After the turn out for our Autumn/Winter 2016 Focus Group in early January, two things are certain:
Ethical Fashion Blog
Fall ’16 samples are here, which can only mean one thing – we need your help! We have to whittle this collection down to a lean, mean, stylish fair trade machine, and your opinions matter!
If you’ve fished around our site at all lately, you’ve noticed – we have a new look! Our old website had been up since 2007 so we were well overdue for an upgrade. Imagine our delight when we found just the person for the job – Jess from June Letters Studio. Her designs are clean and refreshing, and her hand lettering is to die for. We knew in an instant that she was the perfect person to handle the new Mata look moving forward.
Need a last minute outfit for the holidays? We’ve compiled a collection of ethical and fair trade products that wil...
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Exciting news! The Mata Dressember team has already reached their fundraising goal of $1,000! Thank you so much to all those who have donated – your support will help fight slavery and human trafficking throughout the world. You can still donate to Mata’s Dressember team through the end of the month, and be part of a movement that has already collectively raised over $400,000 in the first two weeks of December!
What’s one thing all of us at Mata love? World travel. Most recently you’ve read about how our Communications Director, Jonit Bookheim, visited Greece, and a lot of our employees and interns have been all over the world, from Europe to Asia to South America. But it’s not just our employees and interns who travel. Our products have recently made their way across the globe to contemporary women’s clothing store Marco Visconti in Hong Kong. After meeting the owners of Marco Visconti, a Hong Kong couple, at a trade show, we loved hearing their cute back story of how they met at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Not only is Madison a beautiful city, but it also has plenty of stores that carry Mata!
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What are you planning to wear this holiday season? A few of our employees have already picked a theme for this month: Dresses! Why? Because we’re participating in the annual Dressember event, hosted by the Dressember Foundation, to bring an end to modern day slavery and human trafficking. By committing to wear a dress everyday in December, and encouraging friends and family to donate, our employees will help raise money to assist victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and violence. In 2014, Dressember raised over $465,000, and we’re excited to see how much is raised this year!
You’ve got a conundrum. It’s that time of year to start your holiday shopping, and we’re certain there’s one thing you’re probably not looking forward to. It’s not the crowds or anxiously waiting for sales.
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Our newest video, just in time to cap off Fair Trade Month! Meet more of the women who make Mata Traders’ garments and hear from them directly to learn how your purchase makes a difference in their lives. Please excuse my less-than-stellar videography skills. Special thanks to Rick Romanowski for editing the footage and the Andreas Kapsalis Trio for the musical accompaniment.
From our coverage of the Earthquake in Nepal in April, you know that members of our partner cooperative in Kathmandu were safe, although many suffered family losses and damage to their homes. Now relief efforts are underway and are slowly providing assistance in rebuilding communities. Life goes on, and despite the setbacks that the earthquake caused, we are happy to report that our Nepali cooperative has had many successful accomplishments this year.
If you read our blog regularly, you know that one of the perks of being a member of a fair trade cooperative is the opportunity to take classes and attend workshops. One of our artisan cooperatives recently updated us on what they’ve been doing– they’ve been celebrating and learning quite a bit!A
India is the kind of place where a Mercedes Benz will pull up next to an ox cart at a stop light, and a man in an ...
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Athena is a mythological figure, an age-old symbol of many virtues that have inspired people throughout history. One of the most well-known goddesses of the Greek pantheon, she represents wisdom, justice, inspiration, courage, and the arts. In Greek mythology, Athena was the daughter of Zeus, the ruler of all the gods and goddesses. She emerged in the world fully grown, clothed in armor, bearing a shield and shouting war cries. Athena was from that moment Zeus’s favorite child and became who we all know now as the Goddess of Wisdom.