Hi everyone! Sitara here and yes I’m still alive! Life has been pretty busy lately and I finally had time to get back to my computer to do a little blogging. As a fashion and home decor lover, I’m sure many women can relate when I tell you about one of my favorite stores … drum roll please … wait for it … it’s none other than Target!!! Yes, Target! If you haven’t seen lately, Target has been on a mission serving up pieces in both fashion and home decor inspired from around the world. I’m a sucker for fair trade and I recently found out that they teamed up with a company called Accompany to do an exclusive line! These products were released only in 12 stores in April as well as Target.com. Check the article out here and be sure to watch the video that highlights some of the artisans doing the handwork that created the unique product. I definitely spotted some camels in the video and oh … they were so cute!
Here is a cosmetic bag made from artisans from India using block printing.
Site source for photos and to find the item, go to Target.com
I love seeing the Target team traveling the world and looking for opportunities to provide their customers with fair trade products. If you are not familiar with the term, fair trade means the product is brought directly to the market by the artisans themselves, meaning no middleman or manufacturing company is there to cut out most of the artisans earnings. Fair trade makes it possible for artisans from third world countries to be able to provide basic necessities for their family, i.e. clothing, food and school supplies. I first learned about fair trade from someone that made an appearance at my local church. It was concept I had never heard of and I became intrigued. At the time, fair trade was something people were just discussing with coffee beans … not so much with fashion. On one of my trips to India, I met another traveler … Nilka who by day runs a house cleaning business but by weekend and night was a true activist for fair trade. Nilka opened my world up to the beauty of the products, the passion and talent of the artisans who make each item by hand. She took me to the local markets where many of the artisans worked daily to make a sale. Nothing can ever compare to that experience, it was something I would never forget. The people, their faces, their hard work for their families and the products that deserve attention to the masses. This is why I’m so excited that a huge corporation like Target is getting behind the Fair Trade concept! You are probably thinking, but isn’t Target the middleman? Target is a door to masses, there is a contract there, yes I’m sure, but they have teamed up with Accompany who works with partners that are directly involved with the artisans and are able to provide financing, training, education, loans and the list goes on for developing communities as well as for women rescued from human trafficking. As you can see, it is something that I’m very passionate about and my prayer is that Target sees success with this line and decides to take it to more stores! It will only help more communities and families in these developing countries. Prayers up!!
So moving on to more camel safari inspiration … after stumbling upon Accompany, I found some lovely pieces that reminded me of my camel safari that I took years back. I became obsessed with caftans and the draped robes worn by the tour guides and some of the local people. Here are some garments from Accompany’s line that remind me of those pieces! Fair Trade and ethical fashion rocks!
Photo source: These photos are from Accompany and the items can be found at their website!
I hope you have enjoyed this post! Any other fair trade passionate people out there? Give me a shout, I would love to hear your thoughts on Target getting behind this movement! For more fashion inspiration, check out my post about rajasthan fashion here!