Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/713388
30 The Costume Designer Summer 2016 The Many Costs of the Fashion Industry On April 24, 2013, just a day after the building had been evacu- ated after a local news broadcast showed footage of cracks appearing along its walls, the Savar building, also known as Rana Plaza, collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with 3,122 workers inside. While ethical fashion and the costs of fast fashion were already on the minds of many, the horrific footage and staggering human cost (1,129 people were lost and only a handful escaped unharmed) of this catastrophe brought the working conditions that make much of the world's garment industry possible into the harsh light of day. While Rana Plaza was an outlier in scope, it remains by no means an isolated incident. The Bangladesh office of the Solidarity Center reported 86 garment factory fires in the three years following the Tazreen Fashion fire that killed 112 workers. As recently as this February, an inspection after a fire at a Gazipur sweater factory supplying garments to H&M and J.C. Penney revealed that most of the promises to install safety measures after BY CHRISTINE COVER FERRO B efore globalization, someone wanting to purchase clothes made under fair condi- tions might have looked for an International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union or Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America label. The decline of union membership in the United States and the rise of outsourcing led to the dissolution of both: a series of mergers over the last 40 years ended with both, ultimately, being absorbed into UNITE HERE! Shopping for ethically produced garments for our characters, or ourselves, in the global age has become a much more complex process. As a collective with a great deal of purchasing capabil- ity and influence, the Costume Designers Guild by virtue of being a labor union, bears responsibility to use our power wisely. Illustrated by: Gina Flanagan