Ethical Fashion Guide 2018

Every year Tearfund publishes their Ethical Fashion Guide, and the one for 2018 has just been released. In previous years there haven’t been a whole lot of brands listed that stock plus sizes, but I’m happy to share that this year there are a number of mainstream plus size brands included – and hopefully we will see that number continue to grow as the demand for ethical plus size fashion continues to rise.

Since the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in 2013, which claimed the lives over over a thousand garment workers and injured thousands more, I think that as a whole we have become increasingly aware of where our clothes come from – and for some of us that impacts where we choose to shop. More and more we want to know who is making our clothes, where they are being produced and whether or not the workers making our clothing have been exploited. I’m going to be honest, if companies are transparent about this then I’m more likely to spend my money with brands that take care of their workers.

This year, 114 companies representing 407 brands were assessed on four areas: Policies; Traceability and Transparency; Auditing and Supplier Relationships; and Worker Empowerment. Each company was given an overall grade from A+ to F based on the assessment of the four areas.

You’ll notice there are a number of companies marked with a * and this is because they have chosen not to participate in the research. The company has still been assessed on information that’s publicly available because if companies do not disclose, or are unwilling to disclose, what they are doing to ensure that workers are not exploited in their supply chains, then it’s almost impossible for us as consumers to know if the company is doing enough to minimise these risks. I hope that the plus size companies who haven’t provided information as part of this research do make this information available in the future!

You can download your copy of the Tearfund Ethical Fashion Guide here. There are lots of plus size fashion brands listed, which is awesome! I hope that brands will start making this information available and reach out to take part in future research. I highly recommend taking a look and seeing how your favourite brands stack up, I was surprised by a few of them and disappointed to see that there were some who opted out of participating and some that just straight up had a lot of room for improvement (and even some who received a lower grade than last year).

Quite frankly, I think the plus size fashion industry needs to do better. The people who make our clothes deserve to have a safe workplace and a reasonable wage, and we need to put an end to forced and child labour. As a customer, I want to see more transparency so I can make an informed decision, and I want to see brands improving.

I’m not here to judge anyone who shops with the brands that received a bad grade, I shop with many of them myself. I’m more sharing this because I think having public accountability for this is a great thing and it means we as consumers can push companies to do better. And while I would love to be able to only shop ethically, I recognise that there is massive privilege involved in being able to do that – as a plus size woman my options are more limited than someone who is straight size, and I find that options marketed at ethical are quite often more costly. If you are wanting to explore more options, check out these ethical and sustainable plus size brands shared by writer Laurel Dickman.

How did your favourite brands stack up? Any surprises?
Was there someone not included that you’d like to see in next year’s guide?