at Fast Forward, the project's international conference, held at the Rich Mix Arts Centre in London and Fashion Victims, an event held at University of the West of England for 14 - 18 years olds. You can learn more on the Fashioning an Ethical Industry website.

Edited by Liz Parker for Fashioning an Ethical Industry (UK) and Marsha A Dickson for Educators for Socially Responsible Apparel Business (USA). This item is available to download or to order.

Bring sustainability and ethics into your teaching and, by doing so, motivate students to consider the people and environment when making decisions in their future careers.  We have an opportunity to create a fashion industry we are proud of, and we hope this Handbook can contribute to the journey towards a sustainable industry.

Fashioning an Ethical Industry has produced a range of factsheets for students and tutors, providing case studies and background to the issues facing garment workers the world over. 

Click here to link to the full range of downloadable FEI factsheets.

Step Into Her Trainers is a teaching pack aimed at Fashion & Textiles related courses, Citizenship, and Geography, at KS4, A-level and BTEC. This pack has been produced for the Playfair 2012 campaign, calling for better conditions for workers in sportswear and merchandise factories worldwide in the lead up to the Olympics in London 2012.