Ethical Fashion Blog

This was a billboard in a subway in Tokyo, Japan. Though clearly not the intention of this ad, it carries a lot of meaning when you think of it in the context of fair trade.

SPOT A MATA: PARTY EDITION

It’s always fun when you show up at a party and see people you know. But for me, it’s equally as fun when I show up at a party and see people I don’t know wearing clothes or jewelry I know. Of course, I’m referring to party-goers wearing Mata! That’s what happened to me recently at my friends Mark and Roshani‘s place. They were hosting a fundraiser for a new organization called The Center for Workplace Democracy. It was a rockin’ party, and I nearly flipped out when I saw both the Monarch earrings and the Arbor skirt there, too!

SWIMMING POOLS IN THE SKY IN MUMBAI

A planned 37-story luxury apartment complex called the Aquaria Grande in Mumbai, India will provide residents with the opportunity to enjoy a small swimming pool attached to their apartment’s balcony from which they can look out over their impoverished neighbors.

THE BOLD/THE BEAUTIFUL

Have you got colored denim in your closet? Pair them with Mata’s Honeydew Tops!

WANDERING CAN GET YOU SOMEWHERE.

After graduating college in 2010, midwestern girl Kat Vallera knew what she wanted to do – see the world – and she signed up to teach music at a Thai kindergarden. Her carefully arranged plan didn’t go as expected when the school turned out to be a nightmare. The teachers were completely strict to the point of being abusive. “I watched helplessly as my Thai teacher took every ounce of fun and creativity out of music and replaced it with some kind of cut and dry exact science that these five-year-old children were expected to perfect, or else face punishment,” Kat says.

Fruit Salad

Bananas? Check.

Grapefruit? Check.

Lemons? Check.

Sounds like a grocery list, but I’m talking prints people! Fruit is showing up everywhere these days.

Heavy hitters like Prada, Stella McCartney and Charlotte Olympia are sending these citrus-y digs down the runway.

Baltimore's Local Global Boutique

My mom was in Baltimore visiting my aunt recently and they popped into Milagro, one of the cutest shops on the eastern seaboard. Milagro (meaning miracle in Spanish) specializes in unique, globally-inspired pieces from Baltimore and around the world.

A Star is Born (Again)

Our little fair trade skirt is breaking away from her humble beginnings and making the rounds at the ABC wardrobe department. After her show biz debut in ABC’s hit family drama, Pretty Little Liars, our Arbor skirt has starred on the small screen yet again – this time in ABC’s hit family drama, The Middle. (Turns out that fictional teens shop Mata.)

A Heroine's Heroine

Hillary Clinton is thought of as a heroine to many women, but who are her heroines? One of them is Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India and one of the world’s most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Now over a million members strong, Bhatt formed SEWA in 1972 as a trade union for poor Indian women who make a living by selling vegetables, recycling trash, hand-rolling cigarettes and working in other marginal occupations.