Fashion Revolution Day has arrived. It’s exactly one year since Rana Plaza collapsed in Bangladesh killing 1133 workers, injuring many others, and exposing unpleasant truths about cheap, unethical and exploitative clothing.

We’re fussy about what we wear because we want to look good, feel comfy, reflect an image, belong to our tribe. Wearing any old thing is rarely enough. We want to make a statement.

Fashion Revolution Day is a chance to wear your heart on your sleeve, think about what you’re wearing, show your labels, ask the brand who made it, reflect on whether it is an ethical and sustainable choice.

Clothing the world soaks up massive resources when you do the sums – 7.2 billion people each (on average) consuming 11 kg of apparel fibre (ie clothing) every year. Look at this graph below and you’ll see how consumption is rising, with the growth mainly in synthetic fibres made from petroleum. source document 

I’m going off-trend on the fringe this year doing slow fashion, immersing in resewing and refashioning old stuff as a statement against mindless consumption of new stuff. Here’s my On the Textile Beat April e-news.

During a recent wardrobe clean out, husband Darcy had three pair of reject (now too big!) jeans. There’s no point sending them to op-shop because they can’t even give this stuff away. Together the jeans represented 1.5kg of durable cotton with lots of interesting features and plenty of wear left in them.

Yesterday I used 3.5 legs to create a wrap skirt for Sew 113. That left 2.5 legs (six in total) and three body-widths from the waist which now make up Sew 114. With the legs chopped off, I cut out the back seams and laid the waist panels alongside each other and pinned together. A curved one-shoulder look emerged. I added a piece from one leg to join front to back at the right shoulder. Then I pinned (former) leg panels to link the front and back of the pini together. The overlapped seams were just stitched together with zigzag stitch, and the raw edges neatened with zigzag. It’s random, offbeat, reuses existing clothing and appropriate for the fashion revolution happening around the world today. #insideout