Last Updated on: 22nd November 2023, 01:24 pm
Lawsuit Apparel, a Manchester-based clothing brand, has created a one-of-a-kind jumpsuit to give voice to overseas garment workers whose pleas for help have gone unheard in the exploitative fast fashion industry.
In 2014, shoppers in South Wales discovered mysterious labels sewn into the necklines of their clothes from fast fashion outlets. The labels featured statements such as “Forced to Work Exhausting Hours” and “Degrading Sweatshop Conditions”, which were assumed to have been stitched in by protesters in the UK.
However, last year these labels resurfaced on social media, accompanied by claims that they were sewn into clothes from online fast-fashion retailers. Fast-fashion giants denied the claims, yet the appalling treatment of garment workers, 80% of whom are women, remains an issue. These workers are paid poverty wages, earning as little as £68 a month, and are subjected to long hours, forced overtime, unsafe working conditions, sexual, physical and verbal abuse, and short-term contracts.
Lawsuit have now taken up the challenge of helping and supporting female factory workers, creating a bespoke piece of “workwear couture”. The one-off jumpsuit features 500 “worker SOS labels”, stitched into the front-mid panels, and will be auctioned to raise money for organisations campaigning to improve the lives of overseas garment workers.
Lawsuit Creative Director, Keith Gray, said: “The problem with the original protests was that nobody knew exactly who’d created these labels, that were intended to give a voice to women making clothes in appalling conditions. So instead of focussing on the real issue, the debate became focussed on who’d made the labels, instead of the issues they were drawing attention to. But this time there can be no doubt who created these labels of protest, it was Lawsuit. The jumpsuit is intended as a piece of art, which aims to provoke questions about the treatment of workers in the fast fashion industry, rather than who made the labels.”
Lawsuit Apparel, a Manchester-based clothing brand, has created a one-of-a-kind jumpsuit to shine a light on the exploitative practices in the fast fashion industry, where garment workers, 80% of whom are women, are paid poverty wages and subjected to long hours, forced overtime, unsafe working conditions, sexual, physical and verbal abuse, and short-term contracts.
The jumpsuit features 500 “worker SOS labels”, stitched into the front-mid panels, and will be auctioned to raise money for organisations campaigning to improve the lives of overseas garment workers.
Lawsuit Creative Director, Keith Gray, commented: “The problem with the original protests was that nobody knew exactly who’d created these labels, that were intended to give a voice to women making clothes in appalling conditions. So instead of focussing on the real issue, the debate became focussed on who’d made the labels, instead of the issues they were drawing attention to. But this time there can be no doubt who created these labels of protest, it was Lawsuit. The jumpsuit is intended as a piece of art, which aims to provoke questions about the treatment of workers in the fast fashion industry, rather than who made the labels.”
Lawsuit Apparel hopes to use this jumpsuit to help and support female factory workers, and draw attention to the sweatshop working conditions in Bangladesh and beyond. The auction of the one-off jumpsuit will help to raise funds for organisations campaigning to improve the lives of overseas garment workers.
