The muddy streets of Kenya’s crowded Korogocho slums are a far cry from the fashion boutiques of Paris, Milan, New York or London.
But beneath a tin roof, workers from some of the country’s poorest communities sew buttons and stitch cloth for leading international designers as part of a not-for-profit “ethical fashion” project.
“Before ethical fashion, I couldn’t educate my children,” says Lucy, sitting in a circle of women, needles in hand as they deftly sew white-seed beads to the surface of smooth, chocolate-coloured leather.
“But now I can educate them and provide for them anything they need,” says the mother of four, who is in her late 30s.
Accessories from Korogocho, such as the cuffs the women sew, are sold in high-end international boutiques and stamped with the labels of international fashion houses such as Vivienne Westwood, Fendi and Stella McCartney.
It is part of the Ethical Fashion Initiative (EFI), a project built on a model of “mutual benefit” that aims to support poor communities by linking them up with fashion houses and distributors.
Workers on the scheme – which is a member of the Fair Labor Association – would take months to earn enough to buy some of the luxury goods they make, which sell for hundreds of dollars on the high street.
But the working conditions are a long way from the sweatshops that muddy some fashion brands, with the United Nations-backed scheme providing decent working conditions and training. Perhaps the clearest sign of its success is the number of people looking for work who are queuing up to join.
Organisers say about 90 per cent of workers who are part of the scheme in Kenya have improved their homes and almost 85 per cent can now provide better food for their families.
A joint effort by the UN and the World Trade Organisation, the initiative has expanded to Burkina Faso, Ghana and Haiti, with plans for further expansion within Africa and into Asia.
The long journey these designer bags, clothes and accessories will make has reshaped the lives of women such as Lucy.
She struggled as a teenager in a tin-shack slum in Kenya’s capital Nairobi and by the age of 16 she had turned to prostitution to survive.
She has three children of her own and also cares for her nephew after her sister died of Aids. After starting out five years ago as a seamstress, Lucy is now a supervisor. Last year, she moved her family out of Korogocho to a nearby suburb that has lower crime rates.
Of the more than 5,000 people involved in the initiative in Kenya, 90 per cent are women. Arancha Gonzalez, the chief of the International Trade Centre that runs the project, says it offers a sustainable way to improve lives.
“Trade, economic activities, markets can also be married with human development, with women’s economic development, with poverty reduction,” she says.
The project’s slogan is “not charity, just work”.
“We call it ethical because we give a decent job, with decent working conditions, to very destitute people,” Gonzalez says. “First and foremost it gives women dignity.”
The workers also use environmentally friendly, often recycled, materials and their work is carbon neutral.
Gonzalez says that for the designers working with EFI, economics and ethics need not be mutually exclusive.
“It’s about making money,” said Gonzalez. “But you can also make profits in a socially sustainable way.”
Other brands producing goods through the initiative include Karen Walker, Sass & Bide, Stella Jean, United Arrows and other major international houses.
Hubs in Nairobi, Accra and Port-au-Prince receive commissions from the designers, provide training to workers and organise the production of the bags, jewellery and fabrics by locals.
“We talk about responsible fashion as if it were a segment of fashion but it is not – it’s fashion,” says Simone Cipriani, the project’s technical adviser.
Though fashion tastes may be fickle, quality endures.
By linking skills such as sewing and beading with the top fashion houses, EFI hopes to create products that are both beautiful and meaningful.
“We are not talking about those things that you buy because you have a sense of guilt,” Cipriani says. “We are talking about things that you buy because they are beautiful; really gorgeous.
“But then they have this incredible, positive story behind them – the story of people who get a decent life out of this work, who get a new life.”