I’ve rented my first bus! A huge great thing – the size of a sea tanker, it barely fitted in the street in front of our guesthouse in Dhaka to take the People Tree team and guests to visit Thanapara village, Swallows in Bangladesh. When it got going it moved like a bouncy metal spring bed mattress and a wobbly castle! After 5 very bumpy hours we arrived in the village paradise that is Swallows, near the Ganges river.
I’ve been a little snowed under…sorry for the wait! Last weekend we launched the Emma Watson People Tree Fair Trade fashion collaboration in Tokyo at the British Embassy.
People Tree is delighted to have won ‘Most Ethical Retailer’ award at this year’s Cosmopolitan Fashion Awards. We hope to keep expanding and improving everything that we do for you and our producer partners.. It’s the second win in three years for People Tree and is a huge honour, being voted for entirely by Cosmo readers.
I’m so excited that we’ve partnered with Emma Watson to design and launch this beautiful range for under-25s. There will be loads of Fair Trade fashion shows at schools univerisities all over the country for Fairtrade Fortnight. We’ll be launching the shows with one at Bedales School in Hampshire, with our People Tree Promoters, also with People and Planet.
Hello from Waseda University in Japan and an amazing People Tree Christmas Party! (People Tree Japan style!)
The Waseda University Cafaire, a students Fair Trade group, invited me along to their Fair Trade Fashion Show with other guests Ai Tominaga, one of Japan’s leading models and a woman who is very active in social and environmental issues – and my friend Yoshiko Ikoma, who has been editor of Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire over the last 20 years! There was a great panel discussion about how young people can support Fair Trade fashion in Japan followed by a fantastic fashion show!
Please sign this Avaaz petition to join the 11 million-strong call for tough actions: http://www.avaaz.org/en/copenhagen_needs_heroes and ask your friends to sign too.
The Wave, London December 5th
The British government needs to take a strong line on climate change, adopting targets that strengthen the Kyoto protocol, not undermine it. That’s why we joined the demo in London on Saturday December 5th, joined by tens of thousands of others. As I have written in my blogs before, I’ve witnessed first hand the hunger and hardship brought by climate change on the communities where People Tree works.
One of our producer groups, the Kumbeshwar Technical Centre (KTC) in Nepal took time to celebrate International Child Rights Day on 20th November and was kind enough to send me some photos of the days activities.
Member of the British Empire (or My Bloody Effort… or so they say) but even though I’m not an elite, bureaucrat with assistants running around me, or ‘born to it’ I’m sure it’s down to my bloody team. My family and friends who merge with being the People Tree team, designer friends, non-execs, trustees and the office team – all brilliant at what they do and change makers in their own right.
Today Prince Charles gave me an MBE for Services to Fair Trade and the fashion industry. (I wore a People Tree dress of course, designed by Bora Aksu in hand-woven silk and hand embroidered at Swallows in Bangladesh and a pair of Terra Plana killer heels).
My second Vintage and Fair Trade week!
Wow, this vintage and Fairtrade fortnight went by so fast. Here is a tiny post of the outfits I wore…
Update on my Vintage and Fair Trade fortnight so far
Just thought I would give you a quick run down on my week so far
Safia’s style edits – Vintage at Goodwood.
Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway have often invited us as a family to their summer…
