Campaign calls for renown fashion houses to stop using sandblasting, a technique for producing denim with artificially worn look, Dolce & Gabbana responded by deleting comments on its Facebook page.

Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana has deleted comments made on its Facebook page by nearly 30,000 activists calling on the company to ban the process of sandblasting, which gives jeans a used look but is highly dangerous to workers.

The Clean Clothes Campaign, having been led on the social action platform Change.org. has singled out Dolce & Gabbana for special attention after it said it was not interested.

Dolce & Gabbana not interested in deaths of  Sandblasting workers

Three of Italy’s best-known fashion houses are in docks over refusing to stop selling “killer jeans” that threaten the lives of workers in the poor countries where they are produced.

The Clean Clothes Campaign began pressing  in February for leading fashion manufacturers, retailers and designers to ban sandblasting, a technique for producing denim garments with an artificially worn look.

The large amounts of silica dust produced in the sandblasting process can lead to silicosis, a potentially lethal pulmonary disease.

Turkey banned Sandblasting Process in 2009

The process was banned in Turkey in 2009 after evidence was produced to show that 46 former sandblasting operators had contracted silicosis.

More  than 34,000 people have put their names to a petition drafted by the Clean Clothes Campaign and made available for endorsement on the website Change.org. The campaign’s Italian spokeswoman, Deborah Lucchetti, stated a number of well-known designers, manufacturers and retailers had already eliminated sandblasted denim clothing from their collections. They included including Levi’s, H&M and C&A.

Some Italian fashion designers on the campaign : ‘Thank you. We aren’t interested, we are interested in more money’

In Italy both Gucci and Versace had responded favourably. Gucci in particular was “responsible and advanced … mature.”

But Giorgio Armani, Roberto Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana had not budged, Lucchetti said. “In these seven months, they are the only companies that have remained totally indifferent.”

The campaign has singled out Dolce & Gabbana for special attention. Lucchetti said the Clean Clothes Campaign made a practice of notifying companies before they were targeted.

“Dolce & Gabbana telephoned me to say thanks for the info and that it did not interest them. I was pretty surprised. This is a serious issue, where many people have died because of sandblasting,” she stated.

In a statement issued on 5 August, Change.org accused Dolce & Gabbana of having “deleted posts on its Facebook wall after Change.org members posted messages demanding that the company ban sandblasting”.

Clean Clothes Campaign : Dolce and Gabanna plan to continue sandblasting

The move had found negative response by Gianni Versace earlier this year, which turned off its Facebook wall to new posts, and also scrubbed existing comments, after it was swamped by protesters in Europe and America demanding an end to sandblasting.

Versace then reviewed its stance and decided to ban its clothing suppliers from using sandblasting, which kill workers in a sad way.

But while a number of major brands, such as Levi’s, H&M, C&A and Gucci, no longer use sandblasting, Dolce & Gabbana has explicitly told the Clean Clothes Campaign it has no plans to end the process.

 

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