Pheasant Skirt

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Before I moved to India, a friend of mine joked that I should send her a full wardrobe at the start of every season. She was more than a little jealous of the items I'd picked up on a trip before—particularly the scarves with sparse silver threading that are difficult to find in the States—where I made my way East to West across the subcontinent from Kolkata to Varanasi to Delhi. My sister made me promise to buy her a few stylish hippie-cum-hipster skirts while my boss hinted at her desire for intricately designed jewelry. I was all too pleased to have my holiday shopping list laid out so neatly.

A reflection of the global economy, a great many women's empowerment NGOs in India have added employment and job training programs to their organizational structure that consists of textile making and exporting. In Kolkata, ex-prostitutes (Sari Bari and Freeset), women living in slums (Connexions), girls and women who have escaped sex trafficking (Made By Survivors), and rural women (Jeevika Development Society) are all carving out a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities by creating clothing, bags, plush toys, and other items that are desirable to those in the West. But in order for these items to make their way from the hands of their creators on one side of the globe to the person who uses the goods on other, there must be an entity facilitating that transaction. Enter Mata Traders.

Although I can't say for certain from which India-based NGOs Mata Traders receives their wares, it is clear this is their system of operation. They pay women workers a livable wage to make handmade clothing, jewelry, bags, and accessories that are then bought in a retail location in Illinois, through their online store, or purchased at the Women Thrive Worldwide World of Good shop. Alternatively, any individual or group can also sell their items as a fundraiser or a home show... kind of like an eco-friendly, fashion-forward, global economy consciousness raising Tupperware party, if you replace the passé pastel plastic with eclectic yet practical attire.

I was quite taken with the bold colors of the Pheasant Skirt, which is made entirely of a comfortable fair trade certified cotton. On most women this skirt would no doubt hit just below the knee, but at 6'1", I'm not most women, so my legs a tad more exposed. No matter, though. The hand-stitched, block-printed bird and swirly designs on the thigh are what attracts the eye. I can already hear the envy in my friends' voices. Luckily, this time, I can tell them how they can get one of their own without shelling out the cash for a plane ticket across the world.

Written by: Mandy Van Deven, December 23rd 2009

Winter Dreidle Dress

admin — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:23:00 +0000

Mata Traders

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a number of Western counter-cultural icons traveled to India in order to broaden their knowledge of art, music, literature, and philosophy by speaking with some the country's intellectual and religious figures. Among those world travelers were musicians (The Beatles), writers (Allen Ginsberg), and academics (Joseph Campbell), who incorporated what they learned into their respective fields of influence. One area that was indirectly affected by these now-famed travels was fashion. From the Nehru Jacket to tie die to sandals, utilitarian staples of Indian attire were brought back to the United States by pop culture heroes and quickly became en vogue.

Today, Mata Traders continues this practice of global fashion exchange. Since 2003, Michelle King and Maureen Dunn have run their women's clothing and accessories business from Chicago, IL. Instead of simply co-opting the bright, offbeat colors and floral patterns seen across the Indian landscape, this woman-owned company moves past an aesthetic focus toward one of social consciousness by employing groups of Indian women worker in a well-worn model of transcontinental economic exchange. Mata Traders is an import/export business whose foundational desire is to facilitate women's financial empowerment.

Working with fair trade women's cooperatives and artisan groups that employ individual women who work either from home or in collective spaces to create handmade clothing in safe conditions while earning a living wage, Mata Traders contributes to a growing consumer trend of fighting the worldwide feminization of poverty by "giving women economic power and viable working skills [in order to] transform a community (and so the world)." According to the Nike Foundation's "The Girl Effect," women earners reinvest 90% of their income back into their families while men earners reinvest just 35%. The idea behind Mata Traders is that bringing women into the workforce will be a catalyst for positive global change.

And that is just the groundwork. Beyond the excellent crafts(wo)manship of the hand-embroidered floral appliqué on the three-quarter length sleeves and hemline of the elastic empire waist Winter Dreidle Dress is the knowledge that the garment is made of 100% fair trade certified cotton that is "grown on small family farms that...follow environmental standards that restrict the use of agrochemicals and encourage sustainability." And the beautiful color (mauve in my case, though the dress is also available in black) is gained through the use of eco-friendly vegetable dyes. All of this enviro-feminism contributes to my feeling very good about myself while wearing this trés cute dress. How many birds can you hit with just one stone?

Written by: Mandy Van Deven, December 16th 2009