Hello, everyone! Here I am guest blogging for Mata! I have always been a fan of this brand, and have a sizable Mata collection in my closet. I am such a blog junkie, so it’s neat to be writing instead of reading.
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Ethical Fashion Blog
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.
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Back in May, label Lisa Blue sent a line of swimsuits down the runway at Australian Fashion Week. One particular suit in the collection had an image of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi on the front and across the rear end. This caused outrage among some devout Hindus in India, who took to the streets to protest. They ripped up photocopies of the Lakshmi suit and burned the Australian flag.
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Michelle got married on Saturday! It turned out to be a fabulous event and all of us bridesmaids were looking great in our fair trade bridesmaids dresses. We’ll be sure to post lots of pics as soon as we get them from the photographer.
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A sari is a single piece of material, wrapped around and around a woman’s body then thrown over the shoulder and draped almost to the heels. It’s an entire outfit, the brilliantly hued skirt and shawl, with a draw-string underskirt and a tiny undershirt, exposing the entire belly. The cloth in front is for modesty, and completely hides the shape of the breasts. Shoulders and back are also covered, but the belly, the glorious belly, is left skin to air.
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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!
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A few weeks after Chicago was declared a Fair Trade City, several more towns will reach that milestone. Enough to make 1000 fair trade towns in the world!!!! Fair Trade is clearly a strong and growing movement, as more people shop for fair trade products and demand fair trade options in their towns. The fair trade towns campaign really epitomizes that expression, “Think Globally, Act Locally.”
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It’s so fun to see our Dangle Necklace featured in People Magazine’s June Style Watch.
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Chicago celebrated World Fair Trade Day with an exciting announcement. After a 2-year campaign of outreach to residents and businesses, Chicago was declared a Fair Trade City!
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fairtrade.us is giving away a $250 shopping spree this World Fair Trade Day – May 14th. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is register between now and May 13th 2011.
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If you are in the Chicago area, head over to Daley Plaza on Friday, May 6th to celebrate World Fair Trade Day!
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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).
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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!
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In Mumbai last summer, Michelle and I twice ran into hijras, or eunuchs, as they’re referred to in English…once while stopped at a red light in an auto-rickshaw and the other on a train. When they walked up to our auto-rickshaw, they were begging for money and wouldn’t leave until we gave it to them. Saying no didn’t have any effect. We ended up giving them some coins. We also gave some money to the hijras we encountered on the train and asked if we could take their picture, which, as you can see, came out pretty well.
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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!
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