Ethical Fashion Blog

This summer has been scorching. Also, this summer has been the busiest. Lots of exciting projects! I’ve pretty much resorted to wearing dresses only. This slightly cuts my prep time in the morning – dresses are no-brainers because it’s like an instant outfit.

AMERICA!

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. Three day weekends, fireworks, bar-b-ques, freedom. Mata’s Prairie Top was the perfect top to show my patriotism. It is such a good summer top – practically all of Mata’s pieces are 100% cotton. I also wore this earlier in the day. I get so many compliments on that dress, and I love the chambray.

Welcome New Fashion Blogger!

Laura is a wardrobe and image consultant and first came to Mata as a design intern from the Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago. Besides modeling in our catalogs, she also styled several of them and designed the layout. She’s got some serious fashion chops, and we love her intuitive sense of style and coolness.

Walking the Fair Trade Runway

Here are the first runway pics from Greenheart’s Fair Trade Fashion Show. A big thank you to all the fabulous models and to Greenheart Shop for putting on a great show!

Dangle Necklace in People Magazine

It’s so fun to see our Dangle Necklace featured in People Magazine’s June Style Watch.

A Very Mata Wedding Shower

Yesterday was Michelle’s wedding shower, and as you can see, Mata Traders was very well represented! Here we are all decked out in our Mata fashions. One of the co-ops we work with is making the bridesmaids’ dresses, which will be a similar design to the Gold Coast dress – seen below on Michelle and Andrea (Michelle’s sister and maid of honor).

Spot a Mata (Online Edition)

San Francisco fashion blogger Modelina Michelle found us in local boutique Marmalade, and if you’re in the Bay area, you can, too! Entitled “Sweet Bohemia,” Michelle’s post features the Edgewater dress, Lakeshore dress, Skylark skirt, and Symphony skirt from our new Spring line. She notes Mata’s bright colors, bold patterns, and laid back bohemian vibe, but she’s just as impressed with the line’s social impact – empowering Indian women. She asks, “How often can you buy a dress for yourself and help empower other women at the same time?” Thanks for the shout out, Michelle!

Our Skirt is Famous!

Well, maybe not THAT famous, but we are so proud of our little Arbor skirt for making it on a TV show! She was just a little fair trade skirt, and now she’s hit the big time. It was only by chance that we found out our skirt is a star. Our designer Kristin spotted it when she just happened to be watching her guilty pleasure, the show Pretty Little Liars. She was amazed to discover that our Arbor skirt from Winter 2010 is featured on one of the actresses!

Happy Holidays from the Mata Team

Focus Group Fun

It’s early November… time to place orders with our producer groups for Spring/Summer 2011. To help us determine what to order, we hosted a focus group on Friday, November 5th at our office/warehouse space. The samples we worked on in India this summer were on display, and our focus group participants completed surveys rating each item’s style and color variations.

JHOOLE

We want to thank Hannah Warren, founder and Executive Director of Jhoole, for being such a fabulous host! We spent two lovely days designing in the peaceful town of Maheshwar – best known for the talent of its handloom weavers – in Madhya Pradesh (central India) where Jhoole is located. It was a true relief to escape the chaos of big-city India for a moment; Maheshwar, with a population of just over 20,000, actually feels chill, like a village! We ate home cooked meals and got to know the townspeople a bit.

A Day In The Sampling Unit...

For me – up at 7 AM to watch the sun rise like a ball of fury over the lake. For the first time in years the lakes are full here — rain, rain and more rain has turned this town lush with beautiful shades of green. Breakfast while e-mailing (yes, our dear, dear guest house owner installed wifi for which I am ever so thankful) consists of “egg cheese toast” and a Starbucks coffee travel packet necessary to wake me up. Off to the co-op by 9 AM, running various errands along the way.

Designing Women

I arrived on Wednesday morning at our co-op in Rajasthan to find our Spring 2011 collection well on its way toward completion, since Maureen was here two weeks prior and did a spectacular job getting things started!

Catalog Appreciation Day

This week, Taylor has been creating our Fall/Winter 2011 catalog. As you can imagine, it is quite an endeavor: photographing the samples, writing descriptions, designing the layout and then using Photoshop to tediously put it all together. For the inside cover, we decided to make a collage from pictures I took last summer in India of the women who sew our clothes at the cooperatives. I think it’s a great idea, because, as a shopper, how often do you actually get to see a picture of the person who made the clothes you buy?!?!

Emails from India and a Loooooooooooooooooong shanti letter

Michelle, Maureen, and I first went to India in December 2003 and spent 4 months backpacking the country as part of a longer round-the-world adventure. We stayed in touch with our friends and family back home through a new communication technology known as the group email. On that trip, Maureen fell in love…with shopping in India. She started Mata Traders, and has returned every year since. We’ll be posting excerpts from past emails to share some of our first experiences and impressions of India.

Ethical Fashion Blog

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