 Ethical fashion is being heralded as the next big thing in the industry, and in keeping with this trend, several fair trade and eco-clothing entrepreneurs have opened shop in Hong Kong.
 Their aim is to cut cloth with l air, while treating their workers humanely and going organic wherever possible.
Today’s “thinking person” wants good, stylish clothes that won’t cost the earth, and those well-versed in global warming and poverty issues are demanding even more.
.jpg) Dialog and Hope Tees: “It’s possible to be fashionable while helping people in need and recycling at the same time,” said Cassandra Postema and Dong Shing Chiu, two Hong Kong-based fashion designers behind Dialog, an Asian eco and fair trade clothing company. “It is our hope to encourage the building of fashion products with a purpose.”
Dialog sells bags, jewellery and garments with a traditional Asian trimming made from recycled fabrics. It also works with local charities (women from an empowerment programme in Sham Shui Po sew the trimmings) to enable individuals to develop skills and income.
“We raise funds for various charity projects around Asia which are personal to us by creating limited edition T-shirts called Hope Tees. It’s about buying some hope for those less fortunate,” said Dong.
Initiated in response to the Asian tsunami, Hope Tees generated 3,000,000 Indonesian rupiahs HK$2,500) for school materials for victims of the disaster.
In the “100 Sewing Machines” project, Hope Tees collaborated with Crossroads International, a charity that collects unwanted items and finds homes for them among the needy in Hong Kong and worldwide, to provide foot pedal sewing machines in microfinancing schemes in southeast Asia.
The T-shirts are printed by Gogetters, a youth project designed to help teens affected by broken homes or drug abuse, and are dispensed in eco-friendly “tubes” at the Brunch Club in SoHo, Pure IFC and at the Borrett Road Market. Websites: dialogltd.net and hopetees.blogspirit.com
 EDUN Apparel: Set up in 2005 by rock star and anti-poverty campaigner Bono, his wife Ali Hewson, and United States designer Rogan Gregory, EDUN is a socially conscious clothing company with a high-profile reach. It hopes to become a business model that promotes fair trade instead of aid, and to help build sustainable communities in Africa where most of their clothes are made. Website: edun.ie
 Xtreme Green: Stocks a colourful selection of conscience-clear casual wear for women, men and children. Imported brands such as Bishopston Trading Company and HUG’s Little Green Radicals range are clothes that make a statement – about keeping our planet cool.
Behind Xtreme Green are three expatriate women who want people to think about what they buy. Co-founder Joanna Bryce said: “Everything we buy affects another person’s life and the health of the planet for better or for worse. We have a choice and a chance to make a difference every time we shop.”
Xtreme Green opened shop in Sheung Wan last summer and offers online shopping via its website which tells you all you need to know about green fashion.
“Everything we stock is organic,” said Bryce. “This protects the health of the farmers and their families, protects the soil and surrounding ecosystems, generates more income for impoverished farming families and gives the consumer the choice of genuinely natural cotton next to their skin.” Website: xtremegreen.com.hk
.JPG) Patagonia: The radical granddad of green companies, this shop sells clothes for the great outdoors and has so far donated US$20 million to activists who take radical steps to protect our wilderness.
In 1986, the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, pioneered the way for “business to inspire solutions to the environmental crisis”.
In 2001, Chouinard co-founded “1% for the Planet” whereby more than 200 companies signed up to pay an “Earth tax” of at least 1 per cent of their annual sales to environmental groups.
Patagonia’s production processes are designed to cause the least amount of harm to the environment. Fleece jackets have been made from old plastic bottles since 1993, and customers are invited to recycle worn-out polyester garments into new ones. Website: patagonia.com
Marks and Spencer: The first major high street retailer to sell fair trade cotton jeans, T-shirts, socks and underwear in selected stores. The company is monitoring customer demand, so if you want to see it in Hong Kong, it’s up to you. Website: marksandspencer.com
People Tree: Safia Minney wants fashion to slow down. As the campaigning founder of eco-fashion label People Tree, she knows how tight high-street deadlines have reduced production times to six to eight weeks in the fashion world. This often means that factory employees work overtime, and profits mostly go to business owners.
Minney invites her customers to walk down the fair trade supply chain and see how People Tree attempts to revive traditional craft skills and engage in long-term, regular trade with marginalised communities.
People Tree co-ordinated a fair trade fashion show in Hong Kong during the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in 2005. Website: peopletree.co.uk
G.A.I.A. (Global Awareness Inner Awakening): was founded in Hong Kong in 1992 to raise ecological awareness through fashion, mostly through raw cotton T-shirts, L-shirts and bags carrying meaningful messages and graphics. Sustainability, recycling and funkiness are integral to the products which are designed to motivate people to “be the change”.
“Back in the early nineties, the word organic, let alone organic cotton and fair trade, was unheard of and I struggled to get the ecological concept across to fashion buyers,” says founder Bobsy. “It is good that organic is all the buzz now and the ecological market is expanding and maturing.” Email:
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 art of tri: is a new Hong Kong-based eco-friendly venture set up by a group of entrepreneurial triathletes who got sick of “swimming in the polluted seas, and running and riding their bikes in the pollution too”.
They took matters into their own hands, and now manufacture 100 percent organic cotton sports T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and vest tops, which are sold online and at local sports clubs.
Products are packaged in recycled and biodegradable material, printing is done with soy ink, recycled shirt tags are used, and 5 per cent of art of tri’s retail goes to direct action charity projects in the Asian countries where they race. Website: artoftri.com
 Stella McCartney: With her famously vegetarian parents, it’s no surprise that Paul and Linda McCartney’s daughter refuses to use fur or leather in her designs. McCartney has produced a line of vegan-friendly shoes, and a jacket for Adidas with the words, “suitable for sporty vegetarians” on the sleeve.
According to McCartney, “People need to start looking at the product, and if they like it, that’s all that matters. If it has an ethical or ecological edge, that’s a huge bonus. We address these questions in every other part of our lives except fashion. Mind-sets are changing, though, which is encouraging.” Website: stellamccartney.com
Photo: © People Tree
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22 November – 30 November 2008
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