A Summer of Fairtrade Fashion a la Brigitte Bardot!
When I was twelve, I used to long for the annual May ritual of raiding my mother’s capacious summer trunks, and impatiently plucking out my candy assortment of crisp, darling, handmade summer dresses, in great anticipation of summer dress weather! I can still hear her telling me it was far too early to cast off my winter coats and cardigans; of course, I didn’t listen.
My Summer Fashion Discovery of the Year
Now, all grown up, I love the hunt for a new, forever summer dress worthy of wardrobe adoration. The kind of adorable summer dress Brigitte Bardot used to wear to cause havoc with the world’s media in St Tropez. My great discovery of the year is the wonderful Fair Trade Fashion house, Mata Traders. Three friends went on the trip of a lifetime, fell in love with mother India and her traditional artisan craft skills and started a super chic, fair trade fashion house in Chicago.
Now, there are seventeen people in the all girl power team, and together, they create covetable, throw on and feel fabulous, Fair Trade fashion collections sold around the globe. It’s exciting to see Fair Trade fashion come of age and create the ideal marriage of covetable fashion, with great ethics. Given the quality, and artisan heritage and skill, the prices are great too.
Each adorable, fair trade dress comes with breezy, I want you names such as Dilly Dally and Bellini and is a style miracle in its own right. Why? Because the transparent supply chain helps to directly empower and change lives of vulnerable women and families in India and Nepal, and preserves the ancient handcraft skills of block printing and screen-printing.
If you want adorable summer fashion with great values, you will love Mata Traders fair trade summer dress edit. Studying the vibrant, intricate kaleidoscope of patterns, weaves and homespun folk motives, it’s like looking at India on a dress. But let’s get one thing clear. This is Brigitte Bardot goes to India. So more St Tropez, than the hippy trail.
How wonderful to wear a dress, knowing that it has transformed a life from poverty to security on the other side of the world. Now that is a fashion statement dress worth flaunting. Then, there is the story behind the fabrics. Each roll of traditional ikat or kadi fabric is literally handcrafted in people’s homes and small workshops. Thus, no two pieces of fabric are the same, and each vibrant, pretty, kadi or chambray dress in the collection is a true, artisan work of art.
I love how a simple, minimalist, elegantly tailored summer shift dress is transformed by an eye catching embroidery detail on a sleeve or yoke, while the complex, intricate, colourful folk prints bring the chaotic, melting pot tapestry of India to life in beautiful summer dresses with the power to turns heads in London, Chicago, Paris and Mumbai – now that’s fashion worth investing in.
More Info – Visit the Mata Traders Website and don’t miss their sale!
To find out more about how you can support and invest in Mata Traders and Fair Trade Fashion, visit Shared Interest UK
The summer dresses featured in this fashion editorial all comes from Mata Traders new Spring Summer 2018 Collection. The featured dresses in descending order are: Mata Marigold Dress, Mata Redtile Wrap Dress, Dilly Dally Dress, Natalia Shirt Dress in Folk Animal Print.
This is a sponsored Fashion Feature Written By Alison Jane Reid on behalf of Shared Interest.