THE DRESSEMBER BLOG

Two years ago, I was pregnant with my son and just beginning to navigate the world of ethical shopping practices. This meant that not only was I learning about all the baby gear I needed, I was also trying to figure out how I could make sure these products were fairly made. It was important to me that the clothes and toys I provided for my child didn’t come at the expense of someone else, but I felt completely at a loss as to how to do this and still stick to any kind of a budget. It’s taken a little work, and I’m still learning, but I’ve picked up a few tips in these last couple of years that have helped me make sure my purchases are both worker and budget friendly.

I grew up watching my mom sew. It was a hobby for herself as well as a job to support our family. I often look at her hands and wonder what pains she would have been dealt had she worked in a garment factory in Laos or Thailand - maybe long restless hours, low wages, and unsafe work conditions. I can only be thankful that her sewing career began in the United States, where the fight for change in the garment industry has already made its mark in American history. In 1909, the first National Women’s day took place in the United States, honoring the garment worker’s strike that took place a year before.

Bethany Tran, Founder and CEO of The Root Collective (TRC), wasn’t planning on using shoes to make a difference in poverty in the slums of La Limonada in Guatemala City. She just saw a problem: a seemingly unbreakable cycle of poverty and gang culture in the slums, with no one doing anything to solve it. In La Limonada, boys are often primed for gangs when they are young--sometimes younger than 10 years old--and it is almost impossible to leave a gang once you have joined.

Five years ago, Jen Bedrossian was just learning about the horrors of human trafficking and didn’t know what she could do to help stop it. “My eyes were opened, and I felt compelled to do something,” she says.

At the same time, Jen was considering starting her own business. She had studied ancient Roman archaeology and was now working at a museum. From an early age, Jen collected dozens of rocks, examining each one for the natural beauty it contained. For months, she tried to think of a way to join the fight to end human trafficking while pursuing a new, creative business venture.

The world of sports is fast-paced and competitive, with athletes trying to fine tune their skills and advance their game every day. It is a world filled with excitement, teamwork, cheering, and moments of collectively held breath. However, it is also a world of gender inequality and imbalanced opportunity. That’s where Goal Five comes into the equation.

When we made the decision to transition to more thoughtful, and ethical purchases as a family, the biggest challenge was knowing what brands to trust and which ones we needed to move away from in the future. Our process always started with identifying a need, then doing a great deal of online research to try and find a company that offered both a quality product and a transparent business model.

Today, we're highlighting one of our amazing brand partners, Trades of Hope! We are committed to partnering with ethical brands and spotlighting them every Friday as a way to encourage us all to be better consumers. Enjoy our interview with Elisabeth Hujskens of Trades of Hope.

Trades of Hope co-founders, Gretchen Huijskens, Holly Wehde, Chelsie Antos and Elisabeth Huijskens had many reasons for launching Trades of Hope back in 2010.

For Elisabeth, the passion for other cultures and fighting poverty worldwide started at only 8 years old.

“I started traveling multiple times a year to Haiti, where my family had started an orphanage and school,” Elisabeth said. “I grew up seeing first hand that poverty is an endless cycle and that charity work was not breaking that cycle. The community around our orphanage and school was not changing. It was still in poverty after 10 years.”

Advocacy, community, fashion, empowerment. You will find these phrases strewn throughout the Dressember Campaign, and rightly so. These words can also be used to describe Sseko Designs, a social enterprise sandals, accessories, and handbags business that helps women in East Africa pursue their dreams of education. It all started back in 2008, when founder Liz Bohannon traveled to Uganda and was moved to action by the stories of her new friends. These young women Liz met were bright, recent high school graduates, who had dreams of becoming doctors, business owners, leaders, and more. Unfortunately, due to exploitation, poverty, and gender inequality present in the country, it seemed unlikely that they would find a way to make these dreams become a reality. It was this experience that inspired Liz to get involved, and in 2010, Sseko Designs was founded.

In the midst of the most beautiful island scenes on Maui, you’ll find world-changer Tasha Kendall, founder and CEO of How We Soul, dreaming and thoughtfully designing your next pair of leggings. These ethically made, eco-friendly pieces of art, derived from an idea planted in Tasha’s heart more than 17 years ago during a teaching opportunity in Botswana. Fast forward to 2015, where Tasha used her athletic background, creativity and passion for others to birth How We Soul. Today, 100% of their proceeds after production costs support the Botswana Orphan Project, bringing to life Tasha’s original vision and desire to leave the world a more beautiful place. Here is our interview with visionary and design maven, Tasha Kendall.