Tools For Transparency in the Global Fashion Supply Chain
On Tuesday, July 22nd, we attended the TEXWORLD international trade fair to listen to the Tools for Transparency seminar. The panel consisted of Benita Singh, Co-Founder & CEO of Source4Style, Leonardo Bonanni, PhD, CEO & Founder of Sourcemap Inc., Pranay Srinivasan, Founder/CEO of Sourceasy, and moderator Bob Bland of Manufacture NY.
These startups provide tools for companies to learn about and monitor textile sourcing. Interest in responsible sourcing has grown immensely - first with food, and now with clothing. After the tragedy of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh last year, people realized that we need to start thinking about the people who make the clothes. Visibility in supply chains is an advantage to companies - think Everlane, for example, who cuts out middlemen and engages directly with factories to produce their goods. We are buying the garment as well as the story behind the garments, the knowledge that we fund an ethically and environmentally responsible practice.
Here at VOZ, we are motivated by the same responsibility: preserve natural ways of making textiles along with the cultural significance of such ways, empower the artisans and communities who create these textiles, and provide an alternative to environmentally toxic and mass-produced fast fashion.
