Transparency in Fashion: Working Towards a Revolutionised Future

As international fashion weeks showing Autumn Winter 2025 collections wrapped up towards the beginning of March, conversations surrounding sustainability and ethical fashion once again seem to be drowned out by the excitement over this season’s hottest trends. Some of the biggest fashion brands appear to have lost interest in centring sustainable practices, and having more transparent conversations surrounding ethical production. 

Fashion Revolution Week

This is where Fashion Revolution Week comes in. Between Tuesday 22nd and Sunday 27th April, fashion activism organisation Fashion Revolution will be hosting events around the world to bring a global focus to a different way of creating fashion. From panel discussions, to Clothes Swaps, to Mend in Public days, there are so many ways to get involved and explore how a better fashion economy might look.

One of Fashion Revolution’s biggest goals is to push for greater transparency throughout the industry. They have been running campaigns calling on brands to make information about their practices, production, and suppliers publicly accessible in an effort to build a better picture of the global fashion system.

Y.O.U Underwear Manufacturing

From the very beginning, transparency was a fundamental principle at Y.O.U Underwear. When we first started looking into the production process for our pants, we made sure to be very thorough when finding manufacturing partners. It was crucial to work with manufacturers who make sure to take their staff and workers’ health and safety incredibly seriously. 

 We are now partnered with two manufacturers in India: Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills in Kolkata, and Connoisseur Fashions with factories in Chennai and Tiruppur in the state of Tamil Nadu. Both of these companies adhere to SA8000 standards.

SA8000 Certification

The SA8000 certification is a world leading social certification programme aimed at improving international working standards and providing a framework for organisations to conduct fair business. 

The certification covers basic measures of fair working practices including:

No child labour

No forced labour

Minimum wage compliance

Maximum working hours

Overtime compensation

Freedom of Association rights (allowing workers to belong to trade unions and the right to collective bargaining)

No discrimination based upon gender, sex, age, race, political opinion, religion.

The certification also encourages companies to promote continual improvement for workers and a socially positive environment.

Meeting the people behind the pants!

Our CEO and founder Sarah, has been able to visit the India based manufacturers a few times now and has been able to see the impact that better working standards and conditions has on the staff there. It has always been important to build strong relationships with our manufacturers and having the opportunity to visit and to meet people in person has been hugely helpful. 

We value the skills and expertise of the people making our products incredibly highly and exciting conversations about new product development always highlight to us the amount of work that goes into producing clothing.

This Fashion Revolution Week, we aim to highlight those people behind the pants! Every pair of undies that we sell has been cut, stitched, and quality checked by real people and it is so important to remember this in today's throwaway fashion culture.

We hope that you have been inspired by the work of Fashion Revolution, and maybe even want to get involved in one of their events. There are many brilliant campaigns working to bring greater equity to the fashion industry and lots of positive change has been made since the Rana Plaza disaster of 2013. We hope to be part of this change and to see more brands calling for a fashion revolution in the future!

 

To find out more about our India based manufacturers:

Join Sarah on her Travels around Southern India

Read Annabel's Guest Blog  for a behind the scenes peek at the factory

And check out Our Manufacturing page for more info on the process

 

Images courtesy of Y.O.U Underwear and Fashion Revolution