Posts Tagged ‘fair trade clothing’

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…

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Fair Trade Fashion Network

FT 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!

Chris Haughton gives us his hot favourites!

Illustrator and picture book author Chris Haughton picks his top five People Tree items and tells us why they’re his favourites for this summer.

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.

model pics

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.