Ethical Time, the ethical clothing revolution, is here

Polluting cotton crops, labour and child explotation, labour slavery with excruciatingly long work hours and ridiculously low wages, process making a few richer and many poorer, etc. The list of damages caused by “fast fashion” in the global textile industry of large brands is everywhere. When we buy, we are choosing the world in which we want to live.

Documentaries such as 'The True Cost' (2016), Las costuras de la piel (2013), 'Slowing down fast fashion' (2016) or 'River Blue' (2016) are just a few of the audiovisual works shedding light on this shady business in recent years.

Ignasi Eiriz, who studies advertising and public relations at the Pompeu Fabra University became aware of this and developed the Ethical Time platform to change the way in which clothes are consumed in Europe.

After two years of work and a crowdfunding campaign (which raised 20,000 Euro), on 16^th April the website went live to offer a virtual space on ethical and sustainable fashion. Ethical Time brings together more than 300 clothes, shoes and accessories’ shops and brands what want a change in conventional textile industry, offering around 1,000 items produced sustainably.

“An alternative exists, through the way we buy. Many people are aware of problems, but few of them act consequently because they don’t know where to buy sustainable clothing” says Eiriz, the founder of Ethical Time. The goal of the platform is to transform one of the most polluting industries on Earth and to end production chains that allow human and labour rights to be violated.

The website has an online store and a map to locate shops where you can buy sustainable products in cities all around Europe. This initiative has been possible thanks to the help of 600 sponsors, and the support of Intermon Oxfam, SETEM’s Clean Clothes campaign  and Spain’s network for sustainable fashion.