Fair Trade Blog

If you ever wondered whether you could actually put together an entire outfit using fairly traded clothing, the answer is now yes.  The availability of Fair Trade clothing items has recently literally exploded including everything from sneakers to jeans to handmade sweaters and blouses. 

In our shop, we carry a wide variety of fairly traded clothing from Central and South America which led to a brief style show here in our home town of Viroqua.  I spoke at the Business and Professional Women’s Association meeting November 13.  No one likes a dry talk, and since a picture is worth a thousand words, I decided to show, rather than tell, the story of our wonderful handmade clothing.

I recruited five professional women from the area and invited them to pick an outfit for the style show.  Bette, for example, a Property Manager and Marketing Manager for a local assisted living facility, chose an avocado green shirt with matching sweater, contrasting scarf, glittens (mitten/glove combo) and finished it off with bold yellow beaded earrings.

My models were super — a little too “super” as it turned out.  Nicki, an employment specialist with VARC, stole the show.  “And now for the story of five women who recently became supermodels,” I began.  “He’s starving us!” Nicki whined.  The room broke up and I had to collect myself to continue.  Oh well… we’re all still talking and laughing about it, so it was worth the little jab at my expense.

Back to clothing, we have soft organic cotton T-shirts from Nicaragua, handmade sweaters for men and women from Ecuador, and accessories from around the world.  Check out FairTradeFederation.org for other great retail sources for pants, shirts and blouses, shoes, hats, accessories, and other clothing.

The next time you put on your clothes, make sure you are dressing with Fair Trade.

Keep shopping your good values! 

Kile