Last week I was working on a story about garment factory workers and their campaign for a living wage with journalist, Liz Jones.
Safia's Blog
Crafts to Change the World
Miki and I photoshoot and interview between downpours!
I got kissed by a circus elephant along the way
My Mum loves crafts – and my grandmother was an embroidery designer before she ran a home for delinquent boys – I guess that’s were my love for crafts started.
Prokritee is part of MCC, the Mennonite Central Committee and has worked to support the world’s poorest people for over 40 years.
Monsoon, Bangladesh
I started working with these groups 19 years ago and together with the brilliant designer Suraiya Choudhury we brought natural dyes to Bagda Enterprises, that now work making body scrub mits for the Body Shop. We’ve also worked closely with craft groups to design literally thousands of products using traditional skills and natural fibres for Japan and UK.
Travelling by rickshaw
Suraiya and me with my favourite drink - fresh 'tender' coconut
My third assignment in Bangladesh is to document the amazing craft skills and interview artisans to show the impact on their lives. So I travelled with my photographer friend Miki Alcalde and Kate Wakeling by van, ferry, rickshaw then on foot into Agailjhara, Borisal to do just that.
Fresh flowers, the best welcome of all
Kate and Safia with their flowers
Natural fibres can be used to make so many crafts. Chopstick holders and bangles and a dragonfly made of recycled newspaper – I’m just mad about crafts and the social change it brings!
Too many mangoes eaten along the way
These shoes were made for walking
My very well travelled, very muddy sandals
Kate Wakeling, my colleague wants to make a TV documentary about my sandals and where they’ve been!?
Geetie Singh – always giving me food for thought.
Geetie and her lovely daughter Mabel
Geetie runs the Duke of Cambridge the award winning gastro pub that serves organic and seasonal food. I met Geetie on a shoot – she was ‘modelling’ with me for some Women of Tomorrow/Social Entrepreneurs/Cool Chicks/Feminine Economics magazine article – we were standing in a studio looking a bit awkward – as we’re not models. She looked gorgeous and they were forcing her into conventional fashion (I’d told the editor I’d only wear Fair Trade fashion!) and I knew she’d prefer to wear People Tree too! We got talking and haven’t stopped since.
Mrs Paisley’s Lashings
Jo Wood’s pop-up restaurant at her home in Kingston, south London
When people start talking about Wimbledon, I must be one of the few whose mind skips from tennis – straight on to Jo Wood and Arthur Potts Dawson and their joint venture not far from Wimbledon. Mrs Paisley’s Lashings pop-up organic restaurant which People Tree Ambassador Jo Wood runs to spread awareness of organic foods and to raise money to educate children by starting organic vegetable gardens in schools.
Jo Wood wears many hats, of course: she runs her own Organic Beauty brand ‘Jo Wood Organics’, is Agony Aunt for You Magazine, is an accomplished dancer, and devotes all her leftover strength to promoting organic, sustainable and healthy lifestyles. She has a great team, too!
Jo Wood and Arthur Potts in their vegetable patch
When I first met Arthur, the passionate chef behind Mrs P’s, he told me his whole family wear People Tree! Acorn House, where he is head chef full time, he very generously called “the same concept” as People Tree. He tells me at length about the integrity of the materials, and the relationships with growers and producers.
Jo’s pop-up restaurant was open for ten days, and I caught up with her between courses when I visited last week:
Saf: I eat organic every day, but this tastes so good – are you putting something into the air to make everything taste so amazing?
Jo (laughs): That’s because the lettuce was picked only 30 minutes ago, and the broad beans only 2 hours ago. A lot is from my garden, so it’s very fresh.
Saf: What’s the Gardens in Schools scheme all about? What’s the grand plan?
Jo: Children need to be educated about food and how to cook. They can cook simply and they won’t want takeaways. It’s terribly that today there are no cookery classes at school. I used to come home with a cake tin with Welsh Rarebit, or cakes, from my cookery classes when I was at school.
Saf: What if young people say they can’t be bothered?
Jo: They won’t be saying that in 20 years’ time. They can learn to throw something healthy together in 5 minutes. What we spend on takeaways, we could spend on buying organic food.
Saf: What would you want David Cameron and Nick Clegg to do?
Jo: It’s all about the health of the people. If we clean up the food, the land and the rivers by growing organically, without chemicals, it would be so healthy for the people.
Jo and I chat about upcoming People Tree projects and campaigns, and have a bit of a gossip too. What I love about Jo is that she’s so real. Down to earth and fun.
But I’ve left James, my husband, between courses, so I dart back to the middle course, after a chilled asparagus soup and a salad with broad beans mashed to a puree on toast. He’s looking a little forlorn, but pretends the main course had arrived just moments before – pasta with mushroom and basilica, and then a bigger plate of vegetables the asparagus tingling with lemon. Finally, lemon tart and cream, and an espresso. OMG – I was sated after the third course but on I went, eating more and more. I never eat dinner out, perhaps once every 2 months, so this feels like a Birthday and Christmas treat rolled into one. I’m so happy and contented, the first ‘date’ I’ve had with my husband for a year! I’m luxuriating!
It was half term last week and my kids were at home– so I was feeling super-guilty that they were fixing their own dinner while I’m feasting. Then there was a text from my daughter that they’ve run out of toilet paper. It’s 11:30 at night. I know Jo would giggle and tell me to help myself, but it’s not the thing to ask in front of Yasmin le Bon, so we stoped at the 24-hour store on the way home. As I waved goodbye to Jo on the front steps of her home, she says “There’s been a massacre here tonight. The fox got in and killed four hens.” She tries to look cheerful but you can see she’s a little sad.
Life is a rich mix. Thanks for an amazing dinner and evening, Jo and Arthur!
If you fancy a slice of Mrs Paisley’s Lashings you can catch them next at Harvest at Jimmy’s Festival in September .
Fair Trade Fashion Network
We launched the Fair Trade fashion network today with People Tree, Pants to Poverty, Gossypium, Bishopston Trading, Epona , Pachacuti and Fairy Covered.
The aims are to spread awareness of Fair Trade fashion and our work as pioneers in the industry.
Why now?
The Fair Trade cotton mark has helped cotton farmers earn a better price for their cotton. Launched nearly 5 years ago People Tree and Gossypium were involved in developing the standards with the Fairtrade Foundation, as we had already been working with Fair Trade and Organic Cotton farmer groups for over 10 years.
Carry Somers of Pachacuti explained how her work using the Sustainable Fair Trade Management System (SFTMS) of World Fair Trade Organisation has a huge impact on her producer groups in Latin America.
All the Fair Trade fashion companies use Fairtrade and organic cotton but People Tree works with artisanal groups too and a social business called Assisi Garments that transform the cotton into clothing – set up originally to provide livelihoods for deaf and mute, very low income women. If a standard for Fair Trade manufacture goes no further than the current initiatives of the Clean Clothes Campaign, ETI, etc not only would our producers lose out – it would undermine the work of these initiatives.
All the companies present agreed that we need to mainstream the idea of Fair Trade in the fashion industry and agreed to work and campaign together.
I’ll look forward to sharing more with you soon!
People Tree London moves office in the sweltering 30 degrees sunshine and surrounded by Bangladesh New Year Celebrations!
Oh my God I love painting! I love designing how a space works too! Thanks to Emma Farren and Sarah, my assistant it seems to be working and a good, peaceful energy flowing. I’m sooo happy!
Shot by the Shoot
How we photographed our Autumn Winter Japan catalogue
We’re picked up at 5am – a lovely team Yutaka Kodashiro doing hair, Mariko Shimada on make up, Megumi Date styling, models Rie and Fumi and the People Tree team Miki, Hiroe, Minakuchi and Riho arrive at 6am at Studio Lulu.
I’ve only slept for 1 hour – I’m beat, but we manage to drink a lot of green tea and start the shoot at 7am. I’ve been Art Directing on People Tree catalogues for 15 years so it was lovely when friends gave me the confidence to shoot myself. Of course, I’m not able to do it entirely myself. I need an assistant, Miki Alcalde has shot reportage for Getty and I met him on a People Tree assignment for ‘You Magazine.’ Since then Miki has done 8 assignments for People Tree in Bangladesh, India and Kenya documenting the lives of People Trees producers and their communities – and special visits by Jo Wood, Laura Bailey, Rika Sueyoshi and other VIPs too! He kindly offered to help me shoot fashion in India 18 months ago and here we are working together again today –with me behind the camera – and Miki helping me and teasing me a lot too!
A fashion shoot involves a huge amount of prep. Casting models, deciding on the styling (coordinating the clothes), shoes, accessories, leg wear, etc. Recruiting hair and make up artists. Finding a location – transport – etc. The list goes on and on.
Hiroe gets organised – so I can see what’s next and the catalogue pages
Hiroe joined People Tree with a lot of magazine fashion editorial experience and Minakuchi Atsushi and I have worked together for years.
Miki checks the images on the laptop as they come in… And is constantly taking the mickey out of me.
The shoot was AMAZING gorgeous models, fashion (our producer partners will be so proud!) and team work. All in natural light as I like it – 60 shots. Hiroe explains I’ve never taken that many shots in a day in my career yet.”
Job done we’re off to Fujino, in the South Japan Alps to see a friend. I’m utterly beat – but have had such a fun day! Thank you to all the team who helped make the impossible, possible today.
A day in the life of Safia Minney at People Tree Japan office.
Everywhere I go the team call it ‘Safia week.’ That’s because there’s always a lot to do.
Here’s a sample of a day in my life in Tokyo:
8.30 – Meeting with the Directors to finalise the People Tree Fair Trade chocolate order – it’s made with Bolivian cocoa and muscavado brown sugar from the Philippines and is one of People Tree Japan’s most popular products. We talk about running events to raise awareness of the trade issues that sugar and cocoa farmers face in the developing world.
9.30 – Meet with the Comms team to discuss our 10th and 20th year anniversary in the UK and Japan – lots of campaigns and new things happening.
10.30 – Off to the Bangladesh Embassy to meet Mr Manzurul Haque who is standing in as Ambassador to explain how the closure of the largest land port Benapole has forced cotton yarn prices to double, resulting in over 50,000 handweavers losing their jobs as prices of clothing become uncompetitive. We discuss the issue and have a nice cup of tea together and Mr Haque promises to send my letter to key people in Friday’s diplomatic bag. I wear my Fair Trade handwoven dress from Bangladesh designed by my favourite Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro.
12.30 A quick organic lunch with Misao our business development manager and Naoko our General Manager.
13.30 We start the Spring/Summer 2011 collection meeting, going through samples, fitting them and making final tweaks to each handmade garment and the whole range. Building our collection is always an interesting challenge as we have such a diverse range of customers – department stores, boutiques and Fair Trade shops as well as our own stores and mail order customers. There’s a lot of feedback and ideas from our customers too! Next week I’ll be doing the same in London.
15.30 - I meet with Marcia, from Bombolulu Workshops in Mombasa who is here visiting us from Kenya as a guest for World Fair Trade Day. We discuss quality issues and new techniques to develop new designs to bring work to the 150 physically challenged people they employ. The world recession has affected Bombolulu export sales and we need to help them now (link).
We’ve designed a new collection using the indigenous skills of hand twisted and hand beaten brass together with beautiful natural stones. The collection is top secret, so no more clues!
17.00 We have People Tree monthly team meeting together with Raihan Ali who’s visiting us from Swallows in Bangladesh. He tells us how Fair Trade makes a difference to women in the villages where Swallows employs 250 women. Raihan was asked how Swallows has changed since People Tree started working with them. He told us , “we had a small room with 17 handlooms and a dye unit. There was an iron roof and bamboo walls and one day the walls just blew away in a storm. Today we have a proper roof and walls and a new handicraft centre where we can employ 250 women. At the time People Tree started working with us we had just lost our only Fair Trade customer and people in the Fair Trade movement were saying there was only a future for Fair Trade foods and handicrafts not textiles. People Tree helped us to completely turn around our project and is still 70% of our sales today”
We also shared People Tree’s plans and activities from each department – there are nearly 50 in the team in Japan.
18.00 – I join the sales managers to talk about a design collaboration with a new baby/kids retail brand who want to partner with People Tree. They are very charming and very passionate and shake my hand a lot (which is very unusual in Japan. I got the royal treatment!) I feel very excited when big business wants to do the right thing! Let’s see…
19.00 – Dinner with Raihan, Naoko and Miki a great friend who is assisting me tomorrow for the People Tree Autumn Winter photoshoot. I have a glass of wine and lots of fun – but get home and can’t sleep – I’m so excited about the photoshoot tomorrow – I’m shooting!!
I sleep for ONE hour OMG! This is going to be great and I’m going to have to be full of energy and at my best. The next day is starting at 4am! And I still can’t sleep…
Volcano and Van-lag
Left: Aurelia location hunting amongst the dunes, Right: Laura and Gail on location
… we did get to the south of France without a plane for our catalogue photo shoot – 18 hours later by van, thanks to our Accounts Manager Andrew! A couple of hours rest and we are up and shooting – talk about tiring… or was it van-lag?
I’d stayed awake through the night trying to talk to Andrew to keep him awake – thank god it wasn’t me in front of the camera – as for our models, they looked amazing despite it all!
Languedoc is the most beautiful area – the wines pretty good too! Medieval villages, lovely people and red earth dunes that prove that once France and Africa were connected. The light is incredible – and the food too! We stayed at Carol Highfields Gite.
Me off to explore the dunes for my next shot
Red clay earth - such a beautiful environment
Jerome gets stuck on thorny plants mid shoot
The team consists of 7 from the UK but unfortunately the model Fumi from Japan and Hiroe can’t fly in due to the ash cloud over Europe. We’re Jon Rose photographer who’s assisting me shoot, Gale on hair and makeup, Poppy on Styling and comedy, Laura on coordination, Jerome volunteering and the models Gabriella and Raphael, Sheshanna, who used to work for People Tree and Aurelia
Safia and Raphael
Gail fixing Gabriela's hair
Jon stands in for the model, so I can check my background and light.
Jon and Jerome help me get the right shot
Gabriella enojys the icecream - I love itwhen model enjoy eating!
The great thing about being van lagged on a shoot in France is that there is always good coffee close to hand – and delicious coffee ice-cream – we went back a second time it was so good! It’s amazing having the opportunity to shoot the new collection of organic and sustainable fabric in such a natural environment! It’s so pristine – and the air is so good here.
The team - Gabriela, Gail, Poppy, Jerome, Laura, Aurelia and Jon (the poser on the floor)
Must get back now to plan for World Fair Trade Day events – and a huge fashion show for 700 people. Our stockists are also getting ready to run events at their shops to help promote Fair Trade.
We jump in another van – this time with two professional drivers and off we go again another 14 hours!
