Top models back call to make fashion fairer
Leading fashion models including Lisa Butcher, Genevieve Lake, Natalie Suliman, Tia Ward, Amber Rowan, Laura Bailey and Laura Haddock have put their names behind a nationwide Fairtrade Foundation bid to shake up British fashion.
The campaign is calling on the fashion industry to make fashion fairer by spreading awareness of the human and environmental legacy that goes into the cotton in our clothes. The year long initiative marks the start of the fifth anniversary of Fairtrade cotton and will be launched at the start of Fairtrade Fortnight (22 February – 7 March 2010).
To show us all just how beautiful Fairtrade cotton can be and how easy it is to swap your look to Fairtrade, celebrity photographer Trevor Leighton alongside hairdressers Darren Ambrose and makeup artist Charlie Duffy has photographed the models wearing part of a collection of Fairtrade cotton clothing from a range of retailers, most of which are available on the high street. The ‘Fairtrade fashion collection’, specially compiled by celebrity stylist Rachel Fanconi, will be displayed at the Fairtrade Fortnight launch event at RIBA on 22 February and will then accompany a tour of key fashion colleges.
Lisa Butcher, who recently visited Fairtrade cotton farmers in India and will launch her own range of Fairtrade cotton T-shirts for Long Tall Sally said: ‘We live in a fast paced, sometimes superficial world where image is so important. Many of us don’t take the time to think where the cotton in the clothes we buy comes from. I wanted to find out if there was an alternative way of doing things, like Fairtrade, where everyone wins and we can also help the environment.’
Fairtrade Fortnight also sees the launch of a Fairtrade cotton clothing collection designed by Emma Watson for People Tree and a range of Fairtrade cotton t-shirts designed by the Beckhams for Sports Relief.
As part of the campaign, the Fairtrade Foundation is looking to collaborate with prominent fashion designers to create capsule collections using Fairtrade cotton. The Fairtrade Foundation will also link up with the Ethical Fashion Forum to launch their 2010 Innovation Awards, challenging the nation’s young designers to make something fashionable using Fairtrade cotton. The winners will be announced later in the year and their designs will be shown at leading fashion events throughout 2010. In order to inspire the designers of the future, cotton farmers and models will tour leading fashion colleges around the UK to inspire them to use Fairtrade cotton in their fashion collections.
The credit crunch and recession have affected the amount of cotton that Fairtrade farmers have been able to sell over the last year as consumers have moved towards low priced, fast moving clothing. Without consumer support for Fairtrade farmers may have to go back to selling cotton for whatever price they can get, which has an impact on families getting into debt and many repercussions on health, education, food and water. Despite this downturn, figures show there are growing concerns amongst consumers that the conventional cotton that goes into our clothes is contributing to the hunger and hardship faced by cotton farmers. According to a recent TNS survey, a third of all people asked said they knew about Fairtrade cotton and eight out of ten people are willing to pay a premium for Fairtrade products. What’s more, 38% of people in 2009 said they would like to see more Fairtrade products available in high street stores.
On her trip to India, Lisa Butcher met Pragjibhai and his family. Like their father before them, Pragjibhai and his brothers have farmed cotton all their lives and are now members of the Fairtrade certified Agrocel Pure & Fair Cotton Growers’ Association, in the Rapar region of Gujarat. The farm was originally owned by Mr Pragjibhai’s father. His crop is 80% cotton as well as a mixture of marigolds and vegetables as part of an organic crop rotation system encouraged by Agrocel in order to replenish the soil. He is positive about his family’s future knowing that he receives a fair price as well as the premium from Fairtrade sales: ‘Through sales of our Fairtrade cotton we have funded community projects to supply books and clean drinking water for our local school and we have built water conservation projects and installed solar powered street lighting in villages. We are very proud of what we have achieved.’
Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation said: ‘We have all had a tough year, but cotton farmers have had it tougher and they need us to buy their beautiful Fairtrade cotton. Fairtrade cotton puts cotton farmers first not last, setting up a whole new pattern for international trade. We are determined that this will become the norm in the cotton industry and will continue to work towards meeting the needs of cotton farmers. Anything new is never easy, and we always need to work that bit harder to achieve the unknown. But it’s not impossible to change the way we view and value cotton and the challenge is back to the industry. Fairtrade shows how our little actions add up to a lot and help to change lives.’
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Eileen Maybin
Head of Media Relations
020 7440 7686/07770 957 451
eileen.maybin@fairtrade.org.uk
Martine Julseth
Media and PR Manager
020 7440 7695/07825 827 791
martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk
Faith Mall
Media and PR Manager
020 7440 8597/07766 504 947
faith.mall@fairtrade.org.uk
Neil Martin
Assistant Press Officer
020 7440 7620
neil.martin@fairtrade.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
To view Trevor Leighton’s work please visit www.trevorleighton.com. Leighton has one of the largest collections of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery
The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 72% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.
Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs & spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys, cotton wool and olive oil.
7 in 10 households purchase Fairtrade goods, including an extra 1.3 million more households in 2008, helping Fairtrade sales reach an estimated £700m in 2008, a 43% increase on the previous year. There are over 460 producer organisations selling to the UK and by the end of October 2008 872 certified producer groups were in the global Fairtrade system, representing more than 1.5 million farmers and workers.