Showcasing The Garment Worker Project at Sotheby's, NYC
The Garment Worker Project debuted in July 2016 at Sotheby's in New York City. Created out of a collaboration between nonprofit organization Muni Seva Ashram (MSA), veterans of the garment industry, and the team behind behno, MSA Ethos is an ethical knits and wovens ready-to-wear factory that first implemented "The behno Standard."
Through the Garment Worker Project, behno’s founder, Shivam Punjya invited fashion photographer Dan Smith and documentary filmmaker Kent Mathews to MSA Ethos to explore the less visible side of fashion. Smith captured the unique individuals of MSA Ethos through an emotional series of intimate portraits while Mathews documented their personal stories and the unique infrastructure of the factory through documentary film.
Ultimately, the initiative demonstrates that garment workers are not a commodity and that garment production in the multibillion-dollar fashion industry does not need to be based on the exploitation of labor.