Become an Activist with Remake’s Rebecca Blake Thompson

by Carley Lake | Last Updated:   July 29, 2020

Ethical fashion advocate, warrior, and journalist Rebecca Blake Thompson didn’t see herself as an activist at first. Soon she started to get curious about the fashion industry issues. Once she got that fire of curiosity and asking questions she knew she needed to tell people what she was learning. She channeled that into writing, speaking, and finding a like-minded community. 

Rebecca has now seen the power of herself and others coming together to use their voices collectively to make fashion a force for good. 

Learn more about how to become an activist with Rebecca and learn about how a social media campaign and 1,000s of people raising their voices unlocked an estimated $1 billion for suppliers in Bangladesh and $22 billion globally in just the last few months. 

So, who are you? 🙂 

My Instagram bio says I am an ethical fashion warrior. In order to take on any established mindset you need to have that mindset to be a warrior and/or an activist. Wanting to create change in a system as pervasive as the fashion industry is not for the faint of heart; you really have to be strong and resilient. You have to understand this is not about quick fixes and small changes. This is about a dedicated activism toward creating lasting change.

I consider myself an ethical fashion warrior and activist because I use my voice and conversations like this to help share the stories that I have seen and heard, to share my own story, and to learn from others and their stories to hopefully use that as a way to create change. I’m most passionate about the sustainable fashion industry which I love. I’m a vegan, I’m a mom, I’m a wife. I try to take that mindset of “how can I be the best human?” into everything I do. That obviously doesn’t mean I am the best human but I just try to think about creating the change I want to see. That is the goal. 

Why did you decide to study and pursue fashion? 

When I was 4 years old I started doing fashion shows in my living room. I would put a sheet up over the wall in between the dining room and the living room, change “backstage”, and use the coffee table as my runway and walk to the end of it and walk back. I think I was always drawn to fashion because for me fashion is my art form. For me the ways that clothes can be manipulated to create different silhouettes, the different textures, the different colors, and the way fabric can draw your eye to different places, and most importantly the way we can use it to express ourselves made it art for me. We can be anyone we want to be through a costume change, through fashion.

I was always drawn to that freedom of expression and to me fashion is so beautiful because it is also very democratic. Everyone can express themselves through it. I have always been inspired by what other people can do with fashion. I’m not a designer but I  like to help people who are designers express themselves. 

After undergrad I moved to Miami to do PR for a fashion boutique on Lincoln Road in South Beach. They needed so much help merchandising the store and the buyer needed help taking notes at buying appointments so I went. This was my first exposure to the fashion industry and I really loved it. After a couple years in Miami I decided to move to New York to go to fashion school at FIT and majored in fashion merchandising management. I started knocking on doors, asking people if I could be their intern. Every single one led to the next opportunity or two down the road. That is what I love about fashion—there is a lot of divisiveness, but also interconnectedness, help, and support. 

What are your key learnings from working at top brands?

LIke a lot of systems in place, we just don’t question them. We have always been in it, that’s what we know, that’s just how it’s been, you have never thought otherwise. What drew me in to fashion—the creative expression, the preps for runway shows and fashion weeks and all of that was great. It wasn’t until I saw “The True Cost” documentary that I was like “What?!”.

Once you know you can’t unknow or unsee everything you have seen. Once you have that realization you can’t delete that memory. I had never equated activism with fashion until I saw this documentary. And I realized, this industry that I love and has brought me so much joy and creativity is completely broken. I think you can be overwhelmed by something and it is easier to walk away. But because I loved fashion so much I realized the best thing to do would be to stick with it and try to create change in this system I loved. Instead of walking away because you realize this thing you are passionate about has this terrible, dirty secret you can be part of fixing it for good and making fashion a force of good.

One of the most valuable things I took from the documentary, which is something I now preach, is the idea of curiosity. We need to be more curious about the world around us— where things come from, how they are made, how they got us. I apply that same curiosity to food, purchases, to everything. 

Sustainable fashion can be so overwhelming and intimidating. But you don’t need to Konmari your closet and buy a $400 ethical dress. You just need to start with curiosity and asking questions. Don’t start with perfection, start with curiosity. Once I got that fire of curiosity I started to dig deeper and ask questions. That is where my activism and journalism started. Then I was like, how do I tell people?, and channeled that into my writing and speaking and finding other people to share this passion with. 

How did you go from running accounts at fashion companies to focusing on sustainable fashion? Why did you make this shift to becoming an activist?

When I had this light bulb moment I was working at the largest fashion corporation in the US at Michael Kors. I didn’t have any expectation about making change from within, not to discourage anyone from doing so. This was also around the time my partner and I started looking towards the west coast. I had worked in the relentless pace of New York fashion for 10+ years. 

So when I realized I wanted to go on this sustainable journey I started looking into sustainable grad programs. I found a program at Presidio Graduate School in Sustainability Management. 

With regards to my personal style, since I had that lightbulb moment, I have never stepped foot into a Zara, or H&M, or Forever 21. I had no regrets or feeling of loss. It was almost like a repulsion to that compulsive consumer lifestyle I had. Really quickly I embraced secondhand. My guilty shopping is now through TheRealReal. 

I have always loved thrifting and it started when I lived in Miami for 60s and 70s pieces. When I had this shift I realized I could get modern clothes secondhand too. I believe just because something is worn once doesn’t mean it’s useless. To me it has more value. 

What work are you most passionate about right now within the sustainable fashion space?

I am super passionate about Remake and the work they do. I started with Remake as an ambassador and as a journalist. What is so special about Remake is that Remake understands that for true lasting change to happen, it is going to have to come from the consumers’ shift in thoughts, attitudes, and activism. Corporations aren’t all going to all of a sudden altruistically decide to do the right thing. Consumers can put brands out of business. These corporations will shift because they need consumers. 

The attitude at Remake is focused on talking to the consumer and helping them understand they do have power and their voice, especially through social media, is very impactful. Even if you have 10 followers, using your voice to share things you have learned, and to help normalize repeating outfits, swapping, ang buying secondhand will have a positive effect. We really need to create a shift in the thinking that everything has to be new and can’t be seen more than once. It has been ingrained in us by these fashion companies so we buy more and more.

The other thing that is so special about Remake is that we have the garment workers tell their own stories. It is a platform for workers to share their stories with the world and a platform for us as consumers to come together and learn how to use our voices individually and collectively to make fashion a force for good. 

We need to create a culture shift to have a lasting impact.

Can you tell us a little bit more about one of the most recent campaigns, the #PayUp Campaign?

The #PayUp campaign focused on the garment workers in Bangladesh. It was focused there because mega brands like Primark and The Gap were not just cancelling future orders, but were also not paying for things that had already been made. And of course, there is no liability or no international court of law to hold them accountable. The workers in these factories are completely powerless. The only power they had was through our community using our voices to call out these brands on social media.

The brands started to change their behavior thanks to the power of the petition, and really, the power of social media (being tagged on 1,000s of comments calling for justice). These brands don’t want this negative press. If no one had shined a light on it  do you think they would have changed their behavior? Absolutely not. If they hadn’t received the public pressure through the campaign they wouldn’t have acted. 

19 brands have committed to pay in full for orders completed and in production. It is estimated that the #PayUp campaign has unlocked an estimated $1 billion for suppliers in Bangladesh and $22 billion globally. 

What keeps you continuing to be a warrior and an activist? How can we become activists?

What keeps me going is knowing Individual voices, collectively raised, can create real change. If I was only thinking about myself – can I take on Gap , ASOS…no. Through all of us collectively raising our voices more people are realizing what is happening, more people are getting curious, more people are embracing the discomfort, embracing the fact that they are going to sacrifice things, but it is worth it and then becoming activists themselves. When we all do that together huge change can happen—that is what keeps me going. 

What upcoming sustainable fashion initiatives and change are you excited about?

Something I would like to call attention to is our current campaign Made in America. Most consumers think that Made in the US is an ethical, sustainable beacon of perfect, and moral high ground. The reality is sweatshops aren’t just a problem in developing countries.

By best estimates there are 45,000 garment workers in Los Angeles and what we call “sweatshops” are pervasive. The statistics shared from The Garment Work Center is that the average worker today makes less than $6 an hour. Minimum wage in California is $15. These operations are working illegally. These laws also don’t have manpower to enforce them. A lot of these workers are undocumented immigrants. Our campaign now is tonlook at what “Made in America” really means. You can also learn more about this in my article “Ross Exploits” in partnership with, and in support of, the The Garment Work Center.

One brand I would love to call out for doing good is SUAY. The brand has radical transparency, pays garment workers a fair wage, and more. 

Remember to use that curiosity to look deeper. Don’t be asleep; be a conscious consumer. Don’t passively buy things. You still have to ask questions. We need to keep digging deeper and a lot of the change we need to do right here at home. 

And remember that everything is connected. The reason the fashion industry is so exploitative is because capitalism is exploitative. It takes advantage of certain people so other people can have unfeathered growth. Capitalism as a structure is unstable and not sustainable. It relies on bailouts to prop it up because the system itself doesn’t work. The earth itself is a closed-loop system. So I do think you have to go to capitalism. You can’t fix fashion in a silo; it is all connected. We can’t keep producing and consuming and then throwing away and burning endless amounts of clothes. We need a drastic lowering of consumption which doesn’t jive with capitalism so it is and must be part of the conversation.

Thank you, Rebecca, for showing us how to become an activist! 

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