Pachacuti - Panama Hats and Fair Trade Clothing

Here is our stand at Estethica, London Fashion Week. Was delighted
that the two lovely merchandising girls from Liberty loved the Panamas
and said they could really see them working in Liberty...and we'd love
to supply them.

Later in the week, not only Liberty came by, but all the big stores. I was just so overwhelmed that everyone loved our hats. All of the major magazines and newspapers came by and Vogue even rang the office a few days later to request photos. Very exciting times for Pachacuti.

Here at Pachacuti we have had an exciting few weeks hearing that we are shortlisted for 3 awards:

I am a down to the final 3 in the Women in Ethical Business Awards Small Business category. You can vote for me at The Times online here
I am also shortlisted in the Social Entrepreneur category of the Ernst&Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards in the Midlands/Northern region
Finally, we are finalists in the Observer Ethical Awards with our Panama Hats in the Fashion category.
June will be an exciting month with three award ceremonies to attend.

Pachacuti has had some fantastic press and PR over the past few months, featuring in The Telegraph, The Times, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Easy Living, French Elle and more... see our press photos here

Our mail order department and shop have been very busy over the past month with sales substantially up on last year. Pachacuti started in a recession in '92 and so we feel well placed to weather this downturn. In fact, we see it as an opportunity to carve out a niche for ourselves and thrive. I believe that consumers are looking for ways to connect with the products they buy. They want to know that the money they spend is well spent, both in terms of buying a quality, durable product and also knowing that the purchase will benefit marginalised producer groups on the other side of the world. Stylish designs which will last for years, made slowly, with care and attention to detail, under the highest fair trade and environmental standards - all of these will set us apart from the competition and I believe that we will be a stronger organisation at the end of 2009.

What an incredible evening we had last night! Shoreditch Town Hall was the setting for the very glamorous Re:Fashion Awards, the world's first awards dedicated to ethical fashion.

I really hadn't expected to win - and certainly not to win two awards! The list of finalists was impressive (Pachacuti was up against the likes of People Tree and Pants to Poverty) and there are so many of the finalists who didn't win but have made such a significant contribution to ethical fashion, such as Junky Styling. Walking away with two awards - Re:Business and Re:People - on the night was amazing recognition of the integrity of Pachacuti as a fair trade, sustainable fashion brand. I feel so honoured to have received such a high level acknowledgment of my work as one of the very first pioneers in the world of ethical fashion and also the current groundbreaking work we are doing in the pilot for the new standard on fair trade, sustainable product certification. It really is a very exciting time for all of us at Pachacuti!

In the past, we have often felt that being out of the fashion epicentre of London works against our business; somehow the idea that you can't have a credible fashion label based in rural Derbyshire. I think that these two awards have catapulted us into the spotlight as so many people hadn't heard of Pachacuti, although they have probably seen a lot of clothing and accessories which are own-labelled for major retailers without being conscious of the fact that they are produced by us.

The Re:Business Award was the first of the night and when Pachacuti was announced as the winner I just about leapt out of my chair in excitement. However, when I went forward to collect the award, there was no obvious way to reach the stage and when Mark and I looked up, the award had been taken off the stage. We went back to our seats and thought that it was a bit odd that the awards weren't actually being presented to the winners. As the shortlist for the Re:People Awards was being announced, I was told to go around to the backstage area to receive my award and so missed the actual announcement about the winner of the next category. I went onto the stage expecting to now receive my Re:Business Award and was confused to receive the People Award instead - a beautiful, giant recycled glass construction. We came off stage and mentioned to one of the organisers that we had been given the wrong award. It was only when I got back to our table and asked who had won the Re:People Award as we had missed it, that we were told that we had in fact won that as well! It just had never crossed my mind as I had thought that People Tree would undoubtedly win the People Award. So I left clutching two huge, and rather fragile, glass trophies which we will exhibit with great pride in our shop window.

I really hope that winning this award will raise Pachacuti's profile and that this will, in turn, result in more orders for our producer groups. Having just returned from South America, the one thing every group wanted was more work and so I hope that, through these two awards, our clothing and accessories will become known to a wider audience.