“Labour rights and climate justice are the bedrock of a functional economy and society” - Remake CMO on nonprofit’s closing

Who does not remember social impact initiatives like the #PayUp campaign or the #NoNewClothes challenge? Then there are the annual Fashion Accountability Reports and the “Made in…” film series, all initiatives by nonprofit Remake. Sadly, the organisation is forced to shut down at the end of the month after failing to secure the necessary funding to sustain its operations. This despite exploring various options like restructuring operations, seeking merger opportunities with aligned organisations, pivoting the model and pursuing new funding streams.

“After a decade of impactful work, the Remake board has decided it is time to close our doors at the end of this month. This is not an ending we are mourning. It is a milestone we are honouring,” announced founder Ayesha Barenblat in a message sent about a week earlier. 

 “Ten years ago, I had a simple but radical idea: what if we could remake the connections across fashion, human to human, woman to woman, and use those bonds to push for real change?,” remembers Barenblat Remake’s beginnings.

What started as conversations in classrooms at FIT, Parsons and California College of the Arts quickly grew beyond anyone’s imagination. Today, it is a sustainable fashion movement with 3,000 ambassadors across 80 countries and millions of people engaged to drive systemic change worldwide. 

So despite Remake officially closing, the movement will live on. For one, Remake’s Instagram account will remain active. In addition, Remake’s free educational resources including the garment worker story archive and advocacy toolkits will remain accessible online. A selection of sustainability resources will also be available through long-time partner Custom Collaborative based in New York City. Other partners like the Garment Worker Center, Labor Education Foundation and AWAJ Foundation will continue their work and provide a platform for community involvement. 

Despite all the achievements mentioned earlier and more, why does an organisation like Remake that so clearly touches a nerve have to close? Why has funding for labour organising and climate justice experienced such a sharp decline? And why is there a growing pushback against corporate accountability measures that organisations like Remake fought hard to establish? FashionUnited wanted to know more and spoke to Katrina Caspelich, Remake’s chief marketing officer. 

In the climate described above, what needs to change so that organisations like Remake can continue their work? 

Honestly, we need a fundamental rethink of how this work gets funded. For too long, advocacy organisations like ours have been dependent on philanthropic cycles that shift with political winds. What needs to change is a recognition that labour rights and climate justice are not niche causes, they are the bedrock of a functional economy and society. Foundations need to make longer term commitments rather than one or two year grants that force organisations into constant survival mode instead of strategic work.

We also need more solidarity between movements. Labour organisers, climate advocates, feminist organisations and racial justice groups are often fighting the same systems. When we pool resources and tell connected stories, we are harder to defund and harder to ignore. And frankly, individual giving matters more than ever right now. If people believe in this work, becoming a sustaining monthly donor, even at a small level, is one of the most stabilising things they can do for organisations like ours.

What has to change to halt the growing pushback against corporate accountability measures? 

The pushback we are seeing is not organic. It is coordinated and well-resourced, and we should name that clearly. Industry lobbying groups have spent years framing accountability as anti-business, when the reality is that unaccountable corporations externalise their costs onto workers, communities and the planet. Someone always pays, it just usually is not the brand. What needs to change is the narrative. We need to get much better at showing the public how corporate accountability is actually pro-worker, pro-community and pro-future. We need more journalists telling those stories, more politicians willing to champion them and more consumers connecting their purchasing power to their values.

Legal frameworks matter too. Voluntary commitments from brands have largely failed. We need binding legislation, like the supply chain due diligence laws emerging in Europe, to create a floor that companies cannot race beneath.

You mentioned journalists, what role can the media play to advocate for labour rights and climate justice? 

The media has an enormous responsibility here that I think is still underrealised. Fast fashion is one of the most reported on industries when it comes to trend coverage and far too rarely when it comes to accountability. That imbalance matters. Investigative journalism that follows supply chains, that puts names and faces to the workers making our clothes, that holds brands accountable for the gap between their marketing and their practices, that journalism changes things. We have seen it happen.

I would love to see more fashion media treat labour rights and sustainability not as a separate beat but as a lens applied across all coverage. Who made this collection? What are the conditions in these factories? What are the environmental costs? Those questions should be as standard as asking about the aesthetic inspiration. And media organisations can also look at their own advertising relationships. It is genuinely difficult to hold brands accountable when they are your biggest advertisers. That tension deserves an honest conversation.

For someone starting out in the textile and garment industry, as a designer, brand affiliate, factory owner or worker, what would be your advice, how can they make a difference? 

I would say know your supply chain and know it deeply. Whether you are a designer choosing fabrics or a brand owner placing orders, the decisions you make have real consequences for real people. That is not meant to be paralysing, it is actually empowering once you lean into it.

For designers specifically, I would encourage you to resist the pressure to produce more and faster. Some of the most exciting work happening in fashion right now is coming from people who are slowing down, using headstock fabrics, building relationships with ethical manufacturers, and creating pieces that are made to last.

For factory owners, investing in your workers is not charity, it is good business. High turnover, poor conditions and suppressed wages create instability. The factories that are thriving long term are the ones building trust with their workforce.

And for anyone in any of these other roles, find your “people,” your community. This work is hard to do in isolation but there is a growing global network of people trying to do it better.

Looking back at ten years of impactful activism, which community activism makes you proudest and why? 

There are so many moments I could point to, but what consistently moves me the most is the direct relationship we built with garment workers, particularly women on the front lines of fast fashion production. Our #PayUp campaign during Covid is one I will never forget. When the pandemic hit and brands cancelled orders overnight, leaving millions of workers without wages they had already earned, we helped mobilize over 300,000 people to demand accountability. And brands paid out over 22 billion US dollars in cancelled orders because everyday consumers refused to let them walk away. That felt like proof that people power is real. 

I am also proud of the work we did educating consumers through our Fashion Accountability Reports. Holding brands publicly accountable year after year, naming who is doing the work and who is not, shifted conversations in boardrooms in ways that quieter advocacy never could.

Remake may be closing its doors as an organisation but the movement it helped build is not going anywhere. The garment workers who found their voice, the consumers who became advocates, the students who chose careers in sustainable fashion because of the education we put into the world, that is a living legacy. I am incredibly proud of what this team built and I believe deeply that the work will continue in the hands of the community we helped grow. If you have ever bought less, asked more questions, signed a petition, donated, shared one of our reports, followed us on social media, you were part of this.

This interview was conducted in written format.