Fabric of Change: Innovating for a Sustainable Apparel Industry

Ashoka and C&A Foundation have partnered to launch Fabric of Change, a global initiative to support innovators for a fair and sustainable apparel industry. This initiative is unlocking the unique power and potential of social entrepreneurs and their solutions to advance our shared vision: transforming the apparel industry as a force for good. Learn More

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How Are Social Innovators Transforming the Apparel Industry?

Rooted in the perspectives of Ashoka Fellows and additional insights from industry experts, this report uncovers the barriers to and design principles for transformative change within the apparel industry.

Meet the Fabric of Change Innovators

Fabric of Change identifies, supports and give visibility to leading social innovators creatively tackling social and environmental issues within the apparel industry - work which has inspired the collective vision for the Fabric of Change Initiative. Sector partners are crucial in enabling the impact and acceleration of these social innovators.Their collective work is transforming the apparel industry and sparking global movements.

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News

Made in Africa, or how a factory was launched with an ethical story from day one

Dani Matielo

My desire to be part of the fashion apparel comes from this idea that human beings truly express themselves through fashion. Put five people in the Learn More

Could Hemp Fashion Be the Key to Fixing India’s Cotton Economy?

Felicity McLean

By Alden Wicker

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Insights

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Fabric of Change Journal: Issue 2 November 2017

January 10, 2018

Read about the people, ideas and impact that create the Fabric of Change community

Your Clothes Might Be Destroying The Rainforest

November 28, 2017

Ashoka Fellow Nicole Rycroft is working hard to make sure fashion companies are no longer sourcing fabrics from endangered forests

Could Hemp Fashion Be the Key to Fixing India’s Cotton Economy?

November 28, 2017

The Bombay Hemp Company, an organisation co-founded by Ashoka Fellow Sanvar Oberoi, has the ambitious goal of jumpstarting an entire Hemp industry and in the process, helping to fix the ecosystem and economy of India.

Waste Collection: A New Frontier For The Fashion Industry?

October 19, 2017

What if fashion companies started sourcing their plastic for polyester not from fresh petroleum, but from Asian consumer waste? They already are.

Fabric of Change: The Journal 2017

May 28, 2017

Highlights from the Fabric of Change Globalizer: Accelerating Impact

Closing the Loop on Sustainable Fashion

May 16, 2017

Bringing change to its lucrative value chain is not a task for the faint-hearted. Can we finally close the loop on the fashion industry?

Ashoka Fellow Lis Suarez on Women's Empowerment and the Future of Fashion

May 3, 2017

Lifting up and empowering women is necessary to building a more equitable apparel industry.

Ashoka Fellow María Almazán Calls For A Conscious Revolution In The Fashion Industry.

May 3, 2017

Ashoka Fellow María Almazán has created Latitude, a network of sustainable textile production facilities in Spain

Social Entrepreneurs Catalyze Co-Creation Amongst The Apparel Industry

April 13, 2017

Forward-thinking brands co-create by working together with competitors and social entrepreneurs to design radical new projects and processes that lead to win-win-win situations.

Incentivizing Sustainable Fashion: Lessons From Social Entrepreneurs

March 7, 2017

With exponential growth in the fashion industry, social entrepreneurs are incentivizing factories and brands to be more sustainable

Introducing The First 5 Fabric of Change Ashoka Fellows

February 18, 2017

Ashoka and C&A Foundation have identified the first cohort of five social entrepreneurs for the Fabric of Change Fellowship to nurture solutions to fashion industry challenges.

Saif Rashid Weaves Together Benefits for Bangladesh Garment Workers

February 8, 2017

Saif Rashid believes that, given the right market opportunities, millions of Bangladeshis can lift themselves up financially.

Weaving the #FabricofChange: the moral crisis of fast fashion.

January 6, 2017

What are the barriers to creating transformative change in the apparel industry?

Ashoka Fellow Ashila Niroshine Mapalagama, Founder of Stand Up

January 6, 2017

Sri Lanka’s Garment Workers ‘Stand Up’ for Rights

Ashoka Fellow Nicole Rycroft, Founder of Canopy

Ashoka | January 6, 2017

From Fiction to Fashion, Social Entrepreneur Nicole Rycroft Helps Business See Forests for the Trees

Responsible Innovators in Copenhagen: An Urgent Call for Sustainable Fashion

June 22, 2016

Marianne Caroline Hughes with fashion industry leaders at the Youth Fashion Summit.

Innovative Solutions Win Fabric of Change Award to Tackle Fashion Industry’s Sustainability Problems

May 12, 2016

Three extraordinary initiatives received Fabric of Change awards at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit

Exploring the Sustainable Fashion Frontier: Ethical Apparel Africa

May 10, 2016

What are some lessons that the apparel industry could learn from Ethical Apparel Africa?

There's Nothing Uniform About this Sustainable Fashion Startup in Brazil

May 10, 2016

Millions of tons of clothing end up in landfills every year. But only about five percent of discarded clothing is unusable.

How Haiti Answers the Call for Worker Well-Being

May 10, 2016

For apparel workers in Haiti, the salary earned from a factory job doesn’t offer much comfort.

There are 168 million victims of child labour — and we’re failing them

Medium | April 13, 2016

We’re still not doing enough to eradicate exploitation.

The effects of the Syrian crisis demands action, so what role can the fashion industry play?

C&A Foundation, Reuters | March 31, 2016

As governments and communities grapple with how to protect and resettle millions of Syrian refugees, global fashion brands have an opportunity to be part of the solution.

Facts About Textile Waste

Council for Textile Recycling | March 31, 2016

How much clothing does the US actually throw away?

3 Ways the Conscious Fashion Movement Is Raising Its Game with Millennials

Forbes.com | March 2, 2016

Three fresh tactics that are inspiring consumers, particularly millennials, to drive a transformation of the apparel industry.

Unlocking workplace daycare for the children of garment workers in Bangladesh

Virgin.com | February 15, 2016

How one social entrepreneur is getting factories to provide on-site childcare for workers

Social Entrepreneurs' Perspectives That Are Transforming the Apparel Industry

Ashoka and C&A Foundation | February 2, 2016

Insights on how to transform the apparel industry from social entrepreneurs and experts

5 New Solutions For The Fashion Industry's Sustainability Problem

Fast Co.Exist | February 1, 2016

We buy—and throw out—more clothes than ever. It's time for new innovation to lower the footprint of our clothing.

The link between sustainable fashion and the life cycle of a garment

VOGUE India | January 31, 2016

And why fabric care plays a role in both.

The Quest for Greener Jeans

GOOD | January 27, 2016

Your clothes are a blight on the planet—but it doesn't have to be that way.

Meet the future stars of sustainable fashion

The Guardian (UK) | January 3, 2016

From repurposed fishing nets to restored leather and everlasting denim, these young designers are creating clothes with ethics woven in.

All companies have slave labour in supply chains but it can be stopped

Thomson Reuters Foundation | December 17, 2015

"I think all corporations have slavery in their supply chains and some of those instances are absolutely horrific."

Can Everlane Make Ethical Chic?

Bloomberg | December 17, 2015

The online clothing company goes to China to pick a new bag factory.

Bangladesh Fire Raises Pressure to Improve Factory Safety

Wall Street Journal | December 17, 2015

There's pressure on government, factory owners and retailers to overhaul workplace safety.

Rana Plaza: Factory Safety and Workers' Rights in the Apparel Supply Chain Two Years Later

NYU | December 17, 2015

Reporting on the three key failures that led to the Rana Plaza collapse.

Inside a Bangladesh garment factory that plays by the rules

CNN | December 17, 2015

Is labor safety a priority in Bangladesh?

Women & The Garment Industry In 2015

BetterWork.org | December 17, 2015

Better working conditions for women brings big-time business benefits.

Most Bangladeshi garment workers are women, but their union leaders weren't. Until now.

PRI | December 17, 2015

Garment workers in Bangladesh are beginning to fight for their rights.

The thing that makes Bangladesh’s garment industry such a huge success also makes it deadly

Quartz | December 17, 2015

It's. Just. So. Cheap.

Cottoning on to the true cost of high street fashion

The Guardian | December 15, 2015

Cotton pays, but not necessarily for the farmers who supply the global textile industry.

Can Bangladesh’s garment industry ever be safe and sustainable?

Quartz | December 15, 2015

Changes in the way the apparel supply chain works will have to come from within.

7 Eco-Friendly Fashion Labels To Know Now

Elle | December 15, 2015

The new look of sustainable style is a lot less hippie and a lot more haute.

Nike proves that cleaning up your act is smart business

Quartz | December 11, 2015

Nike is king—and not just of the sneaker market.

"Work Faster or Get Out"

Human Rights Watch | December 10, 2015

A report focused on labor rights abuses in Cambodia’s big-money garment industry.

Cambodia’s First Protest Band Takes Aim at the Fashion Industry

Pratt/Brooklyn Fashion+Design Accelerator | December 9, 2015

In Cambodia, a protest band uses music to advocate for garment workers' rights.

The Luxury Sector Now Focusing on a Sustainable Future

The New York Times | December 1, 2015

The hottest buzzword in luxury fashion right now is sustainability.

Goodbye Cotton, Hello Hemp?

The Huffington Post | November 7, 2015

India opens pathways to industrial hemp--could this eco-friendly fabric replace thirsty cotton?

Could High Tech Fabrics Transform Fashion's Impact on Climate Change?

The Huffington Post | October 27, 2015

High tech fabrics may be on the horizon to help reduce fashion's carbon footprint.

Workers’ Wellbeing Can Create a More Sustainable Apparel Industry

Triple Pundit | October 20, 2015

Ashoka Fellow Susan Pick discusses the business case for enabling workers' wellbeing.

What Can the Ethical Fashion Movement Teach Us?

Sustainable Brands | October 8, 2015

How can the fashion industry, founded on creating ever-increasing amounts of product for ever-decreasing margins, truly hope to transform itself?

How Leather Is Slowly Killing the People and Places That Make It

Gizmodo | October 7, 2015

The modern leather industry is simultaneously killing the local environment and the people that work there with a toxic slurry of chemicals.

End of Life vs. End of Use: Circular Economy, Getting More From the Clothes That We Wear

The Huffington Post | October 5, 2015

What happens when a piece of clothing is too worn to be worn again? When we discard our unwanted clothes, they do not go away.

The New Standard

Zady | September 26, 2015

The New Standard maps the impact of fashion along the entire value chain and provides guidelines for sustainability at each step.

Zady Wants to Slow Down Fast Fashion With a New Sustainability Standard

Fast Company | September 26, 2015

Slow fashion startup Zady publishes an industry-facing toolkit that paints a complete picture of fashion's impact

This Startup Takes Your Old Clothes And Makes Completely New Thread From Them

FastCoexist | September 26, 2015

Recycling clothes today is not actually super effective, but Evrnu thinks it has a better solution.

Three Innovative Fixes to Fashion's Sustainability Problem

The Huffington Post | September 18, 2015

A look at three fresh approaches social entrepreneurs are driving to help the apparel industry truly clean up its act and achieve both style and substance.

The Shirt On Your Back

The Guardian | September 14, 2015

In this poignant, interactive documentary, Guardian journalists trace the lifecycle of the shirt on your back via the teeming workshops of Dhaka, where labour is cheap, factories are cheaper and just going to work can be fatal.

Banco de Tecido oferece sobras de material a 35 reais o quilo

O Estado de S. Paulo | August 28, 2015

Criado pela figurinista Lu Bueno, o espaço na Vila Leopoldina foca no reaproveitamento de tecidos usados para evitar o desperdício e desenvolver uma cadeia de produção sustentável

Fashion Gets Creative About the Global Water Shortage

Take Part | August 28, 2015

Despite fears of losing money on new investments, water conservation has become a major apparel industry focus

Toxic Fashion: The Environmental Crisis in Your Closet

Newsweek | August 13, 2015

This exposé made the cover of Newsweek--how the communities that dye the world's fabric are suffering dire environmental consequences, and why illegal dying operations keep running.

Child free fashion: a new label aims to end exploitation

The Guardian | July 31, 2015

A new foundation, Child Labor Free is piloting a label to guarantee clothes are child labour free, but when auditing failed to prevent tragedies like Rana Plaza, campaigners doubt its ability to create change

Search for Ever Cheaper Garment Factories Leads to Africa

The Wall Street Journal | July 12, 2015

From H&M to Calvin Klein, brands look to Ethiopian factories where pay is as low as $21 a month

C&A Foundation's Annual Report - 2014

C&A Foundation | June 30, 2015

Investigates three major challenges in the apparel industry: improving the lives and livelihoods of smallholder cotton farmers, eradicating forced labour in the supply chain, and enabling just and dignified working conditions

Fashion Revolution Day - 2014

Youtube | May 13, 2015

BBDO Berlin and Fashion Revolution join forces to set up a vending machine in Alexanderplatz in Berlin to see what happens when consumers learn about who makes their clothes.

Bringing Respect for People to the World’s Sweatshops

Stanford Social Innovation Review | February 26, 2015

Jim Womack, senior advisor to the Lean Enterprise Institute, argues that CSR means showing respect for low-wage workers by designing good work for them to do.

A Brief History of Sustainable Fashion

Triple Pundit | February 19, 2015

An overview of where the sustainable fashion industry has been and where it might be headed.

Business as Usual is Not an Option

NYU Stern School of Business | April 20, 2014

Supply Chains and Sourcing after Rana Plaza - Develops a clearer understanding of business practices that represent significant risks to factory safety and workers’ rights in Bangladesh.

A Bold Experiment in Ethical Clothing

Fair Trade USA | November 1, 2012

This report presents results of a two-year pilot on fair trade certified apparel and linens, and shares lessons learned in the spirit of transparency and to encourage other efforts that share the aim of improving workers’ lives.

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Fabric of Change: Innovating for a Sustainable Apparel Industry

How Are Social Innovators Transforming the Apparel Industry?

Meet the Fabric of Change Innovators

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How Are Social Innovators Transforming the Apparel Industry?

Meet the Fabric of Change Innovators

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Join the Conversation