The Fairtraders cooperative in Holmfirth held an event last night where Ashleigh Clark, wholesale rep of People tree came in and gave an inspiring talk about the company and their work with Bangladesh and Indian communities to build the business they are today. They work with clothing manufacturers such as Assisi garments, Swallows and Artisan hut, all organisations from the developing world that create beautifully crafted hand woven and hand embroidered unique pieces for the brand. People tree aspire to create the perfect pieces, which Ashleigh explained is not exactly the case just yet. She described a perfect piece as handcrafted, organic and fairtrade: the whole lot! But working with so many different countries it’s not always possible to meet all their own standards exactly and succeed as a business. They work with countries and factories all over the world. Most of their popularity coming from the Japanese branch, It has only relatively recently gained a lot more recognition here in the UK.
As Ashleigh talked about the brand structure, how they build a range and the strong ethical principals of the company, it really came across how much they aspire to be the ethical brand, do everything in their power to do the best for the environment, developing communities and at the same time be a commercially viable brand, which is absolutely key in the up coming ethical market. Throughout the evening it was a great atmosphere and we even had a sneak preview of the spring/summer 13 collection.
Images courtesy of www.peopletree.co.uk.
1. hand woven black dress with luxurious floral embroidery and gold sequin embellishment. 2.statement
black dress with red applique on the hem. 3. Sr Vineetha of Assisi Garments in the organic cotton store
