Alexa Chung loves Fairtrade cotton at LFW

By Harriet Lamb, Executive Director, Fairtrade Foundation

It’s vital in life to know your limits. What you’re good at, and what really is just not you. Well I didn’t become a fashion model for very good sound reasons.

So imagine my panic, when the dynamic and outrageously beautiful Safia Minney, who runs People Tree, phones me up to ask what I want to wear for her special evening. I am on solid ground when discussing what I will say to the gang of fashion bloggers whom she is inviting to celebrate People Tree’s new spring collection at the start of London Fashion Week and in the run-up to Fairtrade Fortnight.

But I am a wreck when she starts asking about clothes. Safia is as slim as a teenager. But I have to confess to her that I need somewhat larger sizes – and that really jersey will be a disaster given all my lumps and bumps. Unfazed, Safia finds me the most stunning dress made with Fairtrade cotton that suits me perfectly. I comfort (or is that delude?) myself that most of the population are in the bumpy brigade too. But it certainly doesn’t feel like it at this event. Especially when in strides Alexa Chung, who is about twice as tall as me, and a zillion times as thin. Model, TV presenter and contributing editor at British Vogue, she is angry about sweatshops with women working overtime for low wages to make cheap clothes. And interested in all that People Tree is doing.

People Tree is a pioneer, using Fairtrade cotton from Agrocel in India and working with so many handloom weavers and embroiders in Bangladesh in particular. Safia has amazing drive and flair, bringing in so many big hitters from the world of fashion. Her new range has a collection from top designer Orla Keily, with a dress that is to die for. In the past, she has worked with Emma Watson and Jane Shepherdson, model Laura Bailey and designer Bora Aksu. This year, Safia announced, People Tree will be buying double the quantity of Fairtrade cotton, a serious increase for the farmers.  

It is badly needed. Since the 1970s, the price of cotton has fallen in real terms by a shocking 228 per cent. That is almost unimaginable – how could you survive on a 220% lower wage that you got decades ago? You probably could barely make ends meet. And that’s how cotton farmers feel. Left high and dry while the fashion industry hurtles around the world at ever faster speeds. But the movement for change is growing, strengthened by the public’s general anger against the economic collapse and bankers’ bonuses. People are looking for alternatives. Interestingly, Safia tells me, that is true in Britain but also in Japan. There, one year on from the tsunami and consequent nuclear crisis, support for ethical issues – from volunteering to the environment and Fairtrade – are on the rise. People who have had such a tough time are clearly rethinking their priorities and wanting to do more to create a better future.

It’s much the same back here. People are if anything more supportive of Fairtrade. They have less money so they are spending it more wisely, and carefully. Fairtrade is a living breathing example of the responsible capitalism that is on everyone’s lips. Fairtrade puts the spotlight on the very other end of businesses – on the farmers in their fields, who are in the frontline, hit first and worst when the economy nose-dives. And Fairtrade is a way both that businesses here can put responsible purchasing from producers in developing countries into their ways of working, and that smallholders across Africa, Asia and Latin America can build up their own businesses.

For example, Agrocel is the group behind the Fairtrade cotton in People Tree clothes. The farmers have, among an impressive list of projects, used the premium to improve their productivity, and sustainability. They have invested in drip irrigation, so reducing the precious water wasted in the hot, dry lands where they farm. It’s a world away from the catwalks and hectic tweeting – but it doesn’t have to be. As more and more companies are showing – including the new Nudie jeans being launched this Fairtrade Fortnight -  you can combine high fashion and high ideals. And I do so love getting  to wear the lovely People Tree dresses!