Let’s talk plastic bags. They are a necessary evil in the world of clothing manufacturing – protecting your garment between our production facility in Peru to your doorstep. We’ve spent years searching for a solution that is a little gentler on the environment, and here it is!
French fries, German potato salad, Irish potato soup, Bengal potatoes. An international starch powerhouse, the humble potato is actually native to Peru, was domesticated there over 10,000 years ago, and was only introduced to Europe after the “discovery” of the Americas in the fifteenth century.
Every time I open my News app, Facebook, or, (why do i still?) Twitter, I find myself almost squinting one eye shut to avoid the latest evidence the world is spiraling toward oblivion. While we can’t bury our heads in the sand to bad news or real struggles, sometimes it helps to take a step back and realize that across the arc of human history, the world is actually getting better in many ways.
In our early years, Fair Indigo worked with several small-ish suppliers all over the world and in the US. We were country-agnostic. As long as you could produce quality products and pay and treat your workers well, we wanted to work with you. The universe of fair trade + clothing + quality was pretty small, however.
A new California startup has a novel idea to reduce waste and help families save money at the same time. It’s sort of a re-imagination of the hand-me-down kids clothing model many of us remember from our childhood.
Earth Day 2018 will “focus on fundamentally changing human attitude and behavior about plastics and catalyzing a significant reduction in plastic pollution” according to organizers at earthday.org.
Jody was the first person to encourage me to start Fair Indigo, which isn’t a surprise to anyone who knew her. She encouraged everyone to go for their dream, however improbable it seemed to most. Other good friends, rightfully, advised caution – a big risk, securing investors, long hours. But Jody – “you have to do this!” Jody believed.
Every returning trip strengthens relationships, widens smiles and drives us to continue working to make the clothing business a little kinder. Here are a couple highlights from their trip.
Our friends at Fashion Revolution will be exploring waste in the fashion industry in an upcoming e-zine. They’re calling it “Loved clothes last.” We’re so happy to see them focus on this often overlooked piece of the ethical clothing puzzle.
All of our Fair Indigo and Joobles products use Oeko-tex certified dyes – among the safest, most gentle commercial dyes available and free from Azo colourants, formaldehyde, pentachlorophenol, cadmium, and nickel, among other harmful chemicals.
This week is Fashion Revolution Week – a yearly campaign that started as a remembrance for the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh and has evolved into a global movement calling for greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry.
