Pachacuti - Panama Hats and Fair Trade Clothing

I was honoured and delighted to collect an award inscribed with the words 'Outstanding Fashion Design' at the Sustainable City Awards last night. 

Pachacuti won the award for Sustainable Fashion Designer, with Auria London's ethical swimwear collection, made in the UK, picking up highly commended in the category.  In the Fashion Retailer category, the award went to Marks & Spencer, with highly commended to People Tree.

Prior to the awards, I had a photo session with Livia Firth on the balcony of Mansion House and this morning the photos are popping up everywhere, from the Daily Telegraph to Vogue.  

Livia Firth and the British Fashion Council teamed up for the first ever awards for Fashion since the Sustainable City Awards commenced 12 years ago. 

Other judges included Tamsin Blanchard of the Daily Telegraph, model Erin O'Connor and Orsola de Castro, co-founder of From Somewhere.

Livia has long been a fan of Pachacuti hats and last year we commenced a collaboration for Livia Firth Designs for Yoox.  Pictured are Livia's AW12 designs and her SS13 designs for Pachacuti are now available on Yoox.

One of the best things about the awards was the chance to catch up with ethical fashion friends. Unlike conventional perceptions of the fashion industry, ethical fashion is genuinely supportive and collaborative, with designers sharing best practice, sourcing and manufacturing advice.  Living outside of the fashion hub of London, it is always wonderful to have an opportunity to meet my many friends within the industry.

Orsola de Castro of From Somewhere, Diana Auria Harris of Auria swimwear, myself and Nicola Woods of Beautiful Soul

Of course, Pachacuti would not exist without the dedication of our Fair Trade producer groups in Ecuador, co-operatives, women's associations and small family workshops.  Pachacuti is working to ensure the survival of hat making and millinery skills in Ecuador, which are in danger of dying out, through fair wages, training, capacity building, design expertise, social and medical assistance. We are delighted that our 21 years of work in sustainable development and the promotion of traditional skills has been recognised by this award.

 Thanks also to our fantastic team in Ashbourne who keep everything running smoothly and do all of the hard work behind the scenes.

                             Thank you to all of you for your part in this award.

I have just returned from Pachacuti's Fashion Week Road Trip, showing at London, Milan and Paris, so thought that I would show you a few images of our travels.  Surely Pachacuti must be the only ethical fashion company who showed at all three European Fashion Weeks?

London Fashion Week is always such an enjoyable event for me. Living in Staffordshire means I rarely make it to fashion parties, so it's an opportunity to catch up with friends who I only see every six months.  We had already shown our SS13 collection in Paris in June at Première Classe and London produced another great reaction to our collection from both press and buyers. 

This year we have innovated with some completely new degradé techniques, as well as hand-woven ribbon, hand-embroidered ribbons and buckles made from a fusion of recycled cow horn and rainforest-friendly tagua nuts with a wood backing.

Leaving London behind, we drove down to Dover to catch the ferry to Dieppe. My American husband was very excited to see the White Cliffs of Dover for the very first time! 

A long first day of driving took us through France, Belgium and Luxembourg, then back to France again. 

The next morning we stopped in Strasbourg, a place where I had spent time as a student and had fond memories of the beautiful city.  I had completely forgotten about the wonderful astronomical clock in Strasbourg Cathedral, of which just a small section is shown here.

Stopping in Freiburg for another break, we finally ended our day in Lucerne.  This café looked the most tempting location for morning coffee, looking over the river at the swans, with snowy mountains beyond. 

Arriving in Milan that afternoon, we found our way to the White Show and set up our stand in White goes Green with CLASS, the ethical section of the show (see my previous blog for details). 

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Here is my pick of ethical accessories from Estethica at London Fashion Week to combine with some of my favourite looks from the SS13 catwalk. Some of the combinations are, admittedly somewhat over-the-top, but you only have to take a walk around the courtyard of Somerset House to see that the fashion on display is certainly far from restrained. 

I'll be back to my Derbyshire wellies in a few weeks after Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks are over, but in the meantime I'm happy to wear the icing on the cake, or a better metaphor looking at today's outfit may be the sauce on the ice cream sundae!

Maria Grachvogel with Ada Zanditon's Cherry Wood and Brass Bracelet

Maria Grachvogel's SS13 collection was characterised by the use of architectural forms and sharp lines whilst still providing the flowing, diaphanous shapes for which she is known. 

Although I'd be almost reticent to wear any jewellery with such a statement dress, I think that it could carry one of Ada Zanditon's structural bracelets made from cherry wood painted with eco friendly paints, with brass detail and off-cuts of leather and silk from Ada's studio.

Christopher Kane with Pachacuti's Delaunay fedora 

Yes, undoubtedly you might look a little like a knickerbocker glory, but the dress works so perfectly with the Delaunay fedora that the combination is irresistible. I would certainly wear the two together! This Certified Fair Trade, sustainably-sourced Panama hat uses a new technique to create a degradé effect in the weave.  The addition of a vintage '70s brocade ribbon with a hint of sparkle ties it in so well with this elegant Christopher Kane sorbet-toned dress.  For even more drama, the same colours are used in the extra wide brim Miami Beach panama hat.

Vivienne Westwood with Mich Dulce's Double Crown Headband

What better accessory to accompany a dress by the Queen of Punk and Grand Dame of British Fashion (not to mention local Derbyshire girl) than a Double Crown Headband by the wonderfully creative Mich Dulce. 

Mich was showing in Estethica for the first time and her collection rightly elicited a great deal of attention, with one of her hats being worn by Anna della Russo at the Estethica Brunch. 

Mich is dedicated to promoting traditional skills in the Philippines and each headpiece is handmade by a development foundation dedicated to poverty alleviation.

PPQ with Joanna Cave's Kirti earrings

This PPQ '60s shift dress is so reminiscent of a dress my mother wore when I was young, but this version has been updated with a more contemporary take on the traditional paisley. 

The Joanna Cave's design are modern yet classic and these Kirti earrings subtly pick up the paisley shapes and work well with the burnt sienna tones of the dress.

Vogue is undoubtedly to be congratulated on devoting several pages to ethical fashion in their April issue as very few fashion magazines are prepared to devote six entire pages to ethical issues.  Likewise, Alexa Chung's commitment to ethical fashion is not to be doubted.

However, it is extremely unfortunate that there were several errors within the feature which I feel it is important to highlight as they will be misleading to anyone without a prior knowledge of ethical fashion.

The first glaring error I came upon was the amount of clothing sent to landfill a year.  2 tons?  As one person replied to my tweet about this error, I bet that's just what their staff throw out!  According to a BBC feature in 2009 the actual figure was closer to 2 million tons of clothing being discarded every year  Only around 16% of used clothing is reused or recycled. 

Just think, if everyone recycled their clothing and took good quality garments to charity shops, more of you may find bargains like the £10 pair of silk Valentino trousers I picked  when I ran into the Cancer Research shop in Ashbourne looking for a lightweight pair of trousers for the Ecuadorian Amazon later this week! 

Seriously though, we have to reduce cotton production as, in addition to the well-publicised health effects of the pesticides used, wider issues include the diminishing Aral Sea which is being drained for cotton irrigation and the overgrazing of grasslands for cashmere goats in China.  See the Traid website for further information.

The second error was in the definition of Fair Trade, a concept given very little space in the feature.   This is possibly due to the difficulty of carrying out Fair Trade within the fashion industry.  Pachacuti was the only Fair Trade company showing at  the Estethica exhibition in London Fashion Week this year.

Although I am sure that the confusion of Fairtrade and Fair Trade is common, I would have expected a well-researched Vogue article to have some basic idea of the concept of Fair Trade two words, as opposed to Fairtrade one word.

Fairtrade is only applicable to commodities, which in the fashion industry means cotton.  The Fairtrade label is a guarantee that the production of the raw material has met the standards established by FLO, the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation, guaranteeing a price which covers the cost of production and a premium to invest back into their business or community.  The Fairtrade mark only applies to the particular product on which the label is displayed.

The accepted definition of Fair Trade is as follows:
“Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seek greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalised producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade Organisations, backed by  consumers, are engaged actively  in supporting producers,  awareness  raising  and  in campaigning  for  changes  in  the  rules  and practice  of conventional international trade.” 

Many people believe that Fair Trade is just about a fair price, but Fair Trade goes much further than this as there are 9 principles other than the fair price. Fair Trade companies such as People Tree and Pachacuti follow the Charter of Fair Trade Principles. 

1 Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers
2 Transparency and Accountability
3  Fair Trading Practices & the protection and promotion of Cultural Identity
4 Fair Price
5  Ensuring no Child Labor and Forced Labor
6 Commitment to Non Discrimination, Gender Equity and Freedom of Association
7 Ensuring Good Working Conditions
8 Providing Capacity Building
9 Promoting Fair Trade
10 Respect for the Environment

Pachacuti was the first company in the world to be Fair Trade Certified by the World Fair Trade Organisation, a guarantee of the highest social and environmental standards throughout the supply chain.  

I think that part of my frustration stems from the fact that Fair Trade is not easy and we all work so hard to, for instance, provide training to producers or improve environmental standards, and yet Fair Trade is still only seen as being about a fair price. 

In order to obtain our Fair Trade certification, I spent at least 20 hours a week for 6 months working towards the certification, carrying out assessments of each producer group (analysing supply chains, eco-mapping premises, interviewing workers, mapping raw materials to ensure local supply chains) and creating an annual action plan for each group.  I am currently in Ecuador carrying out the next round of assessments for our upcoming audit.

In the case of the Vogue article, it only saw the fair price in terms of the cotton farmer and did not recognise that Fair Trade (two words) should give rise to a much broader definition of Fair Trade which applies to the entire fashion supply chain, including every aspect of the construction of the garment or accessory, not just the raw material.

At Pachacuti, our Fair Trade certification means we don't just look down the supply chain but we also look at how the Fair Trade principles affect our work in the UK, which has led us to convert all of our electric and gas in our studio and shop to Ecotricity, for example, and we calculate the CO2 for all of our travel and freight each year.

Alexa Chung and Vogue are to be commended for the inclusion of the ethical special in the April issue and I hope that it will help to make readers think more about the production and disposal of their garments. It is just such a shame that the research wasn't carried out a little more thoroughly!  Still, there is always next year's ethical special...