Fighting Poverty With Fashion

Have you ever wondered how you can begin to incorporate second-hand textiles into your business? Or wondered where all the clothes that get donated to charity shops actually go? 

In this video, we chat to Elen Newcombe-Ling, Private Sector Partnerships Manager at Oxfam GB, about the second-hand clothing industry. We discover how Oxfam processes all their textile donations, the positive social and environmental impacts of the second-hand market, and how to start to incorporate second-hand textiles into your design business.

The World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) is a global organisation comprising 401 member organisations, all committed to improving the livelihoods of economically marginalised groups. 

In this Lesson, with Jette Ladiges, Partnerships Manager of the WFTO, we learn what role the organisation plays in reducing poverty, in campaigning for the rights of farmers, workers and SMEs, and in addressing gender equality via their democratic community of member organisations working across the world.

In an eye-opening discussion about the current situation of cotton farming and its contribution to poverty cycles among rural communities in India today, Aneel Kumar Ambavaram and Sanne van den Dungen from Grameena Vikas Kendram (GVK Society), share information about the organisation's RESET programme that aims to regenerate the environment, society and economy through textiles. This makes an unmissable lesson for anyone who wants to know how cotton truly figures into the everyday lives of farmers and villages where the fibre originates.

Traidcraft Exchange's research, funded with the help of TRAID, into the informal garment industry in Bangladesh offers an insightful vision of the potential to reduce textile waste and increase creative income for local entrepreneurs in a country where the global ready-made garment sector dominates the economy. In this Lesson, you'll learn more about the backyard garment industry in Bangladesh.

This is a segment cut from a full interview with Maveen Pereira, Director of Programmes at Traidcraft Exchange. 

Traidcraft Exchange's strategy for women's empowerment addresses the fact that women make up a significant part of our global workforce head-on. Here we learn about why women's rights should be advocated for, and why in particular, within the cotton agriculture sector.  

This is a segment cut from the full interview with Maveen Pereira, Director of Programmes at Traidcraft Exchange. 

As one of the world's longest natural fibres, jute has important applications in manufacturing, from luxury fashion products to road construction, and India's jute industry is one of the largest in the world. Here we learn about the background to the industry, including the labour-intensive process jute workers must carry out to provide the 'golden fibre', with little pay, limited rights and unimaginable conditions.  

This is a segment cut from a full interview with Maveen Pereira, Director of Programmes at Traidcraft Exchange. 

Homeworkers are the backbone of the Indian textile export industry; there are millions who carry out "piecework" from home, contributing to the global textile market from the bottom of complex supply chains. In this Lesson, learn about the hidden workers of fashion: the homeworkers working with zero contracts, no union support or employee benefits, and no regular salary, yet who provide intricate embellishment to our clothing.  

This is a segment from a full interview with Maveen Pereira, Director of Programmes at Traidcraft Exchange. 

While it is easy to perceive the benefits of regenerative cotton farming for the environment and people, there are still key, practical barriers to overcome to see a wider uptake within the fashion and textiles industry. 

In this Lesson, we speak to Aneel Kumar Ambavaran and Sanne van den Dungen at Grameena Vikas Kendram (GVK Society), to learn what the challenges and opportunities are for regenerative cotton vs. conventional farming models and why increased transparency is crucial to demonstrate market value for the future of these beautiful crops.

Thumbnail image from Money Control.

Handwoven fabrics form an integral part of Indian's rich textile culture and, in Bengal, the tradition is particularly strong with a significant cluster of handloom workers operating to produce everything from fine jacquard saris to khadi fabrics.

This interview with an expert in the field explains how handweaving clusters in East India operate, how they support family life and wellbeing, and why they are a stable form of livelihood for this area of the world.

Weaver and designer Dianoshiya Dorothy Clement joins us to introduce her work with artisans in the Chennimalai province of the Tamil Nadu region of India. With the population of weavers decreasing due to lack of demand and increase in faster textile production elsewhere, there needs to be sympathetic solutions that will provide the craftspeople with both income and creativity to restore the pride in this profession.

This is a beautiful explanation of how to work supportively with an artisan community, along with insight into the affects of declining production on poverty levels. The lesson also includes a film from Dianoshiya that gives you a real look at what handloom weavers do.