Sustainability has been a major topic within the fashion industry in the past years. Luxury groups, such as Kering have made a statement by announcing a set of key sustainability targets to achieve by 2016, while reputed designers, like Bruno Pieters, left the fashion circus behind in order to reinterpret the purpose of a fashion brand, in transparent, human and animal friendly way, like a political and social manifesto.

And yet, both "fashion" and "sustainability" are still mutually exclusive for the most part. Sustainability has yet to make a shift from being a state of mind, to becoming a reality for producers and consumers—instead of being a "green" statement, which is often abused as a marketing tool in order to higher sales and leave both, the brands and the customers, with a clean conscience.

However, whether we’re blinded or not by green marketing, the reality of the supply chain sets in all too quickly and reminds us that we should think twice before we buy. While consumerism often comes along with an out-of-sight-out-of-mind attitude, which has been continuously fed by mass-market retailers worldwide, some shoppers have to face the sad reality.

Recently, several shoppers in the UK have made headlines for finding unusual labels stitched into Made in Bangladesh clothing from Primark. The labels made shocking claims, such as forced to work exhausting hours and degrading sweatshops conditions. While Primark asserts that the labels were sewn onto its clothes in the UK, most of the media interpret these desperate messages as the long lost voice of Bangladeshi garment workers (The Guardian) or as a very much concerning cry for help (The Independent).

Needless to say, Bangladesh’s road to safer and human friendly work conditions is still a rocky one. In fact, more than one year after the international outcry due to the collapse of the 8-stories high Rana Plaza garment factory building in Dhaka—a garment facility that produced apparel for international mass-market brands, such as H&M, Wal-Mart and Tesco—Bangladesh’s textile industry still struggles to meet the demands of its workers and to please the international opinion, which is keeping an eye on the matter, and urging the government to put all its efforts in garment sector reforms.

Elisabeta Tudor @ MODEMONLINE

Picture courtesy of Darren Britton/Wales News Service.