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New installation “I Made Your Clothes” by ethical menswear retailer on view at Amnesty International headquarters

Ethical men’s clothing retailer, Brothers We Stand, is showing an installation at the Amnesty International headquarters in Shoreditch this week. The installation features a portrait of a factory worker hand-painted onto a canvas of suspended t-shirts. Brothers We Stand founder Jonathan Mitchell said,

“Many of the people who make our clothes face exploitation, abuse and unsafe conditions on a daily basis. It’s a human rights issue. Through our installation at Amnesty International’s HQ, we aim to draw attention to the urgency of this issue.” ?


Artwork by Michael Gough Sparks Studio

The installation features the portrait of a female worker at the factory in Tirupur, southern India,
where Brothers We Stand’s t-shirts are made. The installation aims to make clear the reality that behind every garment is the person, usually a women, who made it.

Peter Frankental, Amnesty UK’s Business and Human Rights Programme Director, said,

“It’s easy to take for granted those who make the clothes we buy, many of whom are totally invisible to us and work under appalling conditions. Consumers have an important role to play in helping to eliminate labour abuses in global supply chains. Most of us would feel more comfortable if we could be assured about the rights of the people who make our clothing.”

The Brothers We Stand installation provides the ethical clothing brand’s answer to the question, “Who made my clothes?”. This question has been at the centre of the global Fashion Revolution campaign, which now has an active presence in over 100 countries. In 2017, over 100,000 people used social media to ask the brands they wear, “#whomademyclothes?”.

Hanging from the installation are cards that detail the processes involved in producing the Brothers We Stand branded t-shirts. The first step is the growing of organic cotton in the Ahmedebad region of western India, while the t-shirts themselves are cut and sewn in Tirupur by a SA-8000 certified supplier.

Members of the public wanting to see the installation can do so by attending the Ethical Consumer 2018 conference taking place on Friday 12th October at Amnesty International HQ. The conference will discuss innovations in ethical consumption and the ways that they are transforming the role of the consumer.

Brothers We Stand founder, Jonathan Mitchell, said,

“Demand for the fashion industry to prioritise labour rights is continuing to gain momentum. The more we can keep the issues in the spotlight the more likely we will be to see change. Our operating model provides an example of how fashion can be done in a transparent and ethical manner. Through installations such as this I’d like to challenge other brands and retailers to follow our lead and take decisive steps towards a more ethical fashion industry.”

About Brothers We Stand
Brothers We Stand is an ethical men’s clothing retailer providing an alternative for the man dissatisfied with fast fashion and its questionable practices. The site aims to give men easy access to a wardrobe of stylish and sustainably produced clothes.

Each season, Brothers We Stand creates edits of their favourite ethical menswear from a range of designers and labels. Brothers We Stand has strict criteria and principles on which they base their product selection. These are rooted in three primary areas – design, quality and stand-out ethics. To get into their collection, products must have a positive social or environmental impact that sets them apart from the mainstream. This could be that a t-shirt is made in a wind-powered factory with a carbon footprint 90% lower than that of a conventional t-shirt, or it could be that a sweatshirt is made from a blend of recycled cotton and recycled plastic bottles. You can read more about the BWS Standard here.
www.brotherswestand.com

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