Fashion and politics do not make the happiest of bedfellows. For all its virtue signalling, a system based on inequality and insecurity – that’s the fashion business – has little room for genuine compassion. However, last week the beneficiaries of sweated labour are being asked to examine their consciences – and their order books – as part of Fashion Revolution Week.
在時尚和政治領域不會有愉快的共事者。由于它所有的長處特點，時尚行業，這個建立在不公平和不穩定基礎上的系統，是沒有太多的同情心的。然而，作為“時尚革命周”的一部分，血汗勞動的受益者們在上周被要求進行良心測試，他們的訂貨單也要接受審查。

This is a global response to the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh that killed 1,134 people and injured 2,500 more, on 24 April 2013. And as well as a “label selfie” campaign on social media, it has already provoked a special Fashion Question Time in the House of Commons, hosted by Labour MP Mary Creagh, at which the industry was urged to come clean about its foreign suppliers and help to clean up the iniquitous conditions under which their workers are hired.
這算是對2013年4月24日發生在孟加拉國的拉納廣場工廠大樓坍塌事件的全球性回應，這場事故造成1134人死亡，至少2500人受傷。社交媒體上的“標簽自拍”運動也在工黨議員瑪麗?克里奇主持的下議院中引起了一場關于“時尚問題時代”的辯論，這場辯論要求時尚業把國外供應商全部公布出來，也要幫助改善雇傭工人的不公平條件。

The disaster graphically demonstrated the true cost of quickly changing trends, or “fast fashion”, for high-street brands such as Gap and Benetton: dangerous working conditions, long hours and little pay for the garment workers. And what made it worse is that 2013 was global fashion’s most profitable year to date.
這場災難赤裸裸地證明了快速變化的流行趨勢或者“快時尚”的真實消耗成本，像是Gap和貝納通這樣的主流時尚品牌的背后是服裝工人危險的工作環境，超長的工作時間，以及微薄的薪水。更糟糕的是2013年是迄今為止全球時尚業最賺錢的一年。

“Most of the public is still not aware that human and environmental abuses are endemic across the fashion and textiles industry and that what they’re wearing could have been made in an exploitative way,” says Carry Somers, the co-founder of Fashion Revolution, who argues that transparency is the first step towards persuading brands to take responsibility for working conditions across the supply chain. Which is why, last week, people are taking those “label selfies”, tagging the brands of what they’re wearing, and asking #whomademyclothes.
“大多數公眾都沒有意識到濫用人力和環境資源是時尚業和紡織業的常態，也沒有意識到他們穿在身上的衣服是通過剝削工人、濫用資源的方式制作而成。”凱瑞?薩摩斯說道。他是“時尚革命”的共同創始人，并且提出透明度是讓品牌主動對整個供應鏈工作環境負責的第一步。這就是為什么上周人們要進行“標簽自拍”，指出他們衣服的品牌，并詢問#誰制作了我的衣裳。

Often the answer will be “poor Bangladeshis”. But similar working conditions prevail across the globe, and the big brands seem blithely unconcerned. The international Behind the Barcode report, published last year by the charity Baptist World Aid Australia, found that 86 percent of brands surveyed made no attempt to ensure a living wage across their supply chains, and half didn’t even know the locations of the factories in which their garments are made. And while H&M and Inditex (Zara) have taken action to pay wages above the legal minimum at the final stage of production, in the “cut-make-trim” factories, this does not extend to the textile workers, who spin or embroider the fabric, or to the cotton farmers at the very beginning of the supply chain.
大多的答案都是“可憐的孟加拉國”。但是全球各地都有著類似糟糕的工作環境，但是大品牌貌似對此毫不關心。去年澳大利亞世界援助浸信會慈善機構出版了“條形碼背后”國際性調查報告，報告發現86%參與調查的品牌沒有打算確保整個供應鏈的最低生活工資，一半的品牌甚至不知道制作服裝的工廠在哪里。雖然H&M和Zara已經開始采取行動，在生產的最后階段支付高于法定最低標準的工資，在裁縫制衣工廠里，這些福利不涉及到紡織或刺繡工人，也不包括在供應鏈最前端的種植棉花的農民。

The latter certainly deserve better treatment. In the past 15 years, there have been 250,000 cotton-farmer suicides in India (equivalent to one every 30 minutes) because they simply can’t make ends meet. But, says Somers: “Tragedies are preventable. All we need is to make every stakeholder in the fashion supply chain responsible and accountable for their action and impacts. We have incredible power as consumers, if we choose how to use it.”
后者當然應該受到更好的對待。過去的15年里，印度有25萬名種植棉花的農民自殺（相當于每30分鐘一個人自殺）因為他們根本就無法養家糊口。但是薩摩斯說：“悲劇是可以阻止的。我們所需要做的是讓每一個時尚業供應鏈中的利益相關者對他們的行為和影響負責。如果找到使用權力的方法，我們作為消費者也能具有驚人的力量。”

The 63-million reach of last year’s #whomademyclothes hashtags is just a first step.
去年#誰制作了我的衣裳的標簽運動有6300萬人參與，這只是開始。

Vocabulary

come clean: 全盤招供；坦白交待
iniquitous: 邪惡的；不公正的
stakeholder: 利益相關者

英文來源：獨立報
譯者：Betty_Field
審校&編輯：丹妮