Deep Plunge Top with side button fastening. Made by IFAT registered suppliers from 100% handwoven cotton.
Care instructions: machine washable at 40 degrees.
About Think!
Think!clothing was set up to address the dearth of attractive fairly traded womenswear available in the UK and to provide India's rural and urban poor with a means of income earned through traditional handloom weaving and garment production.
Besides creating employment for disadvantaged people, the co-operative organisations producing the goods use a percentage of the proceeds to initiate health and development projects beneficial to their employees and others in need.
The range is designed in London by Jane, who, after graduating with first class honours from the prestigious fashion department of Middlesex University, spent several years working in London's designer fashion industry before fulfilling a long held ambition to travel across Asia. Shocked at the widespread poverty and wanting to make her purchasing power count, on her return to the UK Jane made a decision to shop ethically. On investigating fair trade fashion the designer in her was horrified at the poor range and quality of good on offer - badly designed, badly cut and badly made. Unable to find anything a self-respecting stylish woman would be seen dead in, she decided to do something about it!
Think!'s Suppliers
Think!'s garments are made up by Kala Aparajita in Delhi from fabrics woven by Imagination in Auroville. In order to help their suppliers obtain raw materials, they advance payment for the goods - either 50% or 100% depending on their request. Unlike many Western chain stores Think! do not ask for four-week turnarounds on delivery, knowing the pressure this puts factory owners under, demanding their staff work excessive hours. Instead they work to delivery targets acceptable to their suppliers.
The weaving project, Imagination, focuses on providing employment to India's 'Untouchable' caste in Auroville in rural southern India - a group often forced to do the most menial, unpleasant and badly paid jobs simply because of the family they were born into. Even though this has been officially outlawed, discriminatory attitudes are still prevalent. Many employers are reluctant to employ those of a lower caste, not least because of the reactions of their existing staff of a higher caste. With no access to education and lack of employment in rural areas, these people never have the opportunity to pull themselves out of poverty. As well as paying a fair wage, Imagination offer a full social and personal development programme to all employees, including free medical and dental care, interest free personal loans, a retirement scheme, sport/fitness activities and educational classes. These benefits would not be possible without the proceeds from handloom weaving.
One of their specialities is traditional hand-woven Indian khadi - the very fabric immortalised by Mahatma Gandhi's garment of choice - the dhoti. The importance of this fabric cannot be underestimated, for a weavers wheel symbolises India's struggle for independence on the Indian flag.
So what's so great about this khadi fabric? Well, for a start it is produced by hand - meaning that you are paying someone to make a living, rather than paying someone to make profits through a machine. Secondly, unlike modern mills, handlooms require no electricity to operate, so you are doing your bit for global warming. The huts the looms are stored in are open sided with palm thatch and with the strong southern Indian sunlight, no electricity is necessary to work by, so weavers work in time with their natural body clock. Thirdly, you are keeping a centuries old skill alive that has been usurped by modern technology.
Similarly, VHAI (Voluntary Health Association of India), is a not for profit organisation formed in 1970, covering every Indian state, thus creating one of the largest health and development networks in the world. With headquarters in Delhi, it initiates and supports health and development programmes throughout India using the profits generated from sales of their craft and artisan branch - Kala Aparajita.
Kala Aparajita was set up to harness the wealth of traditional skills and workmanship in Orissa, India following the 1999 cyclone when many were stripped of their livelihoods. The organisation has grown to create a market for arts and crafts from every corner of India, and has continued to offer extensive support to the victims of more recent disasters, such as the earthquake in Gujarat and the Boxing Day tsunami.
The cornerstones of their trading policy are:
-Ensuring fair pay for the artisans
-Reinvesting sales proceeds in development programmes
-Empowering the artisans by providing a market for their product and the means to earn their own living
-Supporting the artisans by providing design and product development advice from experts and professionals.
Philosophy
At Think! they like to put some thought into their daily lives. They know that you are not an automaton, that you have opinions of your own. As a thinking woman you are smart enough to know that you need to look good in our superficial world, but you don't see why you can't feel good about your clothing choices too. Think! know that deep in your heart you don't want to wear a worthy, hippy garment with an elasticated waist, tie dyed with beetroot, that makes your hips look, well, hippy, even if it does mean the producer got paid a living wage without being exposed to dangerous chemicals. So, that's they think you will like their collections - chic, flattering separates that are as easy on the conscience as they are on the eye. Think! don't like to give you products that will only last one season due to the vagaries of fashion or shoddy workmanship. They believe in making clothes that last and will be cherished.
Think! believe that trade is better than aid. It is far more empowering to boost producers' self esteem through providing a market for their products so that they can earn their own living, rather than merely providing charitable handouts.
Think!'s Aims and Objectives
-To show that fairtrade fashion does not involve sacrificing style for substance, or values for style.
-To show the fashion world that a business can be run ethically without exploiting people or the environment.
-To promote traditional weaving skills that are gradually dying out due to industrialization.
-To take environmental and ethical effects into consideration in all business decisions.
-To raise awareness of the unethical practices prevalent in the fashion industry.
Think!'s Environmental Concerns
Another conscious business decision was to be as sustainable as possible, so here are a few examples of how they are endeavouring to protect the environment for future generations:
-Fabric dyes are the environmentally friendly azo-free type.
-Renewable electricity supplied by Ecotricity.
-All stationery printed on recycled paper/card with vegetable inks.
-All used paper recycled in local green box scheme.
-Computer printer cartridges refilled when exhausted.
What is Fair Trade?
These are the basic tenets of fair trading:
-Fair price for the product - making sure that the individual producers got paid a living wage in accordance with their effort and the local economy.
-One aspect of this policy includes a portion of the price being reinvested in the local community.
-Creating opportunities - economically disadvantaged artisans rarely have access to commercial markets except through unscrupulous middlemen creaming off the profit. By helping them create products more suitable for Western tastes, we can help them increase their orders.
-Working conditions - ensuring that all goods are made in a safe, clean and healthy environment without the use of child labour and no unreasonable overtime demands.
-Capacity building and order continuity - by showing supplier loyalty, we can build on our working relationships and enable our suppliers to rely on continuous orders to create regular employment.
-Gender equity - women have often been marginalised in the past and is still prevalent in many developing countries. Traditionally, the textile industry has employed legions of women, monopolised by men in positions of authority. Fair trade aims to rectify this imbalance.
-Environmental practice - sound environmental practices go hand in hand with the ethical treatment of human beings. Creating products in a way that is responsible to the planet, using indigenous materials where possible.
-Transparency and accountability - retail giants and global conglomerates shroud their accounts in secrecy. Makes you wonder what they've got to hide, doesn't it?
-Upholding human rights - by encouraging social justice, good environmental practice, sound working practice, freedom of association and economic security for all employees.
-Campaigning - against the current unfair trading systems and subsidies that unfairly balance the global market in favour of rich countries and retail giants with huge commercial clout.
-Consumer awareness raising - think little ol' you has no power over the commercial giants? Go check out your local out of town superstore supermarket. How do you think they got so big and powerful, huh? Your consumer decisions have more global impact than your vote.
-Encouraging traditional crafts and skills - ensuring that age-old skills and crafts do not die out due to industrialisation and lack of demand.