A stitch in time

Former shopaholic Amanda Butterworth now takes up arms against fast fashion, writes CAITLIN SYKES.

- CAITLIN SYKES

It's been a decade since the Rana Plaza building collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, taking with it 1134 lives and bringing the human cost of the fashion industry starkly to light. The building housed five garment factories that made clothes for a host of well-known international brands. More than 2500 injured people were pulled from the rubble.

The scale of the disaster served as a lightning rod for action to address unsafe conditions for garment-factory workers and wider issues around the industry's effects on people and the planet. Amanda Butterworth, a former shopaholic, is among those trying to bring about change, in her case with a needle and thread.

Auckland-based Butterworth is the New Zealand co-ordinator of Fashion Revolution, the world's biggest fashion-activist movement. It was founded after the Rana Plaza collapse by fashion designers Orsola de Castro and Carry Somers in an attempt to transform the industry and operates in part through a global network of volunteers such as Butterworth.

Fashion Revolution teams in each country have slightly different approaches, she says. In Bangladesh, the organisation works closely with unions to support the garment industry workforce. In New Zealand, which has a volunteer team of 10, changing consumer behaviour is the main focus. "We're not out there with our picket signs telling everyone they're awful. We want to showcase different ways people can be more sustainable and more mindful and how they can incorporate that into the everyday."

EMPOWER BY REPAIR