Fashion Revolution Day 2025:
Mending Sustainable Fashion & #WhoMadeMyClothes

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Fashion Revolution Day—also known as Fashion Revolution Week in its extended form—falls each year on April 24, marking the anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which claimed more than 1,100 lives and left thousands injured [1,2]. Founded in 2014 by UK designers Carry Somers and Orsola de Castro, the movement challenges brands and consumers to ask “Who made my clothes?” and demands transparency, ethics, and systemic reform across fashion supply chains [2,3].

Evolution into a Global Week of Action

By 2016, Fashion Revolution had expanded to a full week of events—Fashion Revolution Week—with themes such as #LovedClothesLast (promoting garment longevity) and #IMadeYourClothes (giving voice to producers) [4]. In 2025, the week (April 22–27) will unite over 2,000 events in 80 countries under the banner “Think Globally, Act Locally” [4]. Activities range from pop-up exhibitions and panel discussions to repair workshops and mass “Who Made My Clothes?” photo stunts, all designed to hold brands accountable and educate consumers [4].

Milestones: From Teach‑Ins to Environmental LawMilestones and Measurable Impact

• Social Reach: Over 860,000 self-identified “Fashion Revolutionaries” follow the movement online, and during Fashion Revolution Week 2023 it reached 5.8 million on social media and nearly 5 million through press coverage [5].
• Brand Transparency: The 2023 Fashion Transparency Index (which evaluates 250 major brands) found that only 52% now disclose their first-tier suppliers—a meaningful rise from 32% in 2017—yet the industry’s average score remains a meager 26% [6].
• Consumer Shifts: A recent survey revealed that 19% of consumers attempted to buy clothing made responsibly, 14% chose second-hand over new, and just 31% sought durable designs in the past year, compared with 39% who chased sales discounts [7].

How Fashion Revolution Day Transformed Luxury Brands

Fashion Revolution Day’s unrelenting spotlight on supply-chain transparency has forced even the most secretive brands into the open. Parliamentary round-tables in the UK House of Lords and other national assemblies have reframed sustainable fashion as a legislative imperative [8], placing garment workers’ rights and environmental protection squarely on policymakers’ agendas.

Luxury powerhouses such as Gucci and Prada—once notorious for opacity—now rank first and second on The Global Transparency Index, proof that public scrutiny and high visibility can compel real disclosure [9]. Meanwhile, free educational programs and interactive toolkits have proliferated in schools and universities worldwide, nurturing the next generation of conscious consumers.

Extending Garment Lifespan

The tide of transparency is measurable. In 2016, only five brands published full lists of their first-tier manufacturers. By 2023, that number had soared to 118, reflecting a seismic shift in corporate willingness to expose how and where clothes are made [10]. Yet the scale of production continues to balloon: approximately 150 billion new garments were manufactured in 2015, fueling a consumption-and-dump cycle that shows no sign of slowing [11].

Encouragingly, research demonstrates that extending the active life of a single garment by just nine months can shrink its environmental footprint by 20–30%, underscoring how small behavior changes can yield outsized benefits [11].

Garment Lifecycle Assessment. 
Payne A. The life-cycle of the fashion garment and the role of Australian mass market designers. Int J Environ Cult Econ Soc Sustain. 2011;7(3):–. doi:10.18848/1832-2077/CGP/v07i03/54938.

Social Media Accountability

Each year, a suite of flagship events around Fashion Revolution Day draws global participation. Mend In Public Day, held on April 26, 2025, saw communities in over 50 countries convene on street corners and in living rooms to stitch up holes—both in clothing and in the industry’s reputation for overproduction [10].

Simultaneously, workshops and exhibitions—from in-person darning circles to live-streamed panel discussions—offer hands-on skill building and hard data on sustainable materials [10]. Downloadable policy toolkits empower citizens to lobby local and national representatives for fairer legislation, while social-media blitzes with hashtags like #WhoMadeMyClothes and #WhoMadeMyFabric sustains online brand accountability long after the day has passed [2,10].

Meet Your Reps for Supply Chain Reform

Looking forward, the movement is pivoting from awareness to action. Advocacy campaigns currently target EU regulatory rollbacks that threaten the livelihoods of millions of garment workers, ensuring that human rights remain non-negotiable [10].

The movement’s ten-point manifesto—covering living wages, biodiversity protection, and waste-management reforms—serves as both a roadmap and rallying cry for activists and executives alike [9]. In 2025, local chapters will intensify community mobilization, urging members to meet their representatives and demand binding commitments on supply-chain decarbonization and circularity [9,10].

From Pineapple Fibers to Policy

Corporate pledges born on Fashion Revolution Day have real weight: India’s Project SU.RE, for instance, united 16 brands representing USD 6 billion in annual sales behind targets for water reduction, waste elimination, and social accountability [12].

The global resale market—which many analysts trace to the shift in consumer consciousness around Sustainable Fashion Day—now forecasts USD 900 million in annual turnover by 2035 [13,14], signaling a rapidly growing appetite for second-hand wardrobes. On the policy front, the European Union’s 2022 Textile Strategy enshrined a 65% recycling target for all textile waste by 2030 [15], a direct outcome of relentless advocacy at Sustainable Fashion Day forums across Brussels and Strasbourg [16]. Finally, material innovation has accelerated: alternatives like pineapple, nettle, and banana fibers—first showcased at ethical fashion showcases—have entered commercial pilot programs, trimming reliance on virgin cotton by an estimated 5% in early adopter markets [13].

The Future: From Awareness to Systems Change

Fashion Revolution Day has proven that individual actions and viral hashtags can ignite conversations—but systemic transformation demands binding regulations, enforceable standards—something the EU’s upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive aims to enforce—, and consumers who refuse to accept half-measures. As the movement turns its gaze on issues like extended producer responsibility, living wage legislation, and material circularity, April 24 stands as a rallying cry for accountability across every stage of the fashion supply chain.

How long will we applaud empty slogans before we demand the hard work of true transparency?

Fashion Revolution Week Slogan.

Authors & Researchers

Jordy Munarriz

Environmental Engineer with a master's degree in renewable energy and a specialization in sustainability. Researcher and writer, he combines his technical knowledge with his passion for environmental communication, addressing topics of ecological impact and sustainable solutions in the textile industry and beyond.