Fair Trade Bra Straps
Photo by Inaldo Perez/AP Photo
From AP: “Bra straps bootstrap fair-trade business.”
The tiny beads look delicate: shades of pale pink, blue and green hand strung and sewn together to form dainty straps for lingerie.
But they’re stronger than they appear, much like the women who spend hours hand making them in South America for Strappity-do-da. The fledgling business is a labor of love started by a woman desperate to help her husband’s family get out of poverty in Colombia, a developing nation with a bloody, violent history marked by drug running and guerrillas. …
Styles’ mission is more personal: She aims to educate and empower the struggling women in her husband’s homeland.
“The whole reason that we’re doing this is to build the women up, starting in this one little community and to grow that out,” she said. …
Styles had been haunted by Colombia’s poverty for years. In Cali, a city of 1.6 million, her sister-in-law’s home overlooked a river filled with sewage, garbage and rats.
But in the straps, Styles suddenly saw the chance to change things, at least for a few women.
Since then, Web and trade show orders have steadily grown. Styles’ husband, Octavio Gaviria, and an employee help pack $29.99 pairs into tiny white boxes to fill Internet orders, and the straps sell in some high-end boutiques. So far, they’ve sold about 2,000 pairs.
Each box has a tiny card that explains Styles’ effort, also explained on her Web site. She wraps the tale of her mission to help the family in every sales pitch, including online: “Their spirit lit a fire under me to find a way to help.”
Now, Styles and partner Christine Kett are trying to get the attention of a large retailer such as Victoria’s Secret. …
Kett and Styles say that while money can be measured, the self-confidence the work creates cannot. The empowerment, they hope, will spread.
“Having that one woman do this it creates the base. It’s for their families, it’s not just for her, and it just keeps going,” Kett said. “It keeps going and keeps growing as more orders come in. We’re helping more and more families. One at a time.”
The 3 Rs of sustainability—reduce, reuse, and recycle—are ordered by their importance, i.e., it’s better to reduce your personal consumption than it is to reuse something, and it’s better to reuse a product than recycle it. So before you blow your next paycheck on a spree at The Container Store, look around your home (and recycling bin) for storage receptacles, such as plastic takeout containers and apple-sauce jars, that will do the same trick as the most expensive tupperware. Personally speaking, we’ve been buying dry food products, like flaxseed and rolled oats, from the bulk-foods section of our organic supermarket, and then storing them in large, air-tight yogurt containers and jars. You’ll be rescuing some extraneous packaging from the waste stream and saving some green in the process! (Just remember to label your containers to prevent furrowed brows down the road.)
melanie said,
September 8, 2006 at 9:01 am
Thanks for Chekov’s tip today! I am always trying to get people to understand that recycling is the LAST of the 3 R’s for a reason. I use mason jars for storing dried beans and rice in the cupboard (they were given to me for free) and we use yogurt and margarine containers for the fridge and freezer and I get so frustrated when I see people at work throwing out the “disposable” ziploc containers.
Melissa said,
September 8, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Here! Here!
I will be the first to admit that I am somewhat of a neat freak and love the looks of little matching containers to store things in. Oh - to have a Martha Stewart-type kitchen would be grand!
The reality, however, is that I do as Melanie does and reuse anything and everything. We even wash our plastic baggies (when we use one, that is) and use every last bit of foil wrap multiple times.
With three kids in the house, containers come in handy for bath toys and art projects. I also use them to start vegetable seeds.
It really irks me when people throw something away that they can reuse - no matter what it is.
green la girl said,
September 9, 2006 at 1:37 pm
I read about Strappy-do-dah a week or so ago, and one thing I wanted to investigate further was where those beads come from. One article made it sound like they were shipped all over the place — which sorta made me wonder if the beads themselves were produced fairly. I’ll have to try contacting Styles to find out — unless you’ve already done so?