As one of the leading markets to profit from the economic globalization the fashion industry must implement a strategy or method to operate without taking away the human principles of workers as they have a significant role in the growth of the businesses.

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Nowadays most companies are global and that means that their impacts are too, meaning that corporations are mainly operating in developing countries, post-conflict countries, in countries where the local authority is unwilling to enforce the correct laws.

 

A large number of fashion companies have transitioned to produce in markets that offer low labor costs and limited protections for workers ́ rights. Thus creating a global evolution, in which workers are becoming victims of the current market.

 

Most of the times it is uncertain who is responsible for preventing companies from violating human rights. According to Patagonia, more than 40 million people work in the garment industry worldwide; mainly consisting of women, who are among the lowest- paid workers in the world. (Films, Patagonia, 2016 )

 

In the past years, the fashion industry has been experimenting a social change towards sustainable and ethical practices which is a great starting point.

 

Nevertheless, this evolution has mainly focused on the impact of the environment and the treatment of animals, but what about the people involved in the process? If companies, the government, and consumers don’t start to make a change to improve the lives of our same beings, how do we expect to truly make a change for the world?

 

There is simply no sustainable evolution without putting people and their rights as the center.

 

For instance, The Rana Plaza incident that took place in Bangladesh in 2013 opened the eyes of many leaders and consumers.

 

Yet, it is only one of the many disasters that have happened inside the fashion industry. Despite this disturbing fact, companies still don’t care to change the environment or improve the life of the workers.

 

On the other side, there are also the consumers that continue to buy cheap products without thinking of the impact it can create.

 

It is also important to remember that apart from those disasters, there are many other issues that have not been addressed inside the industry. This includes child labor, discrimination, harassment and even cases such as the exploitation of refugees within the supply chains of major European clothing retailers. (Campaign, 2016 )

 

Companies are truly focusing on portraying a perfect, ethical image, yet there is no true meaning of creating a positive impact towards the issue. Corporations should respect and promote human rights, since it has the power to influence people’s living conditions.

 

The reason for selecting humanizing the fashion industry as a topic was due to a personal interest and concern while discovering the impact on the fashion industry towards the life of the workers. It created a personal urge to research and explore this topic in depth by focusing uniquely on the human side of it.

 

From a personal point of view, it is believed that this topic has not been explored in depth as the fashion industry is still seeking on communicating or on developing strategies to improve the conditions of workers.

 

The main objective of this research is to find out why this issue is not evolving. Is it because business are not communicating properly or consumers are not demanding to know what it is truly happening inside the companies? Is it the company’s fault for paying less than the living wage? Or is it the government’s fault for ignoring the laws and regulations?