Why it was needed

The University of Derby is a Fairtrade institution and so holds an annual Fairtrade Fortnight, which we as fashion students wanted to be part of. Cotton and fashion is as much a part of fair trade as chocolate or coffee and we wanted to educate students about this.

What's being done

We are three final year fashion students at Derby who wanted to help spread the message of fair trade and ethical clothing.

How it started

We went to see Alex, the Student Unions Volunteer Support Officer, who helped get us funding and plan out the event. He also helped us get in touch with fair trade retailers and other forms of funding. We also got our course leaders and the fashion society to help us on the night and give the show more depth.

More

The show was a great success, the first half containing items made by the first year of our fashion course, who were given a £5 limit to go to a charity shop and buy clothing which they then had to reinvent as an item of fashionable clothing. This range showed students that recycling is as important as fair trade. The second half contained clothing ranges from specialist stockists and high street retailers, such as Debenham's, and was a great hit with the crowd as the Unions President even did a little turn on the catwalk! There was complimentary fair trade wine, kindly donated, as well as a free goody bag for every member of the audience. The goody bags contained information on the clothing ranges as well as extras, from fair trade chocolate to other relevant literature, and were themselves ethically made from recycled newspaper by a fair trade certified factory in India.