Building a Fair-Trade Fashion Line Out of ‘Pride, Not Pity’

In an international of rapid fashion, sustainable fashion manufacturers tout their determination to transparent and ethical production. While items from those organizations can be luxurious, the purpose is to pay producers a living salary while developing stylish, exceptional garb.

As resistance to fast style was picking up, Harper Poe graduated from university and began a daily activity that didn’t encourage her. She gave up and, with a chum, went on to locate Proud Mary Global Textiles, a company that sells honest exchange accessories, domestic goods, and apparel. She is a companion to artisans in nations such as Mali and Mexico, who are recognized for their pleasant handicrafts. Before Poe launched Proud Mary’s first collection in 2008, she had no experience with the subject other than running briefly in indoor design. She says she’s sought out steering in the manner that’s helped her balance her enterprise’s task with its bottom line.

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For The Atlantic’s collection on mentorship, “On the Shoulder of Giants,” I spoke with the Charleston, South Carolina-primarily based clothier about the promise and pitfalls of social entrepreneurship, as well as how she patterned her winding professional path on an in-demand mentor’s. The communique that follows has been edited for length and clarity.

Harper Poe: The concept is that Proud Mary is an enterprise-to-business courting. A lot of people are like, “We’re empowering girls.” That’s outstanding, but there’s something wrong with that. When you say you’re empowering someone else, that’s insinuating that you have the electricity, and you’re announcing, “Oh, I’ll come up with a number of my electricity.” But the artisans making these products—I can’t weave like that, I can’t make that embroidery—already have several electricity. We wouldn’t be in the commercial enterprise if it weren’t for these artists.

Poe: I began living in New York City a year before launching Proud Mary. I studied creation control in college, and I turned into working for a trendy contractor in the town. I burned out on running nine-to-5 in New York City, so I gave up my process, went to South America, and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity. For the first time, I noticed women weaving textiles, and the cultural significance of it virtually struck a chord with me. I got back to New York, and I started training in international affairs because I became additionally interested in global development and lowering poverty.

It changed into a super typhoon of various passions coming together simultaneously. A pal and I started Proud Mary together, and we launched our first collection of purses, pillows, and small accessories made in Guatemala at the stop of 2008.

Brown: Who has guided you as you’ve found out approximately the moral-style motion?

Poe: Starting, I had no concept of what I was doing and possibly didn’t ask for enough assistance. I knew this became my calling, and I would form and discern an enterprise. I met Elaine Bellezza. When she was 40, she lived in San Francisco as a private chef and artist. She joined the Peace Corps in Cameroon and lived in Mali for 15 years. She had a gallery and started out working with artisans there. She’s been developing handcrafts across West Africa and did a few paintings with the World Bank.

She was constantly outstanding and encouraging of me. Whenever there was an opportunity to bring a dressmaker on some of those improvement journeys, she encouraged me to apply. I assume that she, in reality, challenged me, and nonetheless, she does. She continually told me to no longer have a bleeding heart during this work. I certainly found that challenging every so often. She’s like, “This is business. Do the paintings. The right will pop out of those business relationships.” I consider that a lot.

Brown: How did you end up operating with women in Syria and Mali?

Poe: I think Mali is the country that’s likely the nearest to my heart. I went there in 2011 and fell in love with the textiles, humans, and track. I went with Elaine, who had lived there for 15 years. I commenced speakme along with her, telling her I desired to paint with textiles in Ghana. She said, “You must go to Mali—they have stunning stuff.”

I had listened to the information, but knowing human beings in a place, their point of view, and why things are happening modified the sport for me. Some of our artisans’ spouses were killed in the warfare. Since then, the safety scenario has deteriorated. Many artisans we have been running with don’t have an outlet for their merchandise any more.

I also desired to do something about the refugee crisis in Syria. I located a Syrian-American woman via the Ethical Fashion Initiative. She started a workshop with approximately six ladies who, a number of them, ISIS had taken over their villages. Some have been double refugees from Palestine and now have been internally displaced in Syria. They make purses and jewelry. They want to grow and scale to 75 women in the next six months.

Poe: We hit a tipping factor with [the 2013 garment factory collapse] in Bangladesh. Conscious consumerism has come in a protracted manner. However, there may be a prolonged way to move. From an advertising standpoint, we’re vulnerable to exploiting a number of the producers and some of the artisans. I fear that terms like “ethical style,” “artisan-made,” and “empowering women,” all those buzzwords for human beings, are not going to reflect consideration of women—which might be a chunk dangerous. The brands doing this painting should be sincere and informative and not overzealous in using other characters’ stories to promote their merchandise.

Brown: Have people contacted you for recommendation or mentorship because you started Proud Mary?

Poe: Yeah, I’ve had some humans wanting to begin sustainable businesses. And I even have one assistant/studio supervisor. She graduated in her final year, so she’s looking to figure out what she desires. I tried to loop her in as much as possible, telling heartily my route and ery nonlinear it was. I allow her to know it’s okay to make mistakes—it’s k to try to have 5 one of a kind careers until you figure out what you want to do.