Ethical Manufacturing - ask the hard questions.

There is a great deal more awareness by consumers about where their garments are made. However, getting the real answer is sometimes not as easy as it should be. This is because there can be so many layers within the garment manufacturing process, all adding a margin, and all pushing the responsibility to the layer before them.

A possible pyramid can look like this- on top is the Retailer, then - Wholesaler- Distributor- Importer- Trading House - Manufacturers agent - Appointed manufacturer - subcontracted maker - outsourced maker. It is when we get to the bottom of the pyramid that things can become very murky.

The disaster of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh exposed how corrupted the system had become. Famous international brands were found to have been giving work to black listed companies operating in Rana Plaza, and yet these big brands claimed that they were totally unaware their garments were being manufactured there because they were using trading houses to do the garment production.