On November 12, Nayla Ajaltouni of the organization Collectif Éthique sur l’étiquette came to speak to the first year Fashion Studies students in their Fashion Systems class about the ethics and labour rights of garment manufacturer workers. Nayla has an education background in Cultural Mediation and Economics, and she is currently working with NGO associations for the Economics for labour rights in developing countries through Collectif Éthique sur l’étiquette.
Nayla’s primary concern deals with the lack of laws in developing countries in the textiles industry, and the legal rights of labourers working for fast fashion brands in those countries. She introduced the Clean Clothes Campaign, which is global alliance focused on improving working conditions and empowering workers in the global garment industries. They have created events to raise public awareness on the violation of labour rights done by brands and companies. In close, Nayla showed the class a video of an event where volunteers went into stores including H&M and Celio and attached tags onto the products, with the hourly wages of the workers that produced the garments indicated on the tag. This would help the shoppers to be more mindful of the condition in which their purchase was created.
Written by Lily Li, MA Fashion Studies
Photos by Rocio Sanchez, MA Fashion Studies
