The First World Fair Trade Fair Coming Up May 28-31, 2015, Italy

Book your tickets to Milan, Italy. The first ever World Fair Trade Fair (nice use of double “fairs”) is being held in Milan from May 28 -31 next month. It is another very significant and exciting milestone in the evolution of fair trade manufactured products (clothing, accessories, jewelry, home décor, etc). Milan, as you know, is one of the fashion and shopping capitals of the world. The Fair Trade Fair is being held at the Fabbrica del Vapore on Via Procaccini, and is part of the Milan Fair City celebration taking place to commemorate the 2015 World Fair Trade Week.

 The Fair will feature 200 exhibitors from all compass points of the planet. There will be food and craft products, special exhibits of Italian fair trade, and further display presentations on international cooperation and economic solidarity. Alongside hobnobbing with prominent fair trade vendors, and opportunities to buy, there will be hands-on workshops.

While you’re thinking of fair trade and eco friendly products, please check out our fabulous fair trade accessories page featuring so many gorgeous, handmade items. If you can’t make it to Milan, you might as well shop locally with us.

Enjoy your shopping and be sure to recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

What a fabulous fair trade weekender bag: perfect for travels

We are proud to let you know we’ve just added an incredibly attractive fair trade weekender bag for your travels to places of interest near or far. Our new duffle style bag neatly holds an impressively large volume of clothes, accessories, shoes, toiletries, books, laptops, mobile devices and other items you may wish to bring along.

This weekender bag comes in a choice of three fabulous exterior designs, equipped with strong yet soft leather handles and trim (so you can carry it over your shoulder comfortably as well as gripping by your hands). There are side snaps that when opened, allow for the bag to extend its volume. It measures 14 inches high by 25 inches long by 11 inches across. For interior pockets there is a 12 inch deep zippered pocket, opposite two handy mobile device pockets. And yes, a soft cotton lining to protect your valuables. It’s a well thought out design by the fair trade folks at Filling Spaces, and exquisitely crafted by their artisans in India.

Filling Spaces is a fair trade eco friendly company based in Portland, Oregon, and founded by sisters Deepali Kalia and Nanu Khanna. Originally from India, together they blend their backgrounds in creative development, textiles and their years of design for couture studios. Says Deepali,“Every product embodies our upbringing: rich artistic tradition, creativity and craftsmanship. We believe that both traditional techniques and new interpretations of old traditions bring immeasurable beauty and warmth into the home and soul.”

Check out this new travel item and others bags by Filling Spaces today at the SFAC site. 

Enjoy your shopping and be sure to recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Fair Trade Purses and Tote Bags Making Their Way to World Stage

Purse, handbags, tote bags—they form an enormous world market as women choose to update or expand their purse collection often, and fresh fashions are presented in the design capitals of the world. As we’re in the spring season of 2015, there’s a host of new purse items being bought by store buyers and introduced into compelling store displays to entice shoppers. They are fashionable, no doubt. But are they sustainable fashion? Are they eco friendly fashion?

Sustainable fashion is the principle we here at Shopping for a Change believe in and practice. Sustainable means that the item creation contributes to the healthy continuity of the sources it comes from. It can also mean that a tradition of crafting is being sustained among the people in a developing country that practice a long-standing manufacturing art. Sustainable fashion means for purse crafting that the materials are truly natural (and not part of factory farming, or species-decimating practices) or organic, use natural dyes and other naturally derived processes. It also means that the artisans crafting our purses and totes are sustained in their livelihood through the fair pay they receive. Eco friendly purses means these accessories do not cause harm to the environment. That has to be a very compelling reason to choose an eco green purse over a conventional purse.

Today, and growing into the future, the share of market for purses is growing upwards for fair trade, eco friendly and sustainable purses or bags. And the styles are gorgeous. We invite you to participate. Next time you’re shopping for a purse,  tote or duffle, think sustainable fashion, think Shopping for a Change!

Please click here to view our purse and handbag collection.

Enjoy your shopping and be sure to recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Shopping for a Change^® Summer Internship Opportunity

Shopping for aChange®, a non-profit organization, is a fair trade marketplace where artisans, predominantly women from developing countries, sell their handmade creations, enabling them to earn a sustainable income and lift themselves from poverty. Our net proceeds subsidize community improvement projects abroad as well as help fund select U.S.-based charities.

We are an all-volunteer organization and have no paid employees. Now into our fifth year online, we are preparing to add an exciting new facet to our growing e-commerce business. We are looking for a one or two select individuals to work side by side with the president and founder, to help launch and maintain this new division, and to manage various other projects.

Responsibilities may include:

·      Creating new product pages weekly, via the easy to learn templates and apps built into
    the back end of our Shopify-based website.

·      Editing photos that will be used for the website.
·      Creating graphic oriented email blasts using Vertical Response.

·      Conducting interviews via Skype.

·      Creative writing.

·      Online research.

·      Photography and modeling.

·      Helping curate artisan goods for our website.

You:

·      Are able to work weekday afternoons this summer from 12-4 P.M.

·      Are extremely organized.

·      Know how to edit digital photos, compose creative images that include text, and have the software to do so on your computer.

·      Are a strong creative writer.

·      Have great fashion sense.

·      Are a skilled photographer.

·      Are quick to pick up on technology that has a strong intuitive aspect to it.

·      Are a go-getter who can take instruction and run with it.

·      Are able to think on your feet and aren't afraid to offer your respectful opinion.

·      Are not afraid to ask questions.

·      Are extremely responsible and willing to work hard.

·      Have a laptop you can always bring to work.

·      Have reliable transportation to our home office in San Mateo.

·      Are interested in getting real world work experience while knowing what you are doing in making a huge difference in the lives of others around the world who are far less fortunate than yourself.

If you are a rising high school junior or older, and possess most or all of the skills mentioned above, and are interested in working with us, please send your resume, cover letter and creative writing sample to Stacey@shoppingforachange.org right away. Our internship positions fill quickly and are offering fewer positions this year.

There is some flexibility in our dates. If you are taking a family vacation we may be able to work around it.  We anticipate beginning Monday, June 15-Friday, August 14^th.

www.shoppingforachange.org

Focusing on Design and Quality in the Next Evolution of Fair Trade

The textile and garment fashion industry is, of course, about fashion: the season’s designs that capture a meme, statement, novelty or ethnic motif that creates beauty in the eye of the beholder. Fashion is an enormous aesthetic and mercantile world. And fair trade fashion is growing up rapidly in that world as the evolution of design in the fair trade products lines is producing very attractive looks.

This is our daily aspiration at Shopping for a Change: to curate high fashion, well made products into our collections of handbags and purses, accessories, wraps and scarves, jewelry, apparel, and even baby items. In the selection process for our products we are looking at hundreds of options. Once we have confirmed they are made following fair trade principles, our highest criteria is the design, look, and feel of the product. It has to have a certain fashionable and inspiring look, and often our repeat customers (familiar with the fashion design world) are invited to participate in our selection process. Next, we are looking for quality. Not just any quality that says this product is okay to sell, but one whereby you can easily ascertain the fine level of materials and work(wo)manship. Our products are built to withstand normal wear and tear with use as one of your favorite items.

Fair trade textile and garment products don’t have to be dull. They can sizzle with design innovation and beauty while also paying fair wages to their makers and being eco friendly to the environment and ecology.

Please click here to take a look at our purse and handbag collection. They are right out of a fashion magazine, and several have been featured in travel magazines and holiday gift magazines.

Enjoy your shopping and be sure to recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

4 Compelling Reasons for Fair Trade Clothing Products

When you’re considering shopping fair trade, here is a convenient and engaging list of 4 perspectives that speak to fair trade purchasing. Here at SFAC we follow these observations with diligence and joy.

1.)  More money is delivered through fair trade to the individuals producing the clothing. The mainstream clothing industry is notorious for low pay and abusive conditions for workers. Fair trade means there is fair pay that constitutes a living wage for the craftspeople who make the clothes you’re buying.

2.)  The Fair Trade clothing industry focuses on women’s equal rights. Often fair trade companies work directly with the artisans as participants in making decisions that affect their livelihood, prospects and community. This quality of empowerment is important to the cultivation of these people’s pride and situation in life. One of the foremost intentions of fair trade is to develop equal rights for women, and it is highly successful at this.

3.)  Worker satisfaction is high and turnover is low. In the fair trade workplace of small factories or cottage industry the workers are very satisfied with their work, wages and work conditions. Job retention is very high.

4.)  Protecting the environment alongside supporting workers. Fair trade clothing is manufactured with eco friendly practices, meaning the environment is not abused along the chain of the manufacturing process. Many items are organic, meaning the custodianship and replenishing for the soil is all authentically natural.

Click here to visit the latest in sales and additions to our fair trade apparel. Don’t miss out of our ultra soft cotton one size fits all  P.J. pants, and back by popular demand, Original Button Wraps. These items are handmade and are perfect as gifts, or for yourself.

Enjoy your shopping and be sure to recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

SFAC 2014 Funding Helps Launch 2 Preschools in Bangladesh

A significant part of our nonprofit monies raised from sales at Shopping for a Change goes to community improvement projects, alongside of paying fair wages to the artisans who craft the products we carry in our online store. We are very proud to announce that two preschools we helped to fund with last year’s sales opened on February 8, 2015, in Bangladesh.

The two schools are located at Cox’s Bazar, a seaside and fishing town on the southwestern coast of Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal. Cox’s Bazar’s claim to fame is that it has the world’s longest, uninterrupted sand beach, stretching for 75 miles. The schools are part of two knitting centers opened by Hathay Bunano, the nonprofit arm of Pebble, in December 2014 in collaboration with Winrock International, under the CREL project (Climate Resistant Environment and Livelihoods project) funded by USAID.  

The training for the women at the centers has just concluded this month and they will now start actual production of knitted products. Now their children ages 3-6 years old, can attend the two preschools. The first school will open with 20 children, with plans to have more in the future. Similar numbers of students will attend the second school. Here is a link to a YouTube video on the project.

We feature wonderful baby products from Pebble, from knitted hats to knitted play toys and rattles. Some of these items are now on sale. Please visit our baby page here  to view our collection, including these Bangladeshi women’s offerings.

Enjoy your shopping and be sure to recommend us to your friends. Shopping for a Change is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.