Fashion Revolution Week: Meet the artisan who made your Kantha Sari Scarves
This week we join forces with Fashion Revolution to highlight our transparency in our supply chain and show our customers who made their much-loved scarves. Fashion Revolution is a global movement that runs all year round, celebrating fashion and raising awareness of issues in the fashion industry. With the focus on making the industry accountable and sustainable, we thought it was the perfect opportunity for you to meet one of the makers of our Kantha scarves and hear her story.
Lazina is fortunate that her husband works, however, many of the women in the cooperatives are the sole breadwinners of the family. So it's crucial they continue to work to support their families. By purchasing our products you are contributing to greatly improving the lives of these women. Enabling them to financially support and educate themselves is a necessary and sustainable way of addressing poverty and empowering women.
Meet Lazina, one of the many artisans who makes our beautiful Kantha Scarves. Lazina comes from a village in West Bengal - the heartland of Kantha stitching. Married to a school teacher, her husband works at a local school which was set up by the same NGO that runs the women's cooperative that Lazina works with. Juggling Kantha stitching with married life, Lazina also attends a local college where she is taking a three-year course in Philosophy. She pays the tuition fees with the money she earns as an artisan. Her favourite pastime? Bollywood singing of course!
THE MEANING BEHIND FASHION REVOLUTION
Everyday millions of people go shopping. Browsing through rows upon rows of clothes, searching for the latest looks and trends in stylish air-conditioned shops. Sounds fun doesn't it? Wait. There's a dark side. Everyday millions of people make those very same clothes, working long hours for little pay in sweatshops all around the world. If it's unacceptable here then it should be unacceptable there. But it's not. There's an inequality, an injustice.
On the 24th April 2013, 1134 people were killed and over 2500 injured when the Rana Plaza Complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed. The complex housed many garment factories sub-contracted by fashion brands to produce their clothes. The deaths of so many workers highlighted the ugly truth behind the clothes we all wear.
In our throw-away society, our thirst for cheap "fast fashion" means factories race to the lowest bidder. As a result, workers are shamelessly exploited along with the unregulated pollution of the environment.
Fashion Revolution named the anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy Fashion Revolution Day. As mentioned by Fashion Revolution on their website;
"On the 24th April this year, Fashion Revolution will bring everyone in the fashion value chain together and help to raise awareness of the true cost of fashion, show the world that change is possible and celebrate all those involved in creating a more sustainable future".
You too can get involved. Find out how at http://fashionrevolution.org/.
Like fashion Revolution on Facebook and follow @Fash_Rev on Twitter and Instagram. Don't forget to ask the question #whomademyclothes.
