Cora Maria

Photography by @vessmess_create The first time I heard of sweatshops was in primary school. I can’t remember the details, but my class and the one next door were sitting in front of our teachers who, in the middle of reading or teaching or making announcements, had somehow gone on a tangent where they briefly talked about children in sweatshops. This was in 2010. Three years before Rana Plaza. The first time I heard of sustainable fashion was in my first year of university. I can’t remember the details, but out of a list of six social enterprises, I chose to do an assignment on Undress Runways . I watched Edda Hamar’s Ted Talk on the harsh realities of the fast fashion industry. I watched her explain the origin of the $15 dress she wore, and I watched her take it off, undo a belt, and a bamboo dress tumbled to her ankles. On the Undress Runways website, I flicked through the brands she featured on her runway. None of them, apart from one that looked to be inactive, looked li