Re:Fashion Awards Finalist

The RE:Fashion Awards are the first awards dedicated to ethical fashion and I am very pleased to have been selected as a finalist in two categories, Re:People and Re:Business. The awards are designed to recognise designers and manufacturers who are making the fashion industry more ethical and sustainable through improving social and environmental standards.

The judging panel includes Katharine Hamnett, Hilary Alexander and Jane Shepherdson. It sounds as if it will be a very glamorous evening culminating in a fashion show featuring outfits by Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, Preen and more.

Having spent the past three weeks in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia carrying out a busy schedule of producer workshops to analyse and improve ethical and environmental standards with our producers, I certainly feel that the nomination has come at a very appropriate time. We are carrying out the pilot for the Sustainable Fair Trade Management System which will certify the production process, as opposed to the current label on the raw materials. As such, we have worked with each producer group to look at issues ranging from a fair price to health and safety to recycling of waste.

The findings were fascinating and we have strengthened the relationship with our producer groups as a result. In addition, we now have an action plan for the next year, both for ourselves and each producer group, in order to improve any areas where we have identified the need for improvement. This has ranged from undertaking to pay for sight tests and finding charities providing reduced price glasses for the embroiderers of our childrenswear to looking into the creation of a Spring/Summer range of alpaca/silk knitwear for 2010 as many of our knitters desperately need more work in the early Spring.

On the whole, we were incredibly impressed by all of our producer groups and their commitment to Fair Trade values and environmental compliance. Whilst carrying out an Eco Map of our panama hat associations premises, we found they had recently installed a complete water recycling system to re-use all water used in the production process. In Bolivia, our natural dye group had a solar water heater waiting to be installed.

The most common problems were probably the most easy to address: health issues resulting from workers not wearing face masks, which in most cases they possessed but they didn't like wearing them!

We worked with several of the groups to look at their pricing policy, calculating everything from the cost of raw materials to the minimum wage for everyone involved in the production process down to final cent for the bag to deliver the goods to the shipper. It was very rewarding to hear from groups about how excited they were to have a Pachacuti order as they knew they would earn more money.

However, there is still a lot more to do and many more of our producers who, although paid a good price for the items they make for us, are just not making the volume of products to earn a good living. Despite the economic gloom, I know that the clothing and accessories we make sell incredibly well for us and for our trade customers - I just need to find more outlets for their beautiful products so that I can keep these women in year round employment, supporting their families and strengthening their communities.