Most clothes are made by garment workers in factories across Asia, Africa, and Central America. The people who cut, sew, dye, and finish the clothes you wear are overwhelmingly women, often working long hours for low wages in conditions most consumers never see. Understanding who makes your clothes is the first step toward understanding how the fashion industry really works.
Do you know who makes your clothes?
When you pick up a garment in a store or click "add to cart" online, there is very little information about who actually made it. Fashion brands are not required in most countries to disclose their full supply chains, and the journey from raw material to finished garment can involve dozens of factories across multiple countries. This lack of transparency makes it almost impossible for consumers to know who made their clothes, where, or under what conditions.
Fashion is the fourth biggest industry globally, with an estimated 3.45 billion people connected to its supply chains worldwide. Developing nations account for 60% of global clothing exports, driven largely by access to low-cost labour and limited regulatory oversight.
Campaigns like Fashion Revolution's "Who Made My Clothes?" have drawn global attention to this question, but for most brands, the answer remains difficult to find.
Where are clothes made?
The majority of the world's clothing is produced in countries where labour is cheapest. Bangladesh, China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia are among the largest garment-producing nations. These countries offer brands access to large workforces and lower production costs, which is why so much manufacturing has moved offshore from countries like Australia, the UK, and the US over the past several decades.
Production doesn't happen in one place. A single garment might involve cotton grown in India, fabric woven in China, dyed in Bangladesh, cut and sewn in Vietnam, and shipped to a warehouse in Europe or Australia before reaching a consumer. This complexity makes supply chains difficult to trace and even harder to regulate.
Who are garment workers?
Garment workers are the people who physically make your clothes. The global garment workforce is estimated at over 60 million people. Around 80% of garment workers across the world are women. Many are young, some are migrants, and a significant number work in informal or subcontracted settings where labour protections are weak or unenforced.
These workers perform skilled tasks including pattern cutting, sewing, finishing, pressing, and quality control. Despite the skill required, garment work is among the lowest-paid manufacturing work in the world.
What are working conditions like?
Working conditions in garment factories vary widely, but investigations and reports consistently reveal serious concerns. Long working hours, forced overtime, unsafe buildings, exposure to chemicals, restriction of bathroom breaks, and verbal or physical abuse have all been documented in factories supplying major global brands.
Many factories operate under intense pressure to meet tight deadlines and low price points set by brands. This pressure is passed directly to workers, who may be required to work 12 to 16 hour shifts during peak production periods with little notice.
Why are wages low?
Garment workers in many producing countries earn a legal minimum wage, but minimum wage is not the same as a living wage. In Bangladesh, for example, the minimum wage for garment workers has historically been well below what is needed to cover basic living costs including food, housing, healthcare, and education.
The gap between minimum wage and living wage exists because brands compete on price. When a brand negotiates the lowest possible cost per garment, the savings often come directly from labour costs. Workers bear the financial pressure of an industry built on volume and speed.
What happened at Rana Plaza?
On 24 April 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed. 1,134 people were killed and over 2,500 were injured. The building housed five garment factories supplying international brands. Workers had reported cracks in the building the day before, but were told to return to work.
"The Rana Plaza disaster is the deadliest garment factory incident in history. It exposed the human cost of fast fashion and forced a global conversation about who is responsible when the systems behind our clothes fail the people who make them."
- The True Cost
The collapse became a turning point for the fashion industry. It led to the creation of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, increased scrutiny of supply chain practices, and the founding of Fashion Revolution, which marks the anniversary each year with its global "Who Made My Clothes?" campaign.
Who owns fashion designs?
Intellectual property in fashion is complicated. In most countries, garment designs are not protected by copyright in the same way that art, music, or literature are. This means designs can be copied freely, which is one reason fast fashion brands, widely criticised for copying designs, can produce near-identical versions of runway or independent designs so quickly.
For smaller designers and independent brands, this lack of protection can be devastating. Designs that take months to develop can be replicated and mass-produced within weeks, often at a fraction of the price, with no credit or compensation to the original creator.