October is Fair Trade Month. Last year there were over 250 grassroots events around the country to promote and support fair trade. This year there are even more opportunities to get involved.
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Ethical Fashion Blog
I just can’t get over the cows (and bulls!). They’re everywhere, just wandering around the streets and paths. They park themselves where the mood strikes, regardless of heavy traffic that now has to inch around them.
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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.
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Checking into the Panorama Guesthouse, my eyes scanned the lobby walls as I waited for the clerk to record my passport and visa information in his registry book. Imagine my surprise as I looked up at this photo of the establishment’s roof top restaurant and spotted Michelle and Maureen!
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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.
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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!
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My second day here at the cooperative in Mumbai were were eating lunch with some of the ladies and the topic of shorts came up. You see, shorts are the new hot fashion item here. All the ladies had a pair. But India is quite a modest country, and showing too much skin is taboo. Shorts are too revealing to wear in public, except in the upscale districts of Mumbai where the rich and famous reside. So while all the ladies had a new pair of shorts, they all admitted to only wearing them in their own homes. They never actually wear them out of the house.
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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?!?!
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I’ve had 3 full days now back in India (last time I was here it was 2004) and the main thing to report is that it is rainy. It’s monsoon season which means that it rains almost all the time and when it seems like the rain has let up and you go outside, it’s actually still raining, only a bit lighter.
Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) is an international verification initiative dedicated to enhancing workers’ lives all over the world. They work closely with a growing number of companies that produce clothing and other sewn products and that take responsibility for their supply chain. Through sharing expertise, social dialogue, and strengthening industrial relations, FWF increases the effectiveness of companies to improve labor conditions in the garment industry.
I’ve never done one of these group e-mails before, but I think now is as appropriate a time as any. I hope you all are well and enjoying the Christmas season. As I sit here in the swelter of a city called Trichy, I can’t quite fathom a snowflake falling. Joni, Michelle, and I have been in India for 9 days now, and are exploring the southern state of Tamil Nadu. We are slowly adjusting to the myriad of cultural and social differences. Everyday I learn something new, but to be honest, I’ve got a lot of questions that still need answering. I guess it’s like a huge puzzle. All the pieces are in front of me, and yet I’ve got no idea how they fit together, or what they will look like in the end.
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I met Harshali two years ago when she was a shy 17 year old with limited English speaking skills. At that time she was working as a helper at our women’s cooperative and we struck up a friendship on our shared path home after work.
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Only better. As the gray fumes from passing vehicles pump in between the bars on the windows, blurring your vision slightly, the scenes that pass by are simply amazing. I’ve taken to riding around with a kerchief covering my nose and mouth, like most of the Indian women do.