Fair Trade Fortnight: Can you help grow a new habit in Fair Trade Fashion?
Between events held to celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight, I went to check out People Tree's 'mini concession' in Topshop on Oxford Street (in the basement, next to the vintage shoes). It's great to tell the world that Fair Trade Fashion has come to Topshop and that Fair Trade clothing is worn by fashionable twentysomethings (but we all knew that anyway). It's a good start, although the concession is too small to reflect the relevance of Fair Trade Fashion and the huge improvement it can bring to people in the developing world and to the environment.
Of course I hope that the size of our concession in Topshop won't put you off going there, trying on, and buying an item or two — and meeting one of the lovely People Tree team who are there most days. It is vital to show the big retailers that customers care about the way their clothes are made. If it is good business they will stock more and more Fair Trade Clothing, and it will be easier for you (and everyone else) to find.
That was how Cafédirect took off...
About ten years ago, several Fair Trade pioneer companies encouraged customers to go and buy directly from the shelves of supermarkets. As sales grew, Cafédirect secured more and more shelf space and went on to become a Fair Trade superbrand. Today Cafédirect has acheived an incredible 16% market share of the roast and ground coffee markets — changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of coffee farmers and pushing the multinationals to change their trading practices.
We are only in Topshop till the end of March this time, but next week I'll meet with the Topshop team to plan how we go forward. I already have the dream concession planned out in my mind's eye — it's four times the size, a wall-less version of our Fair Trade Fashion store in the heart of the most fashionable area of Tokyo!