by Safia Minney, with Emma Watson, Vivienne Westwood, Orla Kiely and many more…
Posts Tagged ‘bangladesh’
Emma Watson visits Swallows
Emma Watson visited Swallows in Bangladesh with our CEO Safia Minney, to see how People Tree clothes were made. Swallows is a village as well as a workplace for over 200 women.
Profits from their work with People Tree help cover the running costs of a school for 300 children and a daycare centre.
Bangladesh – Workshops, training sessions, catalogue shoots and production checks!
There’s never just one reason for going somewhere in the Fair Trade world – there are always several! I ran a garments workshop for a day, then one on handicrafts for between 15 and 25 people from Fair Trade groups.
Next year is People Tree’s 20th and 10th anniversaries (Japan and UK). So we’re putting together special catalogues to celebrate!
Of course People Tree started in Japan, and Bangladesh was the first country that I started designing products with small Fair Trade groups in, so we decided to do fashion shoots there!
The biggest problem was the heat and humidity – 33 degrees and 80% humidity. Climate Change means that the monsoon rains are continuing and with it there are huge numbers of insects you would usually not see at this time of year – fireflies, annoying little red ants and huge waspy things.
I wish I had the foresight to catch some fireflies and put them in a jar – as the lights and electricity went out regularly every night! Fumi our model from Japan and Hiroe our Catalogue manager were caught fully soaped up in the shower with no lights and then suddenly no water. This was a lesson in how not to take for granted the basics – water in pipes, light at the flick of a switch.
I’m not complaining of course, this is the daily life of millions in the developing world and mostly we squander it when it’s as convenient as it is in London or Tokyo.
The Shoot
I shot the catalogue with the help of Miki Alcalde and Gail Rhodes on hair and makeup, and Fumi and Hiroe from Japan along with a few local friends.
The team!
Gail helps Fumi keep cool and gorgeous in our rabbit print organic dress.
Fumi meets the women handweaving the fabric for the Spring Stripe cotton trousers she models.
After shoot celebration
We’d tend to go out for a drink after a shoot is over, go to my friend’s night club in Dhaka and dance, but tomorrow we have to part ways – half the team returning to Dhaka and half of us going to visit Action Bag in Saidpur, to check our top secret bag collaboration (you’ll be hearing about it soon!). So instead of partying we make do with swinging in the roots of a banyan tree.
Of course the locals put us to shame!
Final snooze in Bangladesh
We’ve had four hours sleep a night, done two photoshoots, had meeting after meeting and consumed far too much great local food in 32 degrees heat with monsoon rains. The rains should have stopped by now but still haven’t, bringing more insects than a usually hardy, but urban gal like me is used too – even after more than 15 years of visiting Bangladesh.
We’re exhausted, listening to Jazz (Dexter Gordon) in an air conditioned sleeper train and hoping for 8 hours of blissful sleep.
Pcitures and more on the trip later when our feet hit the ground…
Bangladesh minimum wage doubled, but it’s not enough, say campaigners
This week we forwarded 2082 names collected from the Humanity in Fashion petition to the National Garment Workers Federation to support their call for a threefold increase in the Bangladeshi minimum wage.
Executive Travel – being the CEO, on a Fair Trade shoe string budget
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…
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People Tree launches ‘Humanity in Fashion’ campaign
Last week I was working on a story about garment factory workers and their campaign for a living wage with journalist, Liz Jones.
