Zady Announces U.S. Programming for Fashion Revolution Week 2016

​​​​Weeklong series of events will mark third anniversary of the tragic Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh and showcase sustainable solutions for fashion’s future. 

Zady will expose supply chain for its limited edition “Live In Simplicity T-Shirt”, made in the U.S. from field to factory using Zady’s The New Standard (https://zady.com/features/the-new-standard-why-now), the sustainable method of production that includes impacts from design through production. T-Shirt will debut on Zady’s site on Earth Day (April 22, 2016), and is made of USDA organic cotton from Texas, spun, knit, cut, sewn, and dyed in North Carolina, and embroidered in New York.

Maxine Bédat, co-founder and CEO of fashion brand Zady and U.S. Chair of Fashion Revolution, today announced a week of US programming
for Fashion Revolution Week, launching on April 18.

Beginning on Monday, April 18, a weeklong series of events will sweep the country, culminating with Fashion Revolution Day on April 24 – a global movement calling for awareness and action to ensure a more transparent, sustainable and ethical future for the fashion industry. Marking the anniversary of the Rana Plaza clothing factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, Fashion Revolution Day honors the 1,134 lives lost and 2,500 innocents injured during the world’s most catastrophic manufacturing tragedy in history and looks to the future where the industry no longer is the second most polluting sector.

Fashion Revolution Week Event and Activations

The flagship U.S. Fashion Revolution event will be held in New York, NY, the US fashion capital, with Zady at Parsons School of Design. Additional events will take place at educational institutions throughout the city, such as the Fashion Institute of Technology and the School of Visual Arts, and throughout the nation, including Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; St. Louis, MO; Providence, RI; Champaign, IL; and Puerto Rico. The Fashion Revolution message will also spread throughout the United States via social media.

Select New York event details are highlighted below, and a full calendar of events is available at http://fashionrevolution.org/events/.

•       FLAGSHIP EVENT- Monday, April 18, at Parsons School of Design: In honor of Fashion Revolution Day, Zady and Parsons will present an Evening Celebrating the Future of Fashion, recognizing industry leaders that have made outstanding achievements supporting sustainable fashion. The event will include a conversation with participants including Patagonia Vice President of Environmental Affairs Rick Ridgeway, celebrity stylist Sarah Slutsky, and Quartz fashion reporter Marc Bain, an introduction from Parsons School of Design Dean of Fashion Burak Cakmak, and will be moderated by Zady CEO and co-founder Maxine Bédat. The invite-only event will take place at 63 Fifth Avenue, in Parsons’ Starr Foundation Hall.

•       Wednesday, April 20, at Soho House New York: Zady will host a conversation entitled “The Future of Sustainable Style,” exploring how brands, consumers and non-profits can work together to define the future of fashion. Industry experts will discuss the role designers, consumers, technology and innovation play in generating positive change in the fashion industry. This is a private, invitation-only event.

•       April 18 - April 24, on Social Media: During Fashion Revolution Week, the world will again come together through a social media campaign that asks consumers to question clothing production, using the hashtags #FashRev and #whomademyclothes to challenge clothing brands to take responsibility for their production processes and expose their full supply chains. You can join the global #FashRev conversation online throughout Fashion Revolution Week. Take a photo with your clothing label showing (if it makes sense, you can even wear the item inside out), tag the brand that made the item, and use the hashtags #FashRev and #whomademyclothes to ask that brand for information about the origin and process behind the piece. If the piece in question is a cotton T-shirt, for example, we hope the company who made it will be inspired to tell you who grew the cotton, spun the threads, dyed the fabric, and sewed the shirt together.

•       April 18 - 24, by Student Groups: Universities and high schools across the US will be participating in Fashion Revolution this year, including UCLA, the University of Illinois, and Rhode Island School of Design.

For all the details surrounding the U.S. programming for Fashion Revolution Week 2016, please visit: http://fashionrevolution.org/country/usa/.

“Zady continues to be honored to serve as the U.S. Chair of Fashion Revolution. We are proud to have developed true, research-backed sustainable practices from the farm through the entire production process and work on creating a dialogue with the broader industry for system-wide positive change.” On the subject of the flagship US Fashion Revolution event on April 18, Bédat continued, “together with Parsons School of Design, we have an incredible opportunity to honor leaders in the space and bring the conversation about innovation and future of fashion to the industry and those that impact it. This kind of conversation is a live embodiment of The New Standard [https://zady.com/thenewstandard], a transparent, sustainable approach to production that is derived from in-depth research into the impact of fashion production and consumption on our ecosystems and beyond. The New Standard reveals fashion’s contribution to climate change, water pollution, soil degradation, and water scarcity, and its exploitation of the 1 in 6 individuals throughout the world who are garment workers. We apply The New Standard when creating The Zady Collection, and applaud industry leaders who operate with this framework in mind as well.”

As US leader of Fashion Revolution Week, Zady will once again expose its supply chain, debuting the Live In Simplicity T-Shirt on Earth Day, April 22. This limited edition shirt was made pursuant to the guidelines set forth in Zady’s The New Standard. Specifically, the T-shirt begins with pure, USDA-certified organic cotton that has been grown and ginned in Texas, is then spun, knit, cut, sewn and dyed in North Carolina without the use of toxic materials and with safe treatment of water, and is embroidered in New York City. Zady will debut the shirt on its site on Earth Day 2016 as a reminder that at a time when the fashion industry is the world’s second most polluting sector and a perpetrator of myriad labor violations on a global scale, citizen consumers have the option of purchasing clothes that marry environmentally and ethically sound practices with considered design.  

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For All U.S. Media Inquiries, Contact Neeta Menon at Zady:

neeta@zady.com |

About Fashion Revolution

Fashion Revolution is a coalition of consumers, designers, academics, writers, business leaders and government officials calling for systemic reform of the fashion supply chain. On April 24, 2016, coordinated teams in 80 countries around the world will challenge global fashion brands to demonstrate commitment to transparency across the length of the value chain, from farmers to factory workers, brands to buyers and consumers. Fashion Revolution Day 2016 marks the third anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which killed 1,134, and injured over 2,500 people. With one-in-six people working in the global fashion supply chain today, fashion is the most labor-dependent industry on the planet. Yet, the people who make our clothes are hidden from us, often at their own expense, a symptom of the broken links across the fashion industry. Fashion Revolution believes in an industry that values people, the environment, creativity and profit in equal measure. Fashion Revolution Week 2016 marks a time when we can all come together to support that mission and implement steps to effect positive change. Learn more at www.fashionrevolution.org.

About Zady

Zady is the leading fashion brand creating a long-term vision for the $1.5 trillion apparel industry. In contrast to today’s world of fast-fashion, Zady believes in timeless style and products that last a lifetime, not just a few washes. Providing an alternative for consumers, Zady offers luxury clothing created with premium natural fibers by farmers and craftsmen who are masters at their craft, all while creating the industry standard for ethics and sustainability. The NYC-based company launched in August 2013 and was founded by Maxine Bédat and Soraya Darabi. Visit Zady at www.zady.com.

About Parsons School of Design

Parsons School of Design is one of the leading institutions for art and design education in the world. Based in New York but active around the world, the school offers undergraduate and graduate programs in the full spectrum of art and design disciplines. Critical thinking and collaboration are at the heart of a Parsons education. Parsons graduates are leaders in their respective fields, with a shared commitment to creatively and critically addressing the complexities of life in the 21st century.  For more information, visit www.newschool.edu/parsons.

About The Fashion Industry Today

·                 The global apparel market was valued at US$1.7 trillion in 2012.

·                 Virtuous consumers globally spend over US$500 billion on their lifestyles of health and sustainability.

·                 Today, 150 billion garments are produced annually worldwide. That’s a closet full of throwaway clothes for every man, woman and child on earth, every year.

·                 The apparel sector is the second most polluting industry in the world, second only to energy.

·                 The textile industry is responsible for 20% of the world’s total industrial water pollution.

·                 Cancer, asthma and neurological problems associated with chemicals used in apparel manufacturing are on the rise.

·                 More than 2,500,000,000 pounds of used clothing ends up in landfills each year. The average person adds more than 67 pounds of clothing to the pile each year.

·                 Synthetic fabric will take more than 200 years to decompose in landfills once discarded.

·                 The fashion industry absorbs 25% of all globally manufactured chemicals.

·                 The textile industry is responsible for 30% of industrial air pollution in China.

·                 There are 4.7 million child workers in Bangladesh. The minimum wage in Bangladesh is $39/month.

·                 When you donate clothing, the low quality stuff can only be used as rags or thrown out. The quality pieces are mostly sent to sub Saharan Africa where the flood of clothing has decimated local industry. Used clothing donations to sub-Saharan African countries were responsible for roughly 39% of the annual decline in apparel production, and roughly half of the annual decline in apparel employment between 1981 and 2000.