In honor of its latest collaboration with designer Stella McCartney, the International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative has released a short film that celebrates the Kenyan artisans who make the designer bags. The people involved in the initiative rank in the thousands, 90% of them women from poverty-stricken areas. Depicting the production of the label’s Autumn/Winter 2014 “Noemi” collection, the video makes a case for the eradication of poverty and gender inequality not by dishing out “cash handouts” but with sustainable employment and support.
“Throughout our supply chain, we work to ensure that people producing our goods are treated and paid fairly,” McCartney says in a voiceover. “Being able to directly help is something we’re really proud of.”
McCartney says she values the fact that you need people to make fashion. “The empowerment of the women working for us has to be one of the most meaningful for me,” she says, before echoing the organization’s cri de coeur. “[It’s] not charity, just work.”
Source: Ecouterre
