Exploiting Loopholes and Young Girls: New York's Fashion Act Takes Aim at Holding the Fashion Industry Accountable

Perhaps I am a cynic but it appears to me, far too commonly, that words have become empty vessels bereft of worth and meaning. Maybe it is because I am a writer and storyteller, or maybe it is because I grew up with the understanding that words mattered and if you weren’t true to your word, you were shit.

But here we are in the twenty-first century where accountability holds little sway with words alone. That’s why legislation is so important because it creates laws that legally hold the fashion industry accountable for their gross violations of basic human welfare and aims to transform the industry entirely. And it's damn about time.

One such piece of legislation is the Fashion Workers Act. While not a federal act, the Fashion Workers Act is aimed at The United States’s fashion capital, New York City. 

• The Fashion Workers Act is legislation that will support creatives and models in the fashion industry by holding management companies accountable and creates specific protections for fashion’s creative workforce. 

Now, this isn’t to say that there haven’t been strides to extinguish this gross exploitation in the fashion industry. In 2021, the United States passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and California’s Garment Worker Protection Act. We will celebrate progress in whatever form it takes! And while these acts are vitally important in protecting the people that make our clothes, that’s where their coverage ends. 

New York City is home to more than 75 major fashion trade shows and thousands of showrooms, plus it is the headquarters of an estimated 900 fashion brands. To say that the fashion industry has an economic impact on the city would be an understatement.

Read the full article on Elephant Journal.