Get the Guide in your hands!

When you choose ethical clothing, you are voting against exploitation and for safe, fair working conditions.

The Ethical Fashion Guide is a practical tool you can use to reduce worker exploitation and alleviate poverty in developing countries where clothes are manufactured. It grades fashion companies on ethical practices in their supply chains, giving you the power to shop ethically and use your voice to encourage greater transparency.

Click below to get the guide now!

What are you made of?

We need your help to encourage companies to publish supplier lists. Are you up for it?

Step one: Find out what they’re made of.

Search your favourite brand’s website for a supplier list. Transparent fashion brands publish lists of suppliers on their websites. These lists share the names and addresses for all the factories that manufacture for the company. When companies publish lists in this way, it proves they know where their clothes are being made and are open to being held accountable for what’s happening in their supply chains.
Learn more

Step two: Like what you see, or looking for more?

Click the Facebook button below to choose an image from our gallery to share with your brand.

Step three: Use your voice

Share the image to your Facebook page and tag the brand. If you want to do even more, send a letter with the template!

  • 11%

    Only 11% of NZ fashion companies pay living wages to workers in their supply chains.

  • $11

    The approximate daily living wage for a worker in Bangladesh.

  • 100 million

    It's estimated that 100 million rural households who farm cotton are living in poverty.

Why Ethical Fashion?

The fashion industry can be a force for good. In the last 20 years, our consumption of clothing has increased dramatically.

As a result, garment production has fuelled the growth of economies across Asia-Pacific, with over 40 million workers employed in the industry.

However, the garment industry can also be a place where exploitation thrives. In 2018, there are still millions of garment workers working long hours in oppressive conditions to make the clothes we wear. They are paid wages so low that they and their families are trapped in a cycle of poverty.

When you shop, you have the power to choose and the opportunity to impact the lives of people working in oppressive conditions.

To learn more check out our Protect cause

Chip in for change

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Note: If funds raised exceed Tearfund’s requirements for funding the Ethical Fashion Guide, your gift will go to our Protect anti-trafficking and exploitation work.

How are the brands graded?

For this research, 114 companies representing 407 brands have been assessed on four areas:

These areas are assessed across three stages of the supply chain: raw materials (for example, cotton farms), inputs production (production of fabrics) and final stage production (suppliers who put the clothes together). Companies are given an overall grade from A+ to F based on the assessment of the four areas.

Transparency

Supply chains in the fashion industry are massive and complicated. A t-shirt purchased in New Zealand may be made from Indian cotton, processed in Bangladesh, sewn in China and distributed from Australia.

Demand from consumers for stores to always be offering new styles places immense pressure on supply chains to produce large quantities of items in short periods of time. To cope with the pressure, factories often subcontract out all (or parts) of orders to other factories, or to home workers. These factories may not be subject to audits and often have poor working conditions and lower pay for workers.

The result? Most companies cannot say with confidence where items of clothing are being produced and whether or not the workers making their clothing have been exploited.

The solution? Transparency. The Ethical Fashion Report asks companies firstly to trace their supply chains – find out where their garments are being made – and then to be transparent with the public about this information. Publishing supplier lists allows companies to be held accountable for the working conditions and shows they have nothing to hide.