Five years ago today the devastating collapse of the Rana Plaza – just outside of Dhaka – started to unfold. As a Fashion Marketing student at the time, I remember the collapse well. Very well, in fact. In this blog post we look at the Rana Plaza collapse more closely, and discuss the importance of fashion revolution. 

So, let’s recap what happened, shall we?

Five years ago today, staff noticed deep cracks had appeared within the walls of the eight storey building, so asked their managers to let them stay at home the next day. Regardless of the unsettling sights of Rana Plaza – and sadly – staff were told to return to work as usual. The next day they could blatantly see that the building was unsafe, but they were forced to go inside and carry out work as usual. Then, just before 9am, the floors began to fall with the staff following shortly after. It took just 90 seconds for Rana Plaza to collapse, killing 1,134 innocent people.  

The collapsing of Rana Plaza is an atrocity that has been dubbed by unions as a “mass industrial homicide” and is often referred to as Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster.

Because of these traumatic events, it was evident that something had to change. It would be wrong of us to say things are completely different, but we know that things are changing – for the good. People are realising that we must ask questions. It’s good to find out where your products were made – and it’s important to know who they were made by. The products have their own stories before they get to you and become part of the fabric in your life. We believe these questions are important and hold accountability and responsibility towards the world and those around us. 

This is why we are celebrating Fashion Revolution.

As our customers, we want you to know that it matters to us that our products have come from happy places. We don’t believe in making others suffer at the cost of our jewellery – or, on a larger scale, any product that you can buy anywhere. We like to think our jewellery brings joy to you in the same way we hope it has brought joy and hope to the people who have made it.