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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It has been a busy show season for Pachacuti with four shows to present our Spring/Summer 2012 Panama hat collection.  We started at Pure in August where we added some new countries to those where Pachacuti Panamas are already stocked, including Singapore.  Then off to a fantastic Première Classe in Paris in early September where we had a really great reaction to our range, particularly from a number of luxury Japanese retailers.  We are also delighted to be supplying the California-based Fred Segal, with stores in Hollywood and Santa Monica, from this Autumn.

Then back to the UK for Estethica at London Fashion Week.  The show got off to a great start for us with an order from Japan on the Thursday, before it even officially opened!   Again, we found a very high level of interest from Japanese customers and it was great to see the Japanese buyers back at London Fashion Week again as, in recent years, many buyers have favoured Paris Fashion Week over London.  Other new stockists for 2012 will include the fabulous Mezzo Mezzo boutique in Corfu Town.

After the success of our collection in Paris and London, we managed to obtain a last-minute stand at The Box as we felt that the new collection had such good momentum that we should show it to some more customers.  Very excited to now have a stockist in St Barths, French West Indies, as well as several new customers in France and more Japanese stores.

Although I wasn't able to go to Paris for the entire show, my 15 year old daughter Sienna and I headed off to Paris on Friday afternoon for the weekend.  As temperatures soared, we were happy to be showing at The Box in the beautiful Pavillon Cambon, rather than in the nearby Tuileries where the temperatures in the tents were unbearable.

Sienna and I walked various shows: Première Classe, Zip Zone, Atmosphère and caught up with some of our favourite ethical designers such as Ada Zanditon, Beautiful Soul and, our neighbours from London Fashion Week, Lost Property London.  All were having a good show which was very encouraging to hear.

As we were staying with friends in St. Ouen, whereas to visit on a Sunday morning in Paris than the famous Marché Puces de St Ouen flea market which, incredibly after so many weeks spent staying in the area over the years, I had never visited on a Sunday.  Had I known that the flea market also contained vintage clothing shops, I may have visited a little sooner!  For those who aren't acquainted with the St. Ouen flea market, the name is probably a little misleading as the area has very little of the bric-a-brac normally associated with this type of market.  Instead, you can admire the most incredible antique shops specialising in different époques and merchandise: a shop filled with copper pans (my husband's favourite); lighting from huge glass chandeliers to anglepoise lamps of every shape and size; art deco furniture; antique maps and, our favourite of course, clothing.

This was vintage clothing of the ilk that is very rarely seen in vintage shops, certainly not in the many vintage stores in London which I trawl regularly for '50s dresses.  These flea market stores were specialising in the highest designer fashions and there was something incongruous but quite refreshing about seeing names like Alexander McQueen, Galliano, Dior, Vera Wang, written on scraps of paper in black marker pen and affixed to the garments, bags, shoes and jewellery on display.  

Oh how we wished to be the American women in those stores, accompanied by their husbands who we suspected would not blink at the prices and their wives would emerge with a vintage prize.  Unfortunately for us, we were on a budget, and a tight one at that.  Sienna was hunting for a vintage dress to wear to her prom next year and fell completely in love with a fabulous, floor-length, figure-hugging beaded Versace haute couture gown.  Undoubtedly a snip at 2000Euros, it certainly wasn't coming home with us.  She still sighs in a longing manner whenever I mention the flea market and I suspect that I am bringing her up to have expensive tastes.  She was hunting in Waitrose for foie gras this afternoon for goodness sake!

And so I return, sad to leave Paris but very excited at what the year ahead holds for Pachacuti.  This year has been a difficult one for most ethical clothing brands and I was concerned at what next year would hold, particularly given the poor weather we have experienced which I think has affected our sales more than the recession.  However, they always say that in a recession you should concentrate on building your exports and, with over 90% of orders from these trade shows coming from new overseas customers, that seems to be exactly what we are doing.  Now if only I could find an excuse to personally visit them all...

Pachacuti has just returned from showing our AW11 felt hats, alpaca clothing & accessories at both London Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week.  

I have developed our felt hat collection further than in previous years, knowing the limitations of our Fair Trade producers, yet also conscious of the fact that all of our producers say that they love making new designs. It is therefore a delicate balancing act between extending their skills and capacity just a little bit further, yet still producing an item of a consistent quality.   The more complicated the design, the harder it is to convey all of the specifications in an entirely visual way to the producers as many of them are illiterate.

A new addition to our collection was our range of Carry On bags: made from recycled plastic bags.  Of course, our bags are not just recycled but are also Fair Trade, made by the Women's Hope collective in Colombia.  More about this exciting new collection to follow in the next post.

I always enjoy being part of Estethica at London Fashion Week, alongside other pioneers of ethical fashion such as From Somewhere and Junky Styling and newcomers who bring fresh perspectives and innovative materials, such as Jacob James STINGplus caps made from a blend of nettles and wool.

Surprisingly, the only Fair Trade representation at Estethica this season was the Fairtrade Foundation, showing their new collection of Fairtrade cotton scarves designed by the Fairtrade Collective and on sale at ASOS, and Pachacuti.

On the first day I was visited by Livia Firth who is such a fantastic and tireless eco-advocate.  She managed to squeeze in an afternoon at Estethica to visit all of her favourite ethical brands before flying off to the Oscars where The Kings Speech won Best Picture and Colin won a well-deserved Best Actor.

On Saturday, Estethica hosted the brunch which, as usual, boasted a few trays of canapés and copious amounts of champagne!