Myth: Fair trade is unfashionable.

Fact: Fair trade designers work to combine the trends of mainstream fashion with the sustainability and inspiration of handcrafted techniques.  Just like any designer, fair trade designers are inspired by seasonal Pantone color trends and what they see on fashion runways around the world. Yes, there certainly are fair trade products that serve more of a functional, practical purpose and therefore aren't meant to be fashionable (how stylish can a wooden salad server really be!) there are also fair trade products that dazzle with creativity, ingenious design and stunning craftsmanship.

Fair trade designers take great care creating products that will appeal to a broad range of customers. Even a simple product, say a beaded earring, reflects many factors including global color trends, wearability, as well as the level of technique required in the detail of its design. Dunitz & Company, an L.A. based fair trade brand, designs beaded jewelry made by artisans in Guatemala, and they already have their fall 2015 colorways planned. Pictured below is one of the colorways they have planned, perfectly aligning with looks by Richard Chai Love, Jason Wu, Anna Sui, and Greg Lauren.  The fair trade movement wants to inspire change in the fashion industry as a whole and part of that is getting it noticed by the mainstream public. In an effort to further the movement, People Tree, an ethical fashion label in UK, partnered with actress Emma Watson to create a trendy, youthful line. Like the organic movement, which started in the 1970s, the fair trade fashion movement has taken time to gain momentum. In an interview with fashion-schools.org, Jennifer Moran, founder of fair trade fashion brand Greenola, said, " just as the organic food movement took off... the consumer will recognize not only what they are putting IN their bodies, but what they are putting ON their bodies."

Today, the fair trade fashion movement is gaining strength, with major brands like PrAna, Patagonia, Puma and others introducing apparel lines (mostly simple shirts and hoodies) made from fair trade cotton and in fair trade factories. This is one aspect of the fair trade fashion movement - getting large companies to slowly introduce fair trade practices into their supply chain. It is not an easy or quick process, nor should it be if it is done correctly and fully transparent.

Fair Trade USA has spearheaded this effort by partnering with the aforementioned bigger brands. According to a Market Watch article called "Fair Trade Fashion Gaining Momentum After Bangladesh Tragedies," Fair Trade USA set up a two-year trial period to develop the 300 compliance standards by which a brands' products would be fair trade certified. The other aspect of the fair trade fashion movement is reflected in the work of many smaller, albeit still fashionable, fair trade brands. Companies like Mata Traders, Greenola, Passion Lilie, Global Mamas, and others are fully committed to fair trade, meaning everything they produce complies with the fair trade principles. These smaller companies create fashion that is less on the mainstream side (no t-shirts or hoodies here) and more on the side of creating products that celebrate the handcrafting talents of their artisan partners.

In an interview on WBEZ radio in Chicago, Mata Traders co-founder Maureen Dunn encapsulates it perfectly saying, "that's one of the things we're most passionate about is taking traditional processes like hand block printed fabrics and embroidery and translating that into fashion that women want to wear here." You'll notice Mata Traders' passion in the details of each one of their dresses. Their tags explain how each dress is handmade and some feature traditional processes like block printing or embroidery.  

Fair trade designers create meaningful products they can stand behind, but their products can also stand alone in both quality and design. As demand for the craftsmanship and uniqueness of fair trade products increases, many fair trade brands have been able to partner with big retail stores. One of our vendor partners Faire Collection not only teams up with fair trade stores to create exclusive lines but they have positioned themselves to create branded lines for major retailers like Nordstrom.

As Dilys Williams so aptly says, "Fashion should be about challenging the status quo." Right now, that status quo is the ubiquitous and exploitative world of fast fashion so perhaps the fact that fair trade fashion is ethical, in other words not status quo, makes it even more fashionable! We are surrounded by fashion, we live in it everyday and it's part of who we are as individuals, so why not let it express your values.