I often see photos of my high school self — wearing, for example, a cluttered Looney Tunes graphic tee with a floral overshirt and bright blue socks — and instinctively think, “How did my mother let me wear that?”
For most of my life, clothing has been an afterthought. Each day, I simply dig through my disorderly closet for something unwrinkled to wear at work. I never thought deeply about who made my clothes. Where are they from? What was happening in the lives of the garment workers as they stitched my cheesy graphic tees together?
That changed when I learned about Deepa. As a low-caste minority woman in Tamil Nadu, India, she first began making clothes at age 12, toiling for less than a Canadian dollar a week in a factory where supervisors would beat workers if they did not know how to work properly. Now in her 30s, she still makes clothes for a living.
Chances are your clothes come from the hands of a woman like Deepa. Women make up the vast majority of factory floor workers in the multi-trillion-dollar apparel industry, which sees billions in ad dollars go towards associating clothes with A-list celebrities and flashy logos.
I came across Deepa’s story when studying more than a thousand survey responses from women who work in the Indian garment industry, after the data had been shared with us by academic partners at Simon Fraser University.
Reporting on the realities for women on factory floors, we learned they regularly face sexual violence and harassment. Experts and researchers told us that for decades, it seemed like there was no effective solution. These issues never got attention, until sporadic horrible tragedies captured brief global outrage.
But Deepa and others are now noticing a major shift in her region, where an historic agreement between brands, factories and workers had finally proven effective in reducing violence and harassment. The legally binding contract ensured financial consequences if the factory failed to remedy violations of workers’ rights. However, our reporting found that most major clothing brands tend to avoid such contracts, and this deal which improved the lives of Deepa and so many others is now endangered.
We wanted readers to understand the true human cost stitched into their clothing, and the responsibilities major brands have towards their workers, but so often evade.
For me, reporting on vulnerable labourers has been a wake-up call, a reminder of how my consumer choices can crash up against the ethics of supply chains spanning continents. It’s also a reminder of how privileged I am to live in peace and safety, and to be able to go to work and tell these types of stories.
Now, when I pull on my clothes every morning, the routine is a little less mindless. I’m reminded that my messy closet is an archive of human labour and resilience. As journalists, we uncover the truths behind industries that the world takes for granted. As human beings, the least we can do is refuse to look away.
- Behind the Reporting: What does a T-shirt really cost? - 11 September 2026
- This deal has cut violence against women on factory floors, but many clothing brands won’t sign on. - 3 September 2026
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