Safia's Blog

People Tree Fashion Show – The Garden Party to Make a Difference

Hashmukh Patel visited us from Agrocel, our organic Fair Trade cotton project in India, to tell 500 people about why it’s important that they buy Fair Trade fashion. A huge thank you to Leni’s models for helping us with the event!

I love hanging out with him, he’s so organic and has the most wonderful feeling about him. He taught me yoga – he naturally sees that businesses have to be sustainable to the farmer, building the farmer up economically through Fair Trade, so that they can go organic. It takes 3-5 years for farmers to go organic and they need to know that they have secure orders as they are so poor they cannot afford to take further risks with their lives and their families livelihoods.

Photos of Emma Watson’s collaboration with People Tree (First showing ever!)

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Hashmukh Patel from Agrocel and me

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So many things to see including a dance powered disco floor!

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And I’ve never seen so many types of garlic!

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We were encouraged us to insolate our houses with British wool

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P1020075 A stand highlighting the importance of buying wine with corks rather than screw tops – protecting the livelihoods of cork producers in countries like Portugal.

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And remember dry you clothes on a line don’t tumble dry..!

Clarence House: The home and gardens of Prince Charles

They’ve got great taste, Prince Charles and his team!

I loved the recycled paint pods and wellies with flowery plants and herbs growing out of them. I also appreciated the mixed farming reflected in Charlie’s garden - I see this in the organic cotton fields in Gujarat too - – a row of tomatoes, roses, herbs, huge great leeks and some gorgeous small fruit trees. We are lucky to have such a practical and eco Royal.

Here are some snaps of the garden:

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There were lots of other wonderful sights to enjoy too including my sons favourite…

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A solar powered bike, complete with sound system! - put together with recycled parts from all kinds of different vehicles.

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 in the second and final week of the challenge.

Monday

This is a 1940’s dress which was £30 from my local charity shop, and the boots are hand-me downs from our ex mail-order manager Fran. Never be too shy to accept lovely gifts from your colleagues!

Tuesday

I’m wearing a Kashmiri hand embroidered Fair Trade skirt with a t-shirt that a total stranger gave me, which is a bit cheeky! And a handbag I bought second hand for £5 from my local charity shop and boots from the same place for £15.

Wednesday

This is my tyrannosaurus rex pose. I’m wearing a Fair Trade hand-woven Richard Nicoll shirt with a pair of jeans bought for £10 from my local charity shop.

Thursday

1980s top that was second hand when I bought it, and simple hand-woven black trousers – Fair Trade of course! I realised today – I look crap in black!

Friday

This is one of my favourite Fair Trade dresses from People Tree Japan, designed by Chisato Tsumori – hand block printed and hand embroidered – so easy to wear. Worn with vintage inspired ring from the People Tree new Autumn/Winter collection

This is how I ended our Vintage and Fairtrade fortnight. At the weekend I had a lovely rummage around in car-boot sales and charity shops. Here are some of the things I found! P1010409

A pack of cards stored in a little book P1010404

OMG! I love this gramophone. P1010400

If you have to buy one – buy a second-hand one.

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 wearing only Vintage and Fair Trade clothing…nearly half way through the fortnight now and I’ve been joined by some extremely stylish people, and even Laura Bailey.

: Friday

“Totally Fair Trade!

Everyone loves check – I like this red and navy blue check in hand woven silk. I’m wearing it with an organic cotton T-shirt – both from People Tree.

This leather satchel is vintage and Fair Trade made by Afghan refugees about 10 years ago from People Tree Japan.”

Thursday

“Vintage or Fair Trade?

I designed this from a prom dress out of a hand woven Fair Trade black sari inspired by vintage. So, I guess it’s both. Worn with united nude shoes, kind of 40’s. I love it!”

Wednesday

“This is a scarf! I put a slit in the middle and stiched under the arm to make a tunic out of a batik, handpainted, Fair Trade scarf – its a bit hippy, but I love wearing it with my charity shop jeans.”

Tuesday

“I’m wearing an organic cotton Fair Trade dress made by our lovely producer group Assisi Garments. It’s a sample for future collections so let us know if you like it!

The necklace and boots were from my local charity shop £3 for the necklaces and £25 for the boots.”

Monday

“1980s second hand tea dress in rayon. I bought it at Vintage at Goodwood yesterday worn with my recycled sari Terra Plana shoes.”

Safia’s style edits – Vintage at Goodwood.

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Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway have often invited us as a family to their summer party at their home. Great friends, food and Wayne DJ-ing, we all slept in tents in his garden, then had cheese toasties for breakfast in his kitchen – there were a lot of us! The Hemingways’ Vintage at Goodwood festival was a huge version of their own summer party. All of that and more at ‘Vintage.’

Glamour and camping don’t often go together – but at Vintage people were glamour die hards.

Check out this footwear – even after it rained!

Leaving the festival toilets – people looked phenomenal

“This is the poshest festival I’ve ever been too!” I kept hearing – what needs to happen is for the Vintage to go regional – not just get massive!

Loved this appliqué skirt

Loved this marble print skirt - People Tree does it on handmade paper

Marble print dress - People Tree does it on handmade paper

Great head gear!

My style edits – vintage – Why do we all need an excuse to dress up these day?

Dressing rooms were provided for campers to glam up and they worked!

Dressing rooms were provided for campers to get glammed up and people were happy for a mirror and power point!

Jemma Kid and her team were on hand to provide make up lessons inspired by 40s and 50s style

And if you didn’t bring your own vintage to wear you could buy some at one of the 130 vintage specialist shops! This was truly a celebration of the best of British culture, art, fashion, film and music!

Vintage at Goodwood Festival – the most significant cultural event of the Summer!

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Well done, Wayne Hemingway and team for pulling off the most exciting innovative event of the year! A three day festival of music, fashion and film – attended by the most stylish festival goers you’ve ever met. (Check out my blog tomorrow for style highlights!).

Such incredible content! – The curators did an amazing job of creating something with such authenticity and really inspiring three generations of fashion, music and culture lovers. The only risk for Vintage Goodwood if they do it next year is that too many people might come and spoil it!

Glamping or Camping?
Actually I was camping – as I didn’t have the budget for a gypsy caravan or yurt at £2000 for the weekend. Even in the rain in our camp site were things unfamiliar to festival camping – people pushing mini rails of outfits over the wet grass, pockets inside tent walls bulging with makeup and people don’t quit a 50s crinoline dress even if they need to get around in wellies.

Friday – Rained pretty much on and off all day – I spent the day doing location hunting as co-founder Wayne Hemingway had welcomed me shooting for the High-Summer People Tree catalogue here at Vintage Goodwood. Learning how to camp again after 20 years of not stepping into a tent. This time I was with family and friends. Disaster – Natalie my 14 year old daughter left the top off her two man tent ‘for some fresh air’ and it rains in – results is three teenagers MORE in our four man tent – a cosy start to a photo shoot the next day!

Saturday – The team arrive early and we prepare for rain ALL DAY. But somehow the unimaginable happens and between monsoon style down pours the sun comes out! We try to keep everyone dry – which is easy as everyone is so lovely and friendly at Vintage – and we seem to be surrounded by People Tree customers.

Things I missed: The make your own bikini out of bunting and a dozen other workshops as well as a Zandra Rhodes fashion show.

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After finishing the photoshoot everyone has to dash back to London, I feel bad… for me and my gang we’re off to the Noisettes – I lose my kids, then find my kids, and groove with them to Earth, Wind and Fire – heaven!

On James shoulders looking for the kids - they're out there somewhere?

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Sunday – Still a few more shots to do – and then I’m free to experience everything ‘Vintage’ has to offer. I watch ‘Tommy’ in the cinema, then a film about Joy Division in a 1950s mobile cinema that has a screen and seating inside for 15 people – this is amazing. Loads of dancing at the soul casino disco where Wayne is DJ-ing and to Kid Creole and the Coconuts. I also picked up some nice vintage shopping… and met some great people who live and breathe it!

Wayne Hemingway - Co-Founder of Vintage Goodwood

Our 100% Fair Trade friends Cafedirect were there too

More about the glamour of Vintage Goodwood tomorrow!

Vintage at Goodwood – Join me in wearing only Fair Trade and Vintage (second hand) Fashion for a fortnight!

Safia in her Dad's suit - a small man with big ideas!

I started buying vintage (and by that I mean second hand as well) when I was 17. I worked in publishing and had a salary that barely paid for food and rent, so I bought second hand clothes from Oxfam off Carnaby Street – kind of as a matter of necessity.

I developed an eye for spotting something special. An interesting print, amazing buttons, unique hand finishes, lace work, embroideries… of course there were some big mistakes too… a green 80s padded shoulder dress from Jaegar, awful winkle picker shoes that make my feet bleed, a bright yellow bat wing off the shoulder synthetic dress – that made me look like a big hussy… but all in all, I clothed myself thanks to my local charity shop for 2 years, until my salary went up and I began to afford new clothes too! I still go foraging in charity shops every Saturday – it’s become a habit and the ‘find’ an ultimate and addictive high!

Wayne Hemingway, Co-Founder of Vintage at Goodwood

My family summer holiday is going to be at Vintage at Goodwood this year – as my teenagers have been nagging about going to a festival as a family – and when I saw what Wayne, an old friend, had been up to, I desperately wanted to shoot People Tree’s high summer collection there. He called back immediately to say he was up for it. Wayne was one of the first people to discover and promote People Tree 9 years ago when we got started – calling in dozens of samples to Breakfast TV.

The Challenge – Join me and Wear Fair Trade and vintage (or second hand) fashion for 2 weeks.

We’re going to start a campaign to really LOVE fashion and do some GOOD with it too! We’ll be launching at Vintage at Goodwood!

I’ll be coming into work in my Dad’s 1960s suit on Monday, maybe in my favourite Bora Aksu Fair Trade dress on Tuesday, that awful 80s green dress on Wednesday watch this space! Join me and we’ll post your pictures on the People Tree magazine – send your pictures to marketing@peopletree.co.uk

Pakistani floods and Great Minds

The news from Pakistan is heart wrenching. Watching the pictures of those who have lost everything even the clothes of the backs of their children reminds me of the floods which hit Bangladesh only two years ago. These catastrophic events are happening ever more frequently.

Autumn Winter 2011 Kick off meeting

Saori, Julia, Jenny, Misato and Masako share fabric development

I’m working with the People Tree design team on the Autumn/Winter 2011 collection – Looking at craft skills, hand knitted pieces and tribal hints on new silhouettes – and we’re revisiting the producers traditional skills, hand weaves, block prints and embroideries too. The team asked me a few questions about the meetings and I thought i’d share them with you.

How will People Tree start to interpret the themes for its collection?

We’re thinking craft meets couture –practical, wearable clothes that flatter the body with innocent embroidery like cross stitch and braiding.

What sorts of colour pallet can we expect to see for AW11? Some surprise new colours, a gorgeous green and lots of funky highlights.

What’s your favourite idea that you and the team have discussed so far?

A new piece inspired by a block print dress I made at a fair trade group years back – white silk with a beautiful screen print.

Are there any themes that People Tree can’t do and why would that be? We don’t do synthetic fabrics. We don’t do fast fashion – ours is slow. We love craft skills.

Jenny our buyer loves vintage

Traditional embroideries - so inspiring

A rummage through the sample boxes and vintage pieces inspire

Working on the colours for Autumn/Winter 2011 with Tracy Mulligan and Masako Ueda and the design team

Executive Travel – being the CEO, on a Fair Trade shoe string budget

Veranda of my guest house home in Aghaijara, Bangladesh – where to watch the water hyacinth float down the river and enjoy a cup of tea is better than a 5 star spa!

Veranda of my guest house in Aghaijara, Bangladesh – where you can watch the water hyacinth float down the river and enjoy a cup of tea - it's better than a 5 star spa!

I was talking to another CEO about a trip I was doing overseas. Oh your going off on a “jolly” he said – little did he know that when you run a social business like People Tree you travel to and fro at the weekends (which means you don’t have time to wash your socks and bake your kids cakes between working weeks). Also I arrive and and go straight into my 12 hour working day. Most fashion company bosses stay in 4-5 star hotels – but I stay in guest houses and villages with our Fair Trade groups, partly because the food is better and fresher but also because it’s a huge waste of money!

The difference in a week’s 5 star stay in a city of a developing country could fund a designer or technical advisor to come to the country and run workshops – obviously it’s an easy choice for me to choose to travel on a shoe string! Little places are more friendly too and because many of our Fair Trade groups are in villages, I get to enjoy fresh air too.

Working in the shelter of my mosquito net

Many suppliers/garment factories put up their customers in 5 star hotels as part of their hospitality, but People Tree pays to stay with our Fair Trade groups in their guest houses. After all it’s real cost for food, housekeeping, cleaning, etc. Why should suppliers pay for their customers hospitality?

Executively dressed?

I’ve been surprised by how people dress when they visit culturally sensitive places – I’m writing in shorts and a camisole at home in the summer’s heat, but in Bangladesh you cover up however hot and humid it is. I wear a shalwar kameez and long thin legged trousers called churidar. When it’s 36 degrees and 80% humidity you have to put your foot in a plastic bag just to get them on.

Here’s how…