BANDUNG – The Canada-Indonesia Trade and Private Sector Assistance Project (TPSA) and the Business Export Development Organization (BEDO) are marking Fashion Revolution Day on Tuesday, April 24, with an all-day event at the Bandung Creative Hub.

Activities include talks on how the Fashion Revolution is working to reduce the environmental impact of footwear and apparel production, a movie screening, a fashion design contest, natural dye and up-cycling workshops, and product exhibitions from small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Fashion Revolution Day takes place annually on the anniversary of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh.

The global “slow fashion” movement has developed to counter the dominant “fast fashion” business model now in place. Fast fashion focuses on cheap production and rapid delivery to markets. This model requires the use of substantial resources, such as water, cotton, chemical, dyes, and cheap labor. Research from the World Resource Institute claims that 2,700 liters of water is required to produce just one cotton T-shirt—equivalent to 2½ years of one person’s water consumption.

The objective of the event is:

• To advocate and disseminate information on more environmentally friendly apparel and footwear production and consumption patterns to a wider SME audience and to the general public.
• To provide a networking forum for like-minded apparel and footwear SMEs that are interested in greener production.

Circular economies promote production and consumption patterns that generate as little waste and emissions as possible. In addition, production and end-use waste and emissions are recycled, re-used, or re-acquired as raw materials for other products. Up-cycling is the process of transforming used or waste materials into better products. Some SMEs from Bali and Yogyakarta, which have already begun up-cycling, will also be participating in the exhibition.

The event takes place between 9 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. The main activities are:

• TPSA’s success stories from the SCORE-Cleaner Production Program
• Exhibition of SME partners’ products and cleaner production progress and of Yogyakarta and Bali-based SMEs on circular fashion
• Talks and a movie screening on what the Fashion Revolution and Circular Fashion mean and how they impact the industry
• Natural dye and up-cycling workshops
• Fashion show and design contest
• Press conference

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About the TPSA Project

The Canada-Indonesia Trade and Private Sector Assistance Project (TPSA) is funded by the Government of Canada through Global Affairs Canada. The project is executed by The Conference Board of Canada and the primary implementation partner is the Directorate General for National Export Development, Ministry of Trade of Indonesia.

The project helps Indonesian apparel and footwear small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to access Canadian and International markets, as well as to improve their environmental performance. One of TPSA’s main environmental improvement activities is to help participating apparel and footwear SMEs to plan and implement cleaner production measures suitable to their capacity and needs. Six apparel and five footwear SMEs participated in the program, which began in September 2017.