Ethical Clothing Australia has launched its 'Meet Your Maker' campaign in an attempt to create more transparency in the lucrative world of fashion.
Giving voice to the 50,000 outworkers who churn out garments for the $3 billion industry, the campaign is a chance to improve working conditions and give workers more legal protection.
"We should not be hiding them away," Simon McRea from Ethical Clothing Australia told SBS. "We should be out there saying we are a very talented nation, we can actually do things really well and it's not just about cheap imports from China. It's about doing things the right way in Australia."
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Outworkers, who are mostly from migrant backgrounds, are getting paid as little as three dollars an hour, with no superannuation or injury cover.
"Some workers they get good pay now and their conditions improve a little bit but we still want more legal protection for outworkers," said Bich Thuy Pham from Asian Women at Work.
To draw attention to this, 'Meet Your Maker' will enable consumers the opportunity to see the faces behind their clothes.
Businesses who support the campaign will display specially marked labels on their garments which will provide a website link where the maker's story is told.
Ginger and Smart designers, Alexandra and Genevieve Smart, are urging the industry to throw their weight behind the initiative.
"Just like the food industry, people really care about the providence of where things come from and the intellectual property and the design and authenticity behind the scenes that goes into a garment," Alexandra said.
