On Friday, Indigo Handloom was honored to accept Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator's Positive Impact Award Honoring Heritage and Craft. The Positive Impact Awards (PIAs) is an annual gala that has become the ethical fashion equivalent to the Oscars. Of the 500+ attendees, a number of industry pioneers were in the house like Bolt Threads, a tech venture for sustainable material innovation, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and ethical powerhouses EILEEN FISHER and Patagonia. In addition to recognizing changemakers in the ethical fashion space, the event marked BF+DA's second year anniversary. Since 2014, the Pratt-powered social impact driven incubator, has supported job creation and sustainable business within the realms of fashion, tech and research. Left: Indigo Handloom founder Smita Paul...
This fall, Indigo Handloom introduces A Common Thread - a series of interviews with women from diverse backgrounds that are connected by compassion and their drive to contribute to social good. Today we meet LauraLe Wunsch, the co-founder of Oxgut Hose Company. Oxgut gives old fire hoses a new life by turning them into beautiful home goods. Each of their pieces are meticulously hand-crafted in the US. We caught up with LauraLe to learn more about her inspirations and what's it's like working with recycled materials. What inspired you to start Oxgut? Oxgut co-founder Kevin Riley and I were working on prototypes for iPad and MacBook Pro Cases, using reclaimed wood and Kevin actually had the idea to try to see...
This fall, Indigo Handloom introduces A Common Thread - a series of interviews with women from diverse backgrounds that are connected by compassion and their drive to contribute to social good. Today we meet Joyce Hu, Creative Director at Wildlife Works, the world’s only carbon neutral, fair trade factory that protects wildlife. What are you most passionate about changing or enhancing in the world? I want to motivate as many people as I can to live and consume more consciously - buy less, use longer. What motivates your drive for social good? Seeing the impact of consumer behavior has motivated me directly on the ground at Wildlife Works. When an individual decides to offset his/her footprint with us or buys a...
Another article appeared a few months ago about the horrific conditions of the fashion industry. This time, it was about women who were promised good jobs, but were actually modern-day slaves held by guards in a factory making clothing for H&M in India. http://qz.com/…/we-cannot-talk-about-it-factory-workers-fo…/ It’s shocking information, but have you ever wondered if a $19.99 blouse you bought from H&M is creating modern slaves? As consumers, we lull ourselves into ignoring these horrific conditions because it’s just comfortable to buy cheap clothing. Previous generations might have worn eight outfits during one month. Now, we have 30. Disposable fashion is a luxury we take for granted. But for each inch of fast fashion garments we buy, someone is paying the price....
We’d like to share with you an Indigo Handloom milestone. One of our weavers – Sujan - got married a few months ago. This is a picture of him and his new wife Poulami at their marriage and reception. Usually we work with small business owners who contract with master weavers to carry out our orders. It is a tiered system. We give the orders to our supplier and they go to a master weaver. If it is a large order, the master weaver will farm out the order to weavers who contract with him. The work is divided because each level requires different skills. The person who communicates with us in English is not the same person who has the...
