Clothingbrand Tchibo Print their own Anticommercials

"This T-shirt is sewn by a child for Tchibo" stands on the shirt. Clothing company Tchibo offers a new print-on-demand service, where you can send in your own texts to be printed.

Dr. Kirstin Brodde, German textile expert and editor for the Greenpeace Magazine, sent in some critical texts about the company and they were delivered to her as she ordered them.

On her blog she describes her communication with the companies involved. It's a fun story (also read part 2 and part 3) for those reading German...

La Mode Ethique: Guide to Ethical Fashion

La Mode Ethique is an international guide of ethical fashion brands and designers. The website, which is still in development, lists a good choice of labels. Of all the listings so far, this is until now the best one. A shame of all the google ads around, and also the flash thing is a bit unfunctional, but it is a great source and also professionals can still find a lot of new, cool designers here.

I also just wrote about Bransparent, another promising listing of ethical brands, who do a sustainability check up with every brand they ad to their list.

Still all these listings are far from complete. We created a much longer list of labels as any list we found on the internet so far. Maybe we should sell it over e-bay ;)

Win the First Ethical Fashion Price in the UK: The Re-Fashion Awards

The Re-Fashion Awards are a new Awards for Ethical Fashion. The categories will cover retail, manufacture and consumer campaigns. Awards will be made on the basis of improving social, environmental and economic standards in the fashion supply chain. According to the Awards organization, winning entries will need to prove their style credentials.

"The public are embracing ethical shopping in terms of what they put in their bodies and what they smear on their skin, but when it comes to fashion the vast majority of retailers and brands need to up the ante. The RE:Fashion Awards are needed to inspire and motivate action." Wayne Hemingway, Fashion Designer

The Re-Fashion Awards are organized by Anti Apathy , the brains behind fashion label Worn Again, The Ethical Fashion Forum and Futtera, who created Swishing; the eco-fabulous clothes swap parties.

Sources: The Ethical Fashion Forum, Drop Dead Green, Re-Fashion Awards

Happy birthday to Grass Routes!

We started Grass Routes a year ago with some vague ideas and a three months trip to visit sustainable projects in Europe and Turkey. Meanwhile, Grass Routes became the Grass Routes Foundation, we did some fun projects such as the Fair Fashion Affair, and we are full of new upcoming projects and lots of vision.

Most of our current activities are related to sustainability and fashion. In the future we hope to broaden up again and cover a wider spectrum of projects related to creative sustainability.

We are looking for a new office place with space for creativity and growth. And we are forming a professional collective around us to be able to do all the projects we invent. In about a month we will launch a new website, blog & house style. We will keep you updated!

Happy birthday!

Frans & Cecilia

eco chique summer dresses by Beau Soleil

There is a whole fashion market called eco-chique, and it's proving the new eco spirit has little to do with old eco spirit. Beau Soleil is a stylish green clothing brand from New York, for the ones who enjoy a chique green lifestyle. The dress on the picture costs $275.

The designer, Anne Salvatore Epstein, started the label after reorganizing her own lifestyle from extra-ordinary luxury into a more conscious and green one. Epstein uses fabric made out of bamboo, a sustainable material, vegetable-dyed organic cottons and vintage, tencel, which is made from eucalyptus trees, as well as recycled leather trims.

Perfect dresses to wear on a sunny Eastern buffet, for the ones lucky enough with sunshine in their garden and their wallet...

Through: Chic by Nature

German social fashion label Armed Angels launches new collection & website

Social fashion - for the label Armed Angels this means more than organic cotton and fair trade production. The label also involves their online community in deciding over the models, print designs, and to which charity the 3,33 Euro per sold
item goes to. Based in Cologne, the label is rapidly growing, being one of the few young green fashion labels in the whole country. Watch their new collection and website, they are promising...

Over 20 Supermodels Support the EJF Organic Cotton Campaign

More than 20 top models, including Irina Lazareanu, Coco Rocha, Catherine McNeil, Caroline Trentini, Siri Tollerød and Behati Prinsloo, have now been photographed in EJF’s ‘Pick Your Cotton Carefully’ campaign t-shirts. Most of the pictures were are taken by fashion photographer Eric Guillemain. The successful campaign by the Environmental Justice Foundation for cleaner cotton production has been gaining attention worldwide.

The organic cotton t-shirts are designed around the theme of “childhood, lost innocence and hope” to represent more than a million children around the world forced to labour in cotton production.

The shirts are for sale and support the EJF cotton campaign www.ejfoundation.org/shop

womens day & the garment industry: it's women's sweat on your shirt

About a billion people (!) are working in textile related industries worldwide. Many of them are women, working from home, in slum situated sweatshops or high tech factories. As known, the circumstances are not always that funky.

Without drawing to all the rights, justice or sexism issues of the women's right movement, just think about these women while you shop your clothes...

It's women's sweat on your shirt!

pic source : No Sweat

Rapanui: organic surfwear from the Isle of Wright

Rapanui is an organic and sustainable clothing company based on the Isle of Wight, using organic, natural and ethical fabrics. Rapui is set up by surfing brothers Rob and Mart Drake-Knight, 23 and 21. They say they were motivated to influence environmental change after becoming ill and even getting scars from surfing in polluted waters.

Their garments are manufactured in Fairwear Foundation audited factories and made of
sustainable bamboo, organic cotton and convergence cotton. The clothing is made from a strong environmental position: “We want to use the influential power of fashion to provoke change.”

It is great to see so much young people getting involved in the environmental issue in a creative or entrepreneur way. Especially of course because they often stay close to who they are. In this case surfers. Check out their surfers weather forecasts...

Reports from the BioFach: in search for organic cotton

Everything organic on the BioFach? Maybe for food it mostly was. But visiting all the textile related stands on the BioFach, I had some remarkable encounters. At a stand where they had a good looking offer of organic cotton materials, I asked if they only did organic cotton. Immediately the lady took a large box from under the desk, and presented me proudly all their non-organic cottons. At another stand I was overwhelmed by the large offer of sportswear and caps, but wondering if they were organic, it turned out that about ninety percent was not at all.

Okay, the BioFach is not supposed to be a leading fair on organic textiles, but there shouldn't be sold just conventional textiles either. Especially because there is still a lot of confusion on what organic textiles are. Luckily these were exceptions and I had a lot of good experiences as well, meeting nice people of small ethical brands, producers, and shop owners, representatives from MadeBy, Solidaridad, Pesticide Action Network, etc.

How to label sustainable clothing?
I visited also the discussion forum "Organic cotton - how to label sustainable clothing?". A rather complex question, with no answers yet. Alexandra Perschau from the PAN Germany described the problem of the labeling towards the consumer: there is hardly any recognition with the existing labels, there are too many different ones and the consumer does not have any clue on them. They have more knowledge of brands than on labels.

The central problem around how to label sustainable clothes was described by Jenns Soth from Helvetas. You can have a certified organic fibre, but what about the end problem? There is a legal gap in labeling organic textiles because you can not yet label non food items as organic in
Europe.

One quote from Helvetas sticked to my ears. They claim that in the organic cotton sector the partnerships are stronger than in the conventional, resulting in a higher loyalty and responsibility from the farmers. Logical, because there is more time and energy spent on training the farmers, and often worked with social programs, support of forming collectives, etc. But my conclusion is, that this could mean that actually the organic cotton production model in the end could be a more reliable business model.

Helvetas announced on the forum, they are working on Emission Certificates for textiles. What sounds like a good initiative of reducing carbon acid, also came with a lot of questions: does it reduce the miles a textile is transported? Is it right to give an emission certificate not for the whole chain but only for the production process?

Track & Trace your clothes origin with Made-By
The most interesting in the quest for a good labeling of sustainable textiles was the presentation of the Made-By initiative, who are expanding this year towards the UK, France, Germany and Sweden. According to research, for most companies reputation is most important when it comes to CSR. But for companies investing in CSR it is crucial to understand that CSR should be their business principle, and not only a strategy to produce a better image.

MadeBy offers clothing companies a way to clean up their production process, they give practicle support and monitor the results. Also the brands get a blue botton stating that the piece of clothing is produced under the MadeBy criteria. A very up to date part of the project is a Track & Trace tool, where consumers can check where exactly their clothing are being made, under which circumstances, and even see the people who made their piece of clothing. Just by entering a unique code from your jeans you get all this information, including the locations your jeans have been on google maps.

Hopefully there will come a more clear labeling for organic textiles soon, what will help the consumer a lot in choosing the right product. But meanwhile there are a lot of interesting initiatives, and it stayes, labeling or not, very important is that brands work on their whole chain transparency.

Actually the best experience was to meet our organic cotton deliverers from BoWeevil. They made it possible for us to visit several places along their production chain in Turkey and Uganda, and I find the way they work very sympathetic.

sexy ethics & dirty business: the edgy fashion game of American Apparel

American Apparel clothes are so fucking sexy. And they are so amazingly social to their workers. Wow! They care about their employers so much. But, well, maybe a bit too much...

I was in an American Apparel store just yesterday and wondered about all these great organic clothes that I`ve lately seen a lot in their advertisements. Well, they were mostly used for making the ads, I suppose, pushing their image of a green, ethical brand. If you happen to visit an American Apparel store, you will notice how much is true of AA's green image, and how much we`re actually trapped in a great branding strategy...

Sexy and sweatshop free
American Apparel has had a lot of positive response to their clothes. The cuts are very good indeed, the materials soft. If you look around in the right areas, you can easily pick out the AA garments passing by. They are good, sexy, sweatshop free. They care for their workers, paying more than minimum wage, paying insurances, and offering yoga and language courses under working time. That is rather progressive considering the circumstances elsewhere.

Conscious creatives use American Apparel shirts to make ethically correct screen print Tees. But somehow I am suspicious. I is all image, really. And if not, they better proof it. Earlier the company promised to convert to 80 percent organic in 2010, well, let`s see how far they are. Hey there in Downtown LA, tell us you`re keeping your green promises!

Critics on American Apparel

I just went for a quick search of info on the company and found some interesting critics:

- American Apparel has been selling flip-flops from Thailand in their shops lately, therefor breaking their rule to produce a vertically-integrated, sweatshop free goods

- Mr. Charney, CEO of the company, has a bit of a lose sexual style. Well, if the ads not told you already, linking to seventies porn, edgy advertising is their core business, but here it is not only image, but a working atmosphere. Charney (see pic of him in underwear on the working floor) has been accused by several former American Apparel employees of being sexually harassed by him at work. Although he denies being sexually offensive, he admits that enjoys sexual free working conditions at the 'vertically integrated' company.

- American Apparel is the largest T-shirt manufacturer, and operates the largest garment factory in the United States. The company is said to be one of the fastest growing companies in America. Sexy ethics sell indeed...

- Earlier the company has been taking steps against union forming initiatives of their employees.

Legalize LA campaign
Something that really speaks for the company and might also be part of their unconventional but sublime marketing strategy of being a `social company`, is American Apparels Legalize LA campaign. With a big banner on the pink factory in LA, and Ads in the papers, they make themselves strong for a more human immigration policy.

Better sexy ethics than unhappy workers
I am ambiguous about American Apparel and I think anyone concerned about ethical fashion should keep an eye on what is really being produced under ethical standards, and what is just part of a good marketing strategy. Because the "ethical light" of American Apparel can also hurt the movement as a whole.

I have my doubts about AA's real ethics, but they are just doubts. American Apparel also has had the courage to promote sweatshop free clothing and giving that a cool and rather sexy push. And therefor they deserve good credits.

Even hardcore feminists have to admit that basic (women) workers rights are more important than some sexistic advertisments. And why is the explicit gay magazine Butt lying around in all their stores? And why are so many American Apparel clothes unisex, even if they don`t say so? And what other fashion company puts meters high ads of an old lady wearing their underwear?

The sexism is here played as an edgy fashion game, so it is more about playing than about abusing. It is performative and provocative. Sexistic indeed, but meanwhile sexually progressive. Fashion from the friendly porn collective, if you like it.

Just keep aware of what you wear, and if you wear American Apparel, read these sources:

Business Week
Consumerist
Inc Com
Wikipedia
Behindthelabel

pictures taken from different American Apparel ads

Stylish vegan footwear by Bourgeois Boheme

Bourgeois Boheme, an online animal-friendly fashion boutique, has recently launched its own stylish footwear for men and women named Espiritual and Jiva.

The shoes are handmade and ethically produced in Portugal and India. The range is made of microfibre, an eco-friendly leather alternative, and acoording to the producers 100% animal-friendly. Even the glue used is water based.

A French tourist called Bourgeois Boheme
Bourgeous Boheme was started by two vegans with a taste for style. In their spare hours next to their jobs, they built up the shop and started to design own products. The company name is dedicated to a French tourist whom they met by coincidence.

Animal rights with style
The style of shoe wear is a little different than what is already on the vegan shoe market. Most labels, such as No Sweat, Blackspot, or Vegetarian Shoes are more or less directed to alternative youth culture. Beyond Skin another vegan shoe brand and a very stylish, exclusive and trendy one, is more on the the high end both in quality and price. Alicia Lai, founder of Bourgeois Boheme says, “We saw there was a gap in the market for footwear that is not only animal-friendly but also stylish and affordable." That's the combinations we are looking for!

The webshop of Bourgeois Boheme offers a range of ethical fashion accessories for both men and women. Every product is free from animal ingredients and their product range includes footwear, bags, wallets, belts, cosmetics, etc. The shop has been awarded by Animal Rights organization Peta last year.

source: Haute Nature , Bourgeois Boheme

green is sexy and organic underwear is getting hot

Green is sexy - and new cool green fashion is combating the old eco-stereotypes succesfully.
And new organic underwear lines are giving green lifestyle a fresh, kinky sex appeal.

If you consider trying out some eco-clothing, underwear is not the worst to start with, because you don't really want chemical leftovers direct on your intimate body parts, do you? And some new organic underwear lines really give organic a new image. Also conventional lingerie producers start to take up the topic of sustainable production, as this article describes. A marvelous example of sexy green underwear are the collections by ethical lingerie brand Enamore (picture). For more info on organic underwear, see this informative blog post or read this report by green guide Inhabitat, handing you some last minute tips for Valentine...

Premium Fall/Winter 2008/09: a bit of green and a lot of grey

With the Premium slogan "Save the future!", a green area, "green living" statements on the PR material and it's central symposium with the title "eco is not a trend" the Premium Exhibitions during the Berlin Fashion Week dared to profile themselves as green. But did the event make this green promise true?

The exhibition took place in huge old postal depot halls near Potsdammer Platz, and once you enter you feel in a labyrinth of fashion worlds. Somewhere at the very end, behind all black and grey, one could find the green area. With neon green flours and pillars, it was visible were to go for the green fashion consumer. But for the mainstream fashion buyers it might just have been one bridge too far.

Eco-Fashion professionals versus LOHAS Light
I missed out on the symposium "eco is not a trend", but from others I heard it was a hot, passionate discussion between LOHAS-light and Eco fashion-professionals. Speakers included the designer Katherine Hamnett, Renate Künast from Alliance 90/The Greens and Michalis Pantelouris, editor-in-chief of IVY WORLD. The event was moderated by Melissa Drier, correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily in Germany. While green is growing as a lifestyle movement, it also has the tendency to be more about lifestyle communication than about the actual subject to protect the environment and create human working conditions. Something we all have to find a balance in! Too much of environmentalism doesn't make it anywhere, too much happy glossy lifestyle doesn't work either.

Eco2.0
Actually I was a bit suprised that so much central quotes from the Fair Fashion Affair, the ethical fashion event Grass Routes organized last Autumn, were reflected in the Premium PR. Christoph Harrach's statement on the new movement of "Eco2.0", a central focus on LOHAS, check it out on the Premium website! And the speech of Alexandra Perschau from the Pesticide Action Network was built upon the idea that eco should be more than a trend, and that that's the real responsibility for the fashion world. Without claiming any direct connections, I just realized we somehow hit the right thing there.

Meanwhile it stays a question for the fashion professionals and fashion events how to continue with the topic and make the promise true. In Germany there is still a long way to go! During the Premium Exhibition, the green fashion area stayed a small green spot between all grey, like a flower of hope between smoking factories. The real challenge is still to turn the grey into the green. In the end, green is not about style or trend, but just about a responsible production process. A positive note and prediction to end with: green is growing... no doubt.

Picture: ethical fashion by Camilla Norrback, a Swedish label present in the Premium Exhibition's green area.

Berlin Fashion Week reports: Federal Office for Garment

The streets of Berlin are crowded from German and international fashionistas, as the Berlin Fashion Week is hitting the city. Some small reports from your Grass Routes agents...

Bundesamt für Bekleidung
At the Premium fair visitors were invited to analyze their clothing in the laboratory of the Federal Office for Garment, a Swiss institution. With a newly developed laboratorial computer system the "beamter" (officers) could analyze all the steps in the production chain of a garment: where it was made, the age of the producer, the environmental impact of the materials, etc.

After such an analyze, this brilliant invention "greening machine" would take care of all eventual negative social environmental scores. 2 seconds of "greening" was enough for the organic t-shirt I had tested, but also tougher cases could be handled with this machine, neutralizing any damage being caused in the production process.

Green washing
Frans tested his Italian jacket, with the outcome: made from wool & poliester, origin of materials: Thailand and Pakistan, 312 travel hours, 4 sewers, the dyes causing a small risk of cancer, and all kinds of technical details I did not understand. Anyway this jacket had to be green washed for almost a minute.

Because of their innovative approach, the Bundesamt für Bekleidung is travelling all around the world with their laboratory. They might visit your town as well to give you the chance to test the production process of your wardrobe...

German social fashion contests by Armed Angels and Fairwear.de

Armed Angels are a young, trendy social fashion label from Cologne. They are conquering Germany with just a few simple shirts. Only selling over the internet, or through friends and friends of friends of friends. 3,33 Euro per piece of clothing goes to charity. For their innovative business concept, Armed Angels recently won a German innovation price. Check these guys out, we will hear more of them!

Angelface 2008
Armed Angels organize open contests on both their designs and models. More than 200 models have already joined. It's actually quite fun to have the chance to choose a model for a clothing brand. They also have style-of-the-month voting, where people can send in their designs and vote two shirt prints per month into the webshop. I just wanted to comment that they should also put a vote for their charity projects, but they already do...

Streetwear & social activism
Also the crew of the German ethical fashion webshop Fairwear.de organize a shirt print contest. You can send in your print design, graphics and creative impulses until the 8th of Februari 2008. The best designs will be printed, the deisgners get 50 Euros and discount in the webshop. I like the Fairwear guys because they connect their site to both streetwear styles and social activism, and seem to stay close to their ideals. They have a nice mix of fair fashion labels including Kuyichi, Tudo Bom?, Epona, THTC, Machja, and No Sweat. Just on question, where are the German ethical fashion brands?

picture: Armed Angels

Organic Exchange opens office in Amsterdam

Organic Exchange is opening office in Europe! Organic Exchange is a charitable organization from the United States that aims to promote organic agriculture with a special focus on fibers such as cotton. They support brands and organizations in the field. Their new focus on Europe will be another push for the rise of cool, ethcial fashion, because they have the capacities to also support larger brands to green up their production process...

With an office in The Netherlands, they are going to cooperate closely with Made-By. They will be supported by dutch development organisations ICCO and Solidaridad. In 2008, OE will offer three types of services to help brands and retailers develop their organic business as well continuing to provide their member services. These services include four basic training events, which are open to anyone but are targeted at retailers and suppliers. They will take place in Amsterdam, Germany, the UK and Sweden.

source: Eco Textile News

Act local, find local

A mysterious group called I-local campaigned in The Netherlands with a radical activist approach, the slogan "act local! find local!" and statements like "globalization is over".

They spread more than 10.000 of their orange balaclavas, extreme YouTube videos and all around the country they glued slogans at the outward roads of villages and cities, calling car drivers to go back home. With the background idea: most things you can find in your own neighborhood. So why go somewhere else? A rather radical but interesting reaction on the enormous traffic jam problems in this overstuffed country.

Off course, this mysterious action group of radical anti-globalists turned out to be an internet company offering a local search engine, now good for 1 million visitors a month in the Benelux. Guerillia marketing is still on it's rise, but this example is remarkable. Especially for a country that lately has been in the picture for it's anti-European sentiments. And for the real anti-globalists this might be a bit of an image-problem. I wouldn't be surprised if the I-locals will infiltrate anti-G8 and WTO demonstrations with their orange balaclavas and slogans like: "Act local! Ami go home!"...

Hiphonest: ethical fashion in Amsterdam

A cross in a circle, passing by on a bag, a jacked or a pair of jeans. Ethical fashion brand Kuyichi made it quite far in The Netherlands! In Berlin we had to suffer to find more than one kind of Kuyichi male jeans, here Kuyichi is rather mainstream. Even in the village where my parents live there is a shop with a better collection than any shop in Berlin can offer, meanwhile also selling Misericordia and Inti without even marketing their shop as ethical.

Is ethical fashion more hot in the Netherlands than in Germany? Hard to say. Germany has been a pioneer with organic cotton clothing, and still has a strong position in the "eco 0.1". But what about "eco 0.2", the new, young and trendy eco-fashion movement?

Something especially developed is the amount of projects, campaigns and organizations that commit themselves to hyping ethical clothing. In Germany I have the feeling this is not happening too much. That's a big difference. In example dutch organization Solidaridad, inventor of the Max Havelaar - Fair Trade label, the Utz-certification for coffee (a sort of Fair Trade Light for the mainstream coffee market), brains behind several ethical clothing brands including Kuyichi, and the Made-By initiative.

Also other initiatives have been a lot in the picture, in example the actions of the young, creative collective YOI, with a guerilla store and fashion shows, who introduced and hyped the term Hiphonest for the new eco-fashion generation. Now 'Hiphonest' might be the most used term in the Netherlands for trendy ethical clothing.

The reason for my Amsterdam visit this time was a meeting with Goede Waar & Co, a dutch consumer organization specialized in ethical consumption and sustainable production. One of their focuses is clothing. One of their activities is a "clothing checker", a tool to give information to consumers about social and environmental aspects of their clothing. They ask ethical and mainstream brands to fill in their questionnaire, visit the companies when possible, and give scores for the categories: social, environment, economy (people, planet, profit).
Goede Waar & Co do also a lot in campaigning, in example organizing swapper parties, and swapping your clothes on parties is getting hot if you did not know it yet.

After my visit to Goede Waar & Co I walked back through the Jordaan to the station. On my way through the Haarlemmerstraat I passed two stores for "Natural clothes", and off course the ethical fashion store Nukuhiva, with a rather strong choice of ethical classics. Not a daring choice, most of the collection was black (if green is the new black, it still looks quite black!).
About half of the Nukuhiva clothing collection is Kuyichi, a heaven for 'style conscious' Kuyichi lovers! Furthermore brands like Edun, Misericordia, Loomstate, and Intoxica. They had also a small but cool choice of shoes from Veja (organic, vegan shoes) and Worn Again. And the fantastic jewelery from designer Natalie Dissel, who I lately met during the Africa Inspires workshop in Kenya.

This part of town is loved for its small houses and picturesque atmosphere, and what once was a poor area is now a yuppies paradise. Still I am amazed that with the extreme house prices this area is still lively and dynamic, with a good blend of students, expats, LOHAS, artists, weirdos, dealers and grandmothers. For the ethical consumer there is a lot of offer, with a bio-supermarket, and the booming 'honest' coffee and bagels concept. The largest ecological market I have seen so far. And not to forget, bikers are the number one in traffic! At least they believe so.

*** article by Frans C. Prins


More interesting dutch initiatives on ethical clothing:
- Sustainable Fashion Community: Het is groen en het...
- Cotton Clash, hiphonest parties, ethical fashion shows: Move Your World
- Fair Wear Foundation
- Finding ethical products in The Netherlands on: Alles Duurzaam
- Clean clothes

Fairliebt in Nairobi

Fairliebt is a fine, young ethical T-shirt label from Hamburg in Germany. They use fair trade shirts from organic cotton and sustainable screen print techniques. The shirts are recognizable by their clear, playful designs.

Their T-shirts are made by Lamu Lamu in a factory in Nairobi, and certified fair trade. During my visit in Kanya I coincidently visited the factory. My photo's of this visit are lost, but here a short impression: it was rather stuffed in the factory. They started with only about twenty workers, now every corner of the working place is used. In one corner sewers were busy for a local Kenyan clothing brand, full of colors and patterns. On the other side I found the shirts of Lamu Lamu. As they also produce non organic basic T-shirts for the local market, I could compare the quality. Indeed, the organic cotton felt much, much nicer and softer!

As I wrote already in another article, it is hard to see the fair trade aspects in a factory if you are not trained for it. The area is really industrial, dirty and rough. For someone with a lot of beautiful ideas about sustainable production this can be rather disappointing, but the reality is off course that we also have to create better working conditions inside the dirty industrial areas. And respect for those sweating to realize this on every day base!

The cotton from the Fairliebt shirts comes from Phenix in Uganda, please read the articles below if you want to know more about this organic, fair trade cotton from Uganda.
Fairliebt are selling their shirts online to keep prices low. A succesful concept for them, and a good example for others. Thanks to Fairliebt for your positive spirit!

*** I wrote this article shortly before the unfortunate happenings in Kenya of the past weeks. Let's hope that peace will return to this lovely country. Frans

See one of the Fairliebt clips on MySpace: