We Are What We Wear - 1st published on Eco Age Blog

Junky Styling

To celebrate their 50^th anniversary, UK based- charity Find Your Feet held ‘We Are What We Wear’, a charity auction and ethical fashion show at the wonderful Indian restaurant Mint Leaf just off Trafalgar Square. I had the exciting task of styling the show which meant researching and sourcing the perfect designers and outfits for this very special event. I was thrilled to be working with such an inspirational charity but my determination to put on a good show and help them raise as much as possible did mean the pressure was on!

The brief was to produce an uplifting, entertaining show with an Indian theme and I took care to select a wonderful range of inspirational designers both established and emerging, many with links to India or Malawi where the charity works. They included up-cycling innovators From Somewhere and Junky Styling whose designs have graced the red carpet, as well as exciting new jewellery brand Kumvana Gomani who creates simply beautiful pieces from plastic that would otherwise go into landfill.

We had some wonderful auction prizes including a dress from Outsider, jewellery from Joanna Cave and a signed copy of Amelia’s Compendium of Fashion Illustration (www.ameliasmagazine.com). We were very happy to be supported by pioneering brand People Tree ( gave us gorgeous goody bags!) as well as the elegant day-to-evening wear brand Outsider who produce in India using organic fabrics. Crucially all the designers who took part have a few very important things in common – they each succeed in creating beautiful,  long-lasting fashion that is produced with a respect for the environment and the people making it.

We were also incredibly lucky to also have an amazing backstage team lead by choreographer Shaun Fernandes from Big Chief Productions, make-up artist Lou Dartford (who specialises in natural beauty), plus the brilliant celebrity hairstylist Lara Zee. And now to the models. Right from the start I was keen to work with a diverse group of models and with the help of Models 1 and Close Models we found just that, with ages ranging from 16 up to 60s, sizes 6 up to 12. The audience loved seeing more mature models on the catwalk, in fact the feedback we received on the designers, models and overall event was extremely positive...not surprising then that the evening raised £10,000 for Find Your Feet.

To find out more about Find Your Feet and their projects please visit their site. Have a look at the Think Style facebook page to browse the image gallery of the event



Miss India UK Worldwide wearing People Tree dress,
Leju bracelet, Kumvana Gomani necklace and Meher Kakalia shoes

All photos credited to Sanjay D Gohil

Find Your Feet - 1st published on www.eco-age.com/blog

2011 marks the 50^th anniversary of international development charity Find Your Feet.  For five decades they have been working with communities in India and Malawi helping them develop sustainable solutions to poverty – they don’t give hand outs, instead they work with artisans and marginalised people in rural and deprived areas, helping them earn a living wage.
Earlier this spring I had the pleasure of helping them celebrate and raise furthers fund by styling an ethical fashion show.  The event was a great success and Find Your Feet have told me ‘the evening raised £10,000 which will support our work in rural India and Malawi enabling us to reach a further 10,000 families to make hunger and poverty history.  By providing communities with training, equipment and access to basic services the money raised will help every family on the path to self-reliance.’

Next week I’ll post a second blog about the show itself about the designers I worked with (plus photos of their amazing clothes on the catwalk) but for now, I want to give a little more background to the truly life-changing work that Find Your Feet carries out.  Ongoing commitments include helping to empower marginalised groups such as women and tribal people, enabling them to have their human rights recognised by Government and Society, and educating farmers in organic processes so they can achieve a sustainable income in a safe and healthy working environment.

Find Your Feet also work with a group of handloom weavers in Varanasi who expertly produce traditional silk Banarsi wedding Saris worn by centuries of stylish Indian brides – until recently 700,000 weavers around Varanasi earned their living this way.  However in recent years cheap mass-produced Chinese ‘fake’ saris have flooded the market and the traditional artisan weavers of Varanasi have faced discrimination resulting in a daily wage of as little as 60p.  They are subsequently living in extreme poverty and have little way of changing this situation on their own.

"My husband Ganesh and I are weavers.  We had to borrow from moneylenders to purchase raw materials or to pay for any repairs to our loom. Because we'd borrowed from them, we were also obliged to sell our saris to them, for whatever price they were prepared to pay." Sukha Devi, India

Find Your Feet have worked with Sukha, her husband Ganesh and many others like them to help find a solution which I hope will be far reaching and perhaps have a knock on effect in the wider textiles and clothing industry:

“In 2009 our work supporting the weavers of Varanasi to achieve a Geographical Indicator bore fruit. The GI is expected to bring a number of benefits: it will protect consumers, who will be sure they are getting a genuine, quality Benarsi sari; it will protect the weavers, by conferring legal protection against unfair competition (i.e. cheap imitation saris); it will add value to Benarsi saris, helping to secure a premium price in the market; and it will help to preserve local knowledge and traditions among rural weaving communities.

In order to support the weavers to make sure that the benefits of the GI reach the weavers we will be supporting them to market and diversify their product, among other things.” Find Your Feet

Whilst many of us may not have heard of this GI mark, if you are partial to a glass of French fizz or British blue cheese you will certainly have come across it in other recognised products.  In the same way that Champagne, Stilton and Parma ham (possibly even Cornish pasties too, though don’t quote me on that!) are recognised for quality and geographical origin, this ‘mark of quality with a reputation’ will mean the handloom silk weavers of Varanasi will be renowned once again for their exquisite Banarsi Saris.

To find out more about the weavers of Varanasi and Find Your Feet’s many other inspirational projects please visit their site www.find-your-feet.org

All photos courtesy of Peter Caton