Green This Season - Digital Conscious Fashion Magazine 2014 - #1 | Page 10

9

You Won’t Fool
the Children of
the Revolution

Green This Season MAGAZINE Spring 2014

By Jo-Ann Worthington

When discussing the issues regarding
Fair Trade and ethical fashion, it is
impossible not to come across the
name Carry Somers. A pioneer in the
Fair Trade fashion industry, Somers
founded Pachacuti, the only Fair Trade
producer of genuine Panama hats, in
1992 after witnessing the exploitation
experienced by hand-knitters during
a trip to Ecuador. Committing herself
to improving the lives of the local
artisans through enabling the weavers
to retain as much of the value of the
finished hat as possible, Pachacuti has
now become the world-wide standard
for ethical, FairTrade production,
becoming the first company in the
world to be certified under the World
Trade Organisation Sustainable Fair
Trade Management System.

The name Pachacuti translates as ‘to
turn the world upside down’; and
Somers’ truly Carry Somers’ hard
work and determination to improve
traceability within the fashion industry
has now led to the creation of Fashion
Revolution Day, launching this year on
April 24th on the anniversary of the
Rana Plaza disaster a short year ago.
By participating we are all encouraged
to ask ‘Who Made Your Clothes?’,
and demand that the fashion industry
becomes more transparent in the entire
manufacturing process of how clothes
are made.
Having keenly followed the progress
of the inspirational tour de force that
is Fashion Revolution Day, I welcomed
the opportunity to meet up with Carry
Somers over a coffee in her home
county of Derbyshire, to find out more.