Thank you to The Observer Magazine for yesterday's cover story 'Model Behaviour - Catwalk queen Erin O'Connor on bringing fair trade fashion to the high steet'. The article gives much needed publicity to the work of SEWA (Self Employed Women's Asociation), an ethical fashion project set up to stop the exploitation of female home-workers in India. The project is partly funded by Traid (UK Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) whose spokesperson is the model Erin O'Connor.
Female home-workers carry out highly skilled beading and embroidery embellishments for clothes destined for high-street retailers. The women can be paid as little as 54p for a 12 hour day. SEWA has increased the wages of their homeworkers as well as given them the opportunity to improve their lives and those of their families.
SEWA has contracts with Monsoon, Next and Gap and although these are only for small quantities it is a step in the right direction for high-street fashion.
For the full story click on this link: Observer - Traid - Fashion
