I have been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan which follows the life of four different types of meals. Pollan provides some very interesting insight into the process behind what we feed ourselves. The book has been thought provoking for me and has gotten me thinking about how his concepts apply to the apparel industry.
Certainly there are various ways that apparel is produced and we, as the consumer, get to "vote" about what production methods best suit us and our ideals. For the majority it is the cheapest and most common product that we put our money down for. But, what of the alternatives. Of course there is "organic apparel" which has had it's time in the lime light lately in American fashion; then there is fair trade, self made, second hand, re-purposed, couture (for those that can afford it)...au natural is an option perhaps.
The options are various, but the question I have been asking myself is: Are any of the options of apparel production actually sustainable? The industrial production method that fits our culture of consumption is in no way sustainable, of that I am certain...but then which option should we choose.
I would like to start processing this topic with you as I continue my journey. First, I think it is important to consider what the differences are between Sustainable Production and Capitalist Production so I began pulling together a dichotomy.
Capitalist Production:
Means of production are owned by few
Decisions are made in the interest of the few
Benefits are imbalanced
Hierarchy is deep
Branches are global
Practices are opaque
Businesses are competitive
Relationships are based on bottom line
Wages are cheap
People are a commodity
Focus is on quantity
Desire is to manipulate nature
Production is standardized
Production is fast
Production is wasteful
Product is consistant
Product is disposable
Sustainable Production:
Means of production are owned by many
Decisions are made in the interest of many
Benefits are balanced
Hierarchy is shallow
Branches are local
Practices are transparent
Businesses are collaborative
Relationships are based on mutual interest
Wages are fair
People are valuable
Focus is on quality
Desire is to preserve nature
Production is amorphous
Production takes time
Production limits waste
Product is unique
Product is durable
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Obruni Vortex
So, I believe I have found the weirdest place in all of Ghana: THE ACCRA MALL! Upon initial inspection to most westerners it may seem very normal; a big concrete conglomerate of stores in the middle of a city where one can find many of their shopping needs. However, once I walked into the main entrance, which was complete with brightly colored pillars, a sign overhead confirming I was in fact at the Accra Mall, I was transported to another world. I wasn't in Ghana anymore.
Usually when I go to the market in Cape Coast, I am the only Obruni (white person), the variety of products is limited, the cost is debatable and pretty much every stall sells the same thing as 5 of their neighbors and, there is a notable smell of rotting fish. After 3 months of this type of shopping experience I got a small taste of culture shock walking into something that should have felt completely "everyday" to me. But it has not been my everyday for the last 3 months and my reaction took me by surprise.
In short, I was weirded out!
The demographics of the mall felt more like New York. It is definitely the shopping destination of all of the Embassy employees that live in Accra, so the proportion of Obruni is significantly higher than in my Cape Coast market and there were a lot of Lebanese and Nigerian expats and wealthy Ghanaians. There was a store called Mr. Price which was the equivalent of a Steve and Barry's, a couple of cell phone stores, some high end "afro-centric" clothing boutiques, a store that had a peculiar collection of mid-priced American products but it only had one piece of every style...so it felt like being in someones closet, and the main attractions were the corner stores: Shop Rite, a giant grocery store packed with western foods and Game, the equivalent of a Target. Oh, and I can't forget the food court which smelled nothing like rotting fish and had a cafe with REAL FILTERED COFFEE!!! (you can really only get instant coffee in Ghana).
Basically it felt just like being in a mall back home and the fact that it made me uncomfortable made me realize that I have never been away from home long enough, in a foreign enough place, to experience culture shock. The fact that it was a Mall, that mecca of apparel products, that provided this discomfort seemed appropriate to accompany my story of escaping capitalist, mass-produced fashion.
Just to add to the silliness of it all, after the mall I went with a group of volunteers to a concert at the Alliance Francais and the place was filled with...you guessed it...OBRUNI. This all magnified an observation that one of the volunteers here made about people in industrial capitalist parts of the world...since our basic needs are generally fulfilled (think of Maslow's hierarchy of needs) we can spend our time refining the experience of pleasure.....frankly, we are spoiled.
Usually when I go to the market in Cape Coast, I am the only Obruni (white person), the variety of products is limited, the cost is debatable and pretty much every stall sells the same thing as 5 of their neighbors and, there is a notable smell of rotting fish. After 3 months of this type of shopping experience I got a small taste of culture shock walking into something that should have felt completely "everyday" to me. But it has not been my everyday for the last 3 months and my reaction took me by surprise.
In short, I was weirded out!
The demographics of the mall felt more like New York. It is definitely the shopping destination of all of the Embassy employees that live in Accra, so the proportion of Obruni is significantly higher than in my Cape Coast market and there were a lot of Lebanese and Nigerian expats and wealthy Ghanaians. There was a store called Mr. Price which was the equivalent of a Steve and Barry's, a couple of cell phone stores, some high end "afro-centric" clothing boutiques, a store that had a peculiar collection of mid-priced American products but it only had one piece of every style...so it felt like being in someones closet, and the main attractions were the corner stores: Shop Rite, a giant grocery store packed with western foods and Game, the equivalent of a Target. Oh, and I can't forget the food court which smelled nothing like rotting fish and had a cafe with REAL FILTERED COFFEE!!! (you can really only get instant coffee in Ghana).
Basically it felt just like being in a mall back home and the fact that it made me uncomfortable made me realize that I have never been away from home long enough, in a foreign enough place, to experience culture shock. The fact that it was a Mall, that mecca of apparel products, that provided this discomfort seemed appropriate to accompany my story of escaping capitalist, mass-produced fashion.
Just to add to the silliness of it all, after the mall I went with a group of volunteers to a concert at the Alliance Francais and the place was filled with...you guessed it...OBRUNI. This all magnified an observation that one of the volunteers here made about people in industrial capitalist parts of the world...since our basic needs are generally fulfilled (think of Maslow's hierarchy of needs) we can spend our time refining the experience of pleasure.....frankly, we are spoiled.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
HomeHUNGRY....
In honor of the 2 months I have been away from home I would like to celebrate in a, perhaps, unconventional way. I would like to share with you the thing I miss the most (that is, second most, after those I love): FOOD! I don't know why, but my homesickness has manifested most voraciously in thinking about what tasty delights I can't wait to savor once I'm home. So, following is a copy of the list I have started in the back of my journal of all of the foods/restaurants I have craved while being in Ghana:
Sweetwaters' donuts
Daal and Masala Chai (preferably Nupur's...but Balucchis would do)
Bagel Mill
NYC fried Egg Sandwich
Marisol's Mole
Home baked cookies
Greasy pizza
Mocha with extra whipped cream
Cafe Habana
Q-doba
Breakfast at Food Dance
Penne Alla Vodka at Sotto Cinque
Green Curry
Enchalada at Cinco de Mayo
And the number one thing I talk about and crave.....
TREATSTREET ICE CREAM!!! (Coldstone comes in a close second)
HAHAHAHA!
Okay....I will sign off now that I am officially hungry for home.
Much love to you all...see you in 2 and a half months!
Sweetwaters' donuts
Daal and Masala Chai (preferably Nupur's...but Balucchis would do)
Bagel Mill
NYC fried Egg Sandwich
Marisol's Mole
Home baked cookies
Greasy pizza
Mocha with extra whipped cream
Cafe Habana
Q-doba
Breakfast at Food Dance
Penne Alla Vodka at Sotto Cinque
Green Curry
Enchalada at Cinco de Mayo
And the number one thing I talk about and crave.....
TREATSTREET ICE CREAM!!! (Coldstone comes in a close second)
HAHAHAHA!
Okay....I will sign off now that I am officially hungry for home.
Much love to you all...see you in 2 and a half months!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Far from Fair Trade
First, I apologize for my absence. It is not for a lack of substance, but perhaps the abundance of (and lack of internet access) that has kept me from writing. I have had so many fascinating discussions with the other volunteers, employees and artisans here that have proved to be fertile ground for further deliberation.
One topic of discussion that is particularly exciting and at the same time frustrating for me is why Fair Trade is not as popular in the US as it is, say, in the UK...especially when it comes to fashion.
I believe that it is because Fair Trade and capitalism can not play nicely together. It is not in the Fortune 500's best interest, at least on the surface, to pay hundereds of overseas workers fair wages because then the CEO's would not be able to afford the standard of living to which they have become accustomed.
In a society where planned obsolesence and low prices prevail, it would not do any of the giant retailers any good (so they think) to have quality products manufactured by fairly paid crafts-people. Our corporate structure and consumer nature wants the newest, the fastest and the cheapest, and fair trade policies just don't fit here.
So while "green" has become the new black, I fear that it might be some time before we can jump on the truly ethical production line. While the UK can have brands such as People Tree, which works to have both fair trade and eco-concious products in a variety of fabrics and treatments produced in several locations around the world; non-profits like Global Mamas are struggling to make fair trade work in one fabric, in one corner of the globe. And it is truly a shame that such a "forward thinking" country that is supposed to be the "leader of the free world" can't even consider consuming in a way that would actually work to improve the "oppressed" countries by providing them a fair global market.
When I work with the women of Global Mamas, I am impressed by their head strong nature, to work until the product is perfect. But, it makes sense that they would be willing to work so hard since Global Mamas is paying the individuals what amounts to about 5 times the living wage of Ghana (and they are still free to have their own clients outside of GM). And, it is not easy work. I have included a picture of me learning the batik process, where the stamps are carved by hand, and the fabric is stamped and dyed by hand as well...all with the discerning eye of true artisans.
When you take this into consideration, wouldn't you rather pay a little bit more to have a product that you know will last much longer than your average $5 t-shirt, and the money will be going to pay several people a proper living wage, instead of 1 corporate big-wig enough money to buy a new jet?
Friday, September 12, 2008
Sustainability
The people of Ghana have a really beautiful way of staying grounded...close to the earth and close to their roots.
This past weekend and the whole week prior there was a huge celebration in Cape Coast that is called Fetu Afahye, the festival of adorning new clothes (appropriate for my journey!). It is a harvest festival, recognizing the circular nature of things, the returning to a starting point. Afahye stems from Afehyia (calendar). The city is filled with people in brightly colored costumes and masks. Saturday is the high point where all of the chiefs are paraded in with music and more costumes. Unfortunately I missed the big parade on Saturday...but it turns out that it may have been best as there was a brawl during the parade between the two major political parties. I was sad to have missed it, but glad that I got to experience the excitement, the noise and colors during the week.
This returning to a starting point, returning to your roots holds a lot of weight here...they even have an adinkra symbol that sums up the concept. It's called Sankofa...look it up! Returning to your roots has a broad meaning when I consider it and how I have encountered it here. Returning to your roots is not only the idea of going back where you came from (ashes to ashes), but also the idea of returning what you have taken, as well as taking care of those/that which have taken care of you, and not to mention retaining all that has been ROOTED in you from your experiences (knowledge and love...etc.).
I have seen examples of this in everything from very close family circles to how designers use every possible scrap of fabric waste. People try to avoid waste here. When I witnessed the adinkra process I was quite impressed at the tedious process where the dye is extracted from the root of a medicinal tree. The roots were even heated on "re purposed" engine blocks-turned- fire pits that were probably dumped in Ghana from the US or Europe.
The country has made many efforts to close the circle of production...returning to their roots. During Nkrumah's reign the fabric production process was developed to such a level where the cotton is grown in the Northern Region, shipped down the Volta River to processing plants in the Eastern Region, then woven and printed in the Central Region and bought to create clothes by small seamstress businesses all over the country! Talk about sustainability!!!!
Since the overthrow to Nkrumah's rule (a US supported coup no less!) the country has not been able to keep up the highly efficient process' and they have been working to regain the massive production levels they once held. I am hoping to visit a couple of the factories while I am here.
This is only a small peek at the amazing things that are being done in this country (most unintentionally) to take care of their people and reduce their impact. Just consider the tiny "carbon footprint" (I love this silly trend) that people in the US would actually have if you made your houses out of clay and thatch from the mud and palm trees in your yard..and of course the felled trees would be used to make palm oil and palm wine and fire wood...etc. Then, everything you ate came from less than a 5km radius and you cooked on coals (from the felled trees) and you probably walked to work or take a SHARED taxi or tro and washed yourself with about a bucket of water!!! WOW.
If only...............
This past weekend and the whole week prior there was a huge celebration in Cape Coast that is called Fetu Afahye, the festival of adorning new clothes (appropriate for my journey!). It is a harvest festival, recognizing the circular nature of things, the returning to a starting point. Afahye stems from Afehyia (calendar). The city is filled with people in brightly colored costumes and masks. Saturday is the high point where all of the chiefs are paraded in with music and more costumes. Unfortunately I missed the big parade on Saturday...but it turns out that it may have been best as there was a brawl during the parade between the two major political parties. I was sad to have missed it, but glad that I got to experience the excitement, the noise and colors during the week.
This returning to a starting point, returning to your roots holds a lot of weight here...they even have an adinkra symbol that sums up the concept. It's called Sankofa...look it up! Returning to your roots has a broad meaning when I consider it and how I have encountered it here. Returning to your roots is not only the idea of going back where you came from (ashes to ashes), but also the idea of returning what you have taken, as well as taking care of those/that which have taken care of you, and not to mention retaining all that has been ROOTED in you from your experiences (knowledge and love...etc.).
I have seen examples of this in everything from very close family circles to how designers use every possible scrap of fabric waste. People try to avoid waste here. When I witnessed the adinkra process I was quite impressed at the tedious process where the dye is extracted from the root of a medicinal tree. The roots were even heated on "re purposed" engine blocks-turned- fire pits that were probably dumped in Ghana from the US or Europe.
The country has made many efforts to close the circle of production...returning to their roots. During Nkrumah's reign the fabric production process was developed to such a level where the cotton is grown in the Northern Region, shipped down the Volta River to processing plants in the Eastern Region, then woven and printed in the Central Region and bought to create clothes by small seamstress businesses all over the country! Talk about sustainability!!!!
Since the overthrow to Nkrumah's rule (a US supported coup no less!) the country has not been able to keep up the highly efficient process' and they have been working to regain the massive production levels they once held. I am hoping to visit a couple of the factories while I am here.
This is only a small peek at the amazing things that are being done in this country (most unintentionally) to take care of their people and reduce their impact. Just consider the tiny "carbon footprint" (I love this silly trend) that people in the US would actually have if you made your houses out of clay and thatch from the mud and palm trees in your yard..and of course the felled trees would be used to make palm oil and palm wine and fire wood...etc. Then, everything you ate came from less than a 5km radius and you cooked on coals (from the felled trees) and you probably walked to work or take a SHARED taxi or tro and washed yourself with about a bucket of water!!! WOW.
If only...............
Hands on!
This was a really exciting week of work. On Monday Laura and I met with Alice (the Ghanaian Alice) and showed her how to produce our jewelry roll and then we went to visit Sarah to work on some Batik designs.
Alice's space was only big enough to house a small cutting table (smaller than my wingspan), three sewing machines, a computer desk (which her husband runs his wedding video business from), her assistant, and barely the rest of us comfortably...though many more friends stopped in to say hello and see what we were up to! Alice and I shared a stool while I talked her through the steps of constructing the jewelry roll. She kept commenting, "this is too complex", what I learned to be the equivalent of a self-effacing comment. The Ghanaians seem to live by the "under promise, over deliver" mantra! Alice turned out to be more than capable. As we were working through the project she often jumped ahead of me and offered suggestions...not to mention if you look at her wall, you can see a collection of pictures of very COMPLEX styles that she can probably create with her eyes closed! Only about 9o minutes later, we emerged with a sample. I will attach pictures when I have a computer that will let me! I think it turned out quite well!
Alice is great, she is married and a mother of a little boy named Gregory. She bought me my first Ghanaian doughnut, called a bofurt (sp?). It was SO tasty...as all fried bread usually is! She asked what my favorite thing to cook was and I explained that I was a disaster in the kitchen...at which she balked and explained that I must learn while I am in Ghana so that I can make a good wife...lol. Well...I gave in, if not to be a good wife, at least to feed myself tasty food in the future. I will be going to her house next week to learn a couple Ghanaian staples. We will start easy (SURE....) with jollof rice (the Ghanaian version of dirty rice) and red red (a black eyed pea stew).
After Alice's we darted off to the tro-tro station (that is the vans that function as mass transit) to take a tro to Mpenseam where Sarah has her Batik studio. The village was lovely and all of the kids were more than happy to welcome us with their favorite song:
"Obruni, how are you
I am fine
Thank you!"
This seems to be how Ghanaian children learn their first english. If you ask most of them "how are you" they will respond "fine, how are you". But if you ask anything else to the youngest ones, they will look at you with a BIG smile and NO response! :)
Sarah walked us through the Batik process, while we showed her how we would like a specific design to be done. She was more than happy to let us try our hand at the stamping and the dying...it is not as easy as it looks! When we told her the colors we would like for the designs, she commented (it's becoming infamous already) "this is quite complex". Apparently "fashion" colors like coral and teal are difficult for the batikers to achieve and then replicate, but she was up for the challenge. Sarah has been with Global Mamas a little less than a year, she is very excited to be a part of GM because it will help her to pay the rent of her studio and try more interesting designs. She works by herself right now, but would like to be able to take on employees and apprentices. The designs came back to the office yesterday and received some nice compliments from Gayle and Patience who run the office here.
Needless to say, Monday was a very exciting day...after that I have worked on designs for a sign and fliers for Esther, handed off a diaper bag pattern to Mensa, a wallet design to Essie, pulled together 2 more batik stamps and developed a measurement comparison chart to look at our sizes against our competitors (thank you corporate america for teaching me that one!). I also received the list of fit complaints I will be working on and a list of new style developments that I will be helping to follow up on. WOO HOO!!!
That's all for now!
Alice's space was only big enough to house a small cutting table (smaller than my wingspan), three sewing machines, a computer desk (which her husband runs his wedding video business from), her assistant, and barely the rest of us comfortably...though many more friends stopped in to say hello and see what we were up to! Alice and I shared a stool while I talked her through the steps of constructing the jewelry roll. She kept commenting, "this is too complex", what I learned to be the equivalent of a self-effacing comment. The Ghanaians seem to live by the "under promise, over deliver" mantra! Alice turned out to be more than capable. As we were working through the project she often jumped ahead of me and offered suggestions...not to mention if you look at her wall, you can see a collection of pictures of very COMPLEX styles that she can probably create with her eyes closed! Only about 9o minutes later, we emerged with a sample. I will attach pictures when I have a computer that will let me! I think it turned out quite well!
Alice is great, she is married and a mother of a little boy named Gregory. She bought me my first Ghanaian doughnut, called a bofurt (sp?). It was SO tasty...as all fried bread usually is! She asked what my favorite thing to cook was and I explained that I was a disaster in the kitchen...at which she balked and explained that I must learn while I am in Ghana so that I can make a good wife...lol. Well...I gave in, if not to be a good wife, at least to feed myself tasty food in the future. I will be going to her house next week to learn a couple Ghanaian staples. We will start easy (SURE....) with jollof rice (the Ghanaian version of dirty rice) and red red (a black eyed pea stew).
After Alice's we darted off to the tro-tro station (that is the vans that function as mass transit) to take a tro to Mpenseam where Sarah has her Batik studio. The village was lovely and all of the kids were more than happy to welcome us with their favorite song:
"Obruni, how are you
I am fine
Thank you!"
This seems to be how Ghanaian children learn their first english. If you ask most of them "how are you" they will respond "fine, how are you". But if you ask anything else to the youngest ones, they will look at you with a BIG smile and NO response! :)
Sarah walked us through the Batik process, while we showed her how we would like a specific design to be done. She was more than happy to let us try our hand at the stamping and the dying...it is not as easy as it looks! When we told her the colors we would like for the designs, she commented (it's becoming infamous already) "this is quite complex". Apparently "fashion" colors like coral and teal are difficult for the batikers to achieve and then replicate, but she was up for the challenge. Sarah has been with Global Mamas a little less than a year, she is very excited to be a part of GM because it will help her to pay the rent of her studio and try more interesting designs. She works by herself right now, but would like to be able to take on employees and apprentices. The designs came back to the office yesterday and received some nice compliments from Gayle and Patience who run the office here.
Needless to say, Monday was a very exciting day...after that I have worked on designs for a sign and fliers for Esther, handed off a diaper bag pattern to Mensa, a wallet design to Essie, pulled together 2 more batik stamps and developed a measurement comparison chart to look at our sizes against our competitors (thank you corporate america for teaching me that one!). I also received the list of fit complaints I will be working on and a list of new style developments that I will be helping to follow up on. WOO HOO!!!
That's all for now!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Who am I kidding! :)
So, I would love to give you a very detailed and insightful account of everything that has happened to me over the last month but given the spotty internet access that I have I just can't give you the information that I would like to, without getting back logged another month!
Instead, in the very Ghanaian fashion, I will learn to go with the flow...I will just jump in from this moment and if I am able to share some insight about times past I will do it in retrospect. I would, for now, like to show you a picture of the 380 year old tortoise that I met in Peki!!! Isn't he cool?
As I type this I am sitting in the Global Mamas' Cape Coast office. It is on a pretty busy main road and outside I can hear music from the ongoing festival. I will go to festival activities tomorrow and share with you about that experience soon. As is typical for mid-day, the sun is hot and high in the sky. I feel prematurely at home in this foreign land. This likely has a lot to do with the crash-course immersion experience of my first two weeks. Led by two of the most intelligent tour guides Ghana has to offer, we were ushered through the history, agriculture, art, food and beautiful people that weave into the culture of this place.
I have already had my hands in a couple of products for the Global Mamas wholesale catalogue that will be published around October/November. I have created two textile designs that will be used for little girls clothing and perhaps other things, helped to correct the fit of one dress, and created the patterns for a wallet and a jewelry roll! The textile designs are in production with a batiker and I should have pictures shortly. The wallet and jewelry roll will go into production next week. I will get to work on some new apparel designs as well as some jewelry and home decor designs...it should be fruitful!
The women of Global Mamas are, in short, amazing. Many of them have such a desire to expand their businesses so that they can hire more women and give them better opportunities. They have loads of great ideas and are excited about expanding the product. There are so many things I could tell you about the women as a collective, but I would rather give anecdotes about the individual women. For now, I will tell you about Esther, she is expanding her seamstress business to have a ready to wear portion. Out of a small kiosk in front of her work space she will sell already completed dresses and bags to passers by. She is one of the more accomplished "mamas" and she has been able to take on more employees and pay them more than the minimum wage (which is a little over $2 a day). We will work with her to help her make some signs to advertise her new kiosk!
Well, I have to go to the batikers now so that I can help with the production of the textiles.
I will write more as soon as I have another few minutes of reliable internet access!
Happy reading!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Off the Job
I have quit my job to become a vagabond...
Yesterday at around 10 pm I walked away from the desk of my corporate design job to begin a journey of self and fashion "discovery". A scary but also empowering move. Though I have enjoyed my time in the corporate world and learned so much...I am excited for a change.
I decided to leave my job because an opportunity presented itself which I could not pass up. Over a year ago I met Reverend Victoria Affram-Boyd. She spoke at my church about her desire to return home to Peki, a collective of villages in Ghana, West Africa. She wanted to take Mission Ambassadors to her hometown to build a cultural and spiritual bridge with our brothers and sisters in Ghana. I was immediately interested and signed up right away.
I will be spending 2 weeks with Reverend Victoria and 13 others learning about Ghana, Peki and the Christian Church there. We will meet with Chiefs, Bishops, Doctors, Students and every-day residents of the places we visit. We will learn about their history, their aspirations, their struggles, their joys and become family with them so that we can build a long term relationship and help them build their church and sustain their school and hospital. Visit the Peki Mission Blog link to learn more about what we will be doing!
Now the mission trip is only the beginning. In preparation for my trip I started doing research on the textile industry in Ghana and the history of apparel there (more to come later about that!). I came across some fascinating information but also came across a website for a volunteer organization called Women in Progress. WIP is a non-profit organization that seeks to alleviate poverty at a grassroots level by providing training and resources for women to start and run their own businesses. Please see the link for WIP for more information.
I have been passionate about fashion since I was at least 9 years old. However I am more passionate about the people and the environment that are taken advantage of in the name of inexpensive fashion. I am a Christian, and that has a strong influence on the way in which I hope to do business as a designer. I want to do my part to take care of the people and the environment that have been entrusted to us.
The apparel industry holds a lot of power, and it could be used negatively or positively. I will choose the path least traveled and work toward fair wages and working conditions, environmental protection, positive role models and responsible products. Together we can work to make a valuable product that we can all be proud of. It will not be a short journey, but I hope that you will join me along the way.
There will be so many exciting and challenging tales to come, please tune in often. In the mean time, I encourage you all to do your research before you buy just any old, cheap product and consider who or what may suffer because of our desire for the ultimate bargain.
Yesterday at around 10 pm I walked away from the desk of my corporate design job to begin a journey of self and fashion "discovery". A scary but also empowering move. Though I have enjoyed my time in the corporate world and learned so much...I am excited for a change.
I decided to leave my job because an opportunity presented itself which I could not pass up. Over a year ago I met Reverend Victoria Affram-Boyd. She spoke at my church about her desire to return home to Peki, a collective of villages in Ghana, West Africa. She wanted to take Mission Ambassadors to her hometown to build a cultural and spiritual bridge with our brothers and sisters in Ghana. I was immediately interested and signed up right away.
I will be spending 2 weeks with Reverend Victoria and 13 others learning about Ghana, Peki and the Christian Church there. We will meet with Chiefs, Bishops, Doctors, Students and every-day residents of the places we visit. We will learn about their history, their aspirations, their struggles, their joys and become family with them so that we can build a long term relationship and help them build their church and sustain their school and hospital. Visit the Peki Mission Blog link to learn more about what we will be doing!
Now the mission trip is only the beginning. In preparation for my trip I started doing research on the textile industry in Ghana and the history of apparel there (more to come later about that!). I came across some fascinating information but also came across a website for a volunteer organization called Women in Progress. WIP is a non-profit organization that seeks to alleviate poverty at a grassroots level by providing training and resources for women to start and run their own businesses. Please see the link for WIP for more information.
I have been passionate about fashion since I was at least 9 years old. However I am more passionate about the people and the environment that are taken advantage of in the name of inexpensive fashion. I am a Christian, and that has a strong influence on the way in which I hope to do business as a designer. I want to do my part to take care of the people and the environment that have been entrusted to us.
The apparel industry holds a lot of power, and it could be used negatively or positively. I will choose the path least traveled and work toward fair wages and working conditions, environmental protection, positive role models and responsible products. Together we can work to make a valuable product that we can all be proud of. It will not be a short journey, but I hope that you will join me along the way.
There will be so many exciting and challenging tales to come, please tune in often. In the mean time, I encourage you all to do your research before you buy just any old, cheap product and consider who or what may suffer because of our desire for the ultimate bargain.
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