When you think of Fashion Week, Washington D.C. may not be the first place that jumps out at you. But, the burgeoning fashion and design community in the nation’s capital is quietly working to give the city a make-over that goes far beyond looking good. The D.C. fashion community is “doing good” too.

What do you get when you mix up fair trade with the fashion industry? Priya Patel. The stylish Londoner moved to D.C. to work for the World Bank where she and a team of young professionals established Fashion4Develoment, a sub-committee of the World Bank’s Youth-2-Youth Committee. Patel supplemented the World Bank initiative with her other project, Avani Ribbon. Avani, the Sanskrit word for earth is combined with Ribbon to symbolize uniting cultures across the globe through fashion. Patel established the organization to offer consulting services to designers who want help marketing their ethical brands and the emerging markets they produce them in.

Some facts:
1 ) With a global apparel industry employing well over 30 million workers, at a value of over $500 billion, textiles and clothing carve out 10% of all trade with emerging nations. Within the broader fashion industry there is ample room for improving not only the lives of people on the fashion supply chain, but also the environment and nations they work within.

2) The excess associated with apparel is startling. To grow and chemically treat the cotton for one normal t-shirt requires over 700 gallons of water. That is the same amount of water that would fill a small fire truck. If the average consumer could choose between an organic or regular cotton t-shirt, it would create an empowered consumer base whose choices have effects that go far beyond just wearing clothing.

In the last week of September Patel helped put on D.C. Fashion Week’s International Ethical Fashion Show. In collaboration with D.C. fashion scene forces such as the firm, Corjor International, Patel staged an event that showcased vendors in a trade show and featured four designers on the runway.

The Ethical Fashion Show had a clear purpose of not only raising awareness of fair trade in the fashion industry, but also it gave designers an opportunity to showcase their work and generate funds for developing market communities.

The runway show featured an eclectic mix of designers such as L’Shandi, a Nigerian born and raised designer who fuses African designs with vintage and modern aesthetics. Also, featured were NAWA and The Revival Project, a team that sources fabric and vegetable dyes from an artisan base in the Andhra Pradesh. India also provided inspiration to the design team, Suutra, which works directly with communities in India to produce of-the-moment designs with clever Eastern touches. And, the fourth featured designer, Samira Atash, an Afghan-American, who takes traditional Eastern woven and beaded patterns and merges them with contemporary silhouettes.

Not only did the featured designers bring a fresh perspective to traditional and trendy styles, they brought a sense of accountability to an industry that shows it is capable of far more than making consumers stylish. These designers are bringing the power of ethical choice and economic development to you.

To learn about more ways to support the ethical fashion go to: Fashion 4Development: www.worldbank.org/y2ycommunity/F4Dfashion4development
Avani Ribbon: http://www.avaniribbon.com/index.html

Photo by Zahra Nawaz, October 2007.