The Redress Fashion campaign is currently being coordinated by a working group of students with the support of Jim, People & Planet’s Trade Campaigns intern.
The Redress Fashion Working Group (RFWG) meets periodically online to discuss progress and plan future campaign events and actions. The group consists P&P members spread throughout the country, and you’re more than welcome to get involved - it’s a great opportunity to get some hands-on experience with coordinating a national campaign across the P&P network! There’s plenty of stuff to do and the more people are involved the less work there is for everyone.
Use the comment box below to get in touch with the RFWG.
Campaign Background
The Redress Fashion campaign began in spring 2007 as a mini-campaign focusing on Primark, the epitome of fast, but ultimately unsustainable and exploitative fashion. Network members decided at the Forum 07 to turn this effort into a full-fledged campaign, and a decision was made at the Summer Gathering later in the year to switch focus to Topshop, given both the attention that we drew from Primark and Topshop’s self-proclaimed love affair with students.
Campaigning on Redress Fashion in the 2007-08 year saw groups taking action at Topshop stores, especially at two national days of action at Christmas and Fairtrade Fortnight, as well as frequent activity in between. Resource constraints, however, meant that a full-time support office intern dedicated to the campaign would no longer be possible for the subsequent year. In a choice between Redress Fashion and Treat AIDS Now at the Forum 08, P&P campaigners chose to allocate remaining office capacity to Redress Fashion.
So the 2008-09 year marks a new and exciting experiment in P&P’s recent history. A student working group, the RFWG, will take on the responsibility of coordinating the campaign nationally, rather than direct support from the P&P office. This new way of working holds the promise of P&P campaigning in a much more decentralized fashion with greater bottom-up impetus - an objective very much in tune with P&P’s democratic vision. Student pressure on Topshop continues, and if anything will intensify as Redress Fashion builds momentum across the student population. Will you join us?
Current Plans and Action
September - Calling for greater transparency from Topshop at their London Fashion Week show! Sept/Oct - Getting ready for the start of term!