We met Noi Simpree in December 2006 during our visit to the small village in Northeast Thailand where she lives. We were there as guests of Panmai Group, a women’s weaving co-operative to which Noi belongs.

Noi, in her late 30’s, had moved back to her village after working in Bangkok as a housemaid. She told us that she hadn’t liked living in Bangkok; she had missed her family. She also had to pay out a lot of her wages just to be there.

   

She preferred living in her farming village where she could live in her family home with her mother and husband, where she could grow and eat her own rice, and could earn her own money as a dyer and weaver – all without spending money to do so.

Noi showed us some of the dyestuffs that grow on her land: coconut husks, butterfly pea flowers and jackfruit wood. Then she showed us the simple but effective tool her husband had made to her specifications so that she could wind two bobbins at once. Finally, she showed us a gorgeous length of silk she had woven using yarns she had dyed with those same organic materials.

It usually takes Noi about 3 months to complete a 30-metre length of silk: to raise the silkworms, reel off the cocoons, dye and twist the yarns, warp the loom and, finally, weave the cloth. Because she does all of this using natural components and traditional methods, there are no costly or harmful chemicals required. In the end, the money she can make by selling her silk to the co-op is hers to keep. And because she doesn’t buy her materials, lives in her own home and farms her own rice, it’s enough.

To care about sustainability is to care about future generations; it's also to care about people today, which is why fair trade practices are as important as green environmental practices.

Fair trade is about much more than money

Fair trade practices include:

• direct trade at a fair price
• long-term commitment through credit, advance orders and/or repeat purchases
• independent producer groups
• active promotion of environmental sustainability community development

Because the mission of Fashion Takes Action (FTA) is to have a socially and environmentally positive impact on the fashion industry, it’s important that FTA members consider fair trade concerns as well as environmental ones.

Consider an "organic" towel sold at a big box store. It may be that its fibres were grown without toxic chemicals, but where and how were those fibres turned into the fluffy towels you gave your friend as a house-warming gift? If the answer is through an industrial process at a nameless factory, chances are that its production was neither green nor fair.

We are learning to consider provenance, as well as product, for both food and fashion. Without knowing something of a product’s origin, it’s impossible to know whether its production is in line with our values. That's why farmers' markets are popular again, and that's why fair trade fashions soon will be.

For many products, fairness may be more of an aspiration than a certainty but, like beauty, it’s worth striving for. Look for suppliers who strive to provide customers with fairly traded fabrics and fashions that are sustainable and beautiful, so that women like Noi can continue to create fabulous silks in their own homes and communities.

Read more about TAMMACHAT Natural Textiles