Would you be willing to buy a T-shirt for two euros?

We don’t know what clothes we wear or we don’t know everything we should know about them. And yet, our consumption also in this area has a notable impact both on people’s lives and on the environment.

“That is why it is necessary to know where the clothes we wear are made, who has made them, under what conditions and with what materials,” explains María José Manzano, from the Rurex development association, the entity in charge of carrying out the activities framed in the Fashion Revolution Week, which this morning has started in Plasencia.

This is the citizen movement generated after the brutal collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh on April 24, 2013, a textile factory in which 1,138 people died and more than 2,000 were injured or maimed. “From then on, an awareness of the clothing chain began, to which Extremadura also joined,” says Manzano. This time with a key question: Who made my clothes?

A question that not only Rurex asks the citizens who participate in its activities, in the case of Plasencia this morning at Puerta del Sol, but also encourages the brands of clothing. “Because it is necessary that many more give all the information regarding the garments that we wear on the labels,” he clarifies. “Because we need to know the consequences of buying a shirt for two euros, since behind it there may be people working long hours for very low wages.”

Not forgetting, adds this Rurex manager, “the materials chosen to make these garments, such as polluting petroleum derivatives.”

Also in Cáceres, Badajoz and Mérida

In short, Fashion Revolution Week seeks greater awareness on the part of all, because in the same way that we care about the origin of the food we eat, “we must also do it about the clothes we wear”. It is necessary that “we demand that brands meet quality standards and that this is reflected on the labels.” Some good practices that are a reality here in Extremadura with Carmela Caramela, Laura Manuela, Jostum, Amparos Madrid or Señora Sarita, among other brands.

Rurex will continue with its activities tomorrow in the Paseo de Cánovas de Cáceres, on Thursday in San Francisco in Badajoz and on Friday in the Plaza de España in Mérida. To continue raising awareness about the urgency of a change in the fashion system and the need to carry out a transformation that generates a positive impact at an environmental and social level.