Long-established structures of inequality are deeply rooted in interdependent global-local economic production systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated the disparities between the Global North and Global South, with succinct explanations of the course and effects of this unbalanced yet intersecting relationship within international trade, where concerns regarding women’s empowerment are of the utmost importance. To reconceptualize a new norm that is more sustainable through fair trade, the chapter calls for transformative research that emphasizes the centrality of women’s empowerment in researching social change in the Indian garment industry. Despite the global prominence of India’s garment industry, women labourers come from the most economically and socially marginalized communities in India. As the pandemic reveals the most vulnerable global arrangements, we analyze how alternative forms of commerce that are socially committed to the cause of women may pave a different path for women during the pandemic and provide timely support.