Our founder Jo Salter was invited to speak about setting up an ethical supply chain at a webinar set up by Pioneers Post and NatWest bank on 15th June 2021.

You can read an article summarizing the session and listen to a recording on the Pioneers Post website.

The post How To Set Up An Ethical Supply Chain appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Where Does It Come From? founder Jo Salter found time to pop into the BBC Radio Suffolk virtual pub for the third time recently. On this occasion her ‘show and tell’ was a key ring from brand YagoEco, created from discarded single use plastic carrier bags.

Listen in to the discussion below.

The post BBC Radio Suffolk Virtual Pub visit 3! appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Did you know that over 50% of clothing sold by major fast fashion brands is made of virgin plastic?

A report out on Friday 11th June into plastics in clothing shared a study by the RSA into top brands Boohoo, Asos and others, examining 10,000 items for sale online. Friends of the Earth have estimated the amount of plastic in new textiles as 64%.

Our founder Jo Salter was invited onto BBC Radio Suffolk to discuss the newspaper coverage – you can listen to the conversation

Key points discussed included:
– How to use your clothing labels to check for plastics in clothing
– Why plastic in our clothes is not good for us or the planet
– What needs to change and how that could be done

Thanks to James Hazell and fellow guest Loraine Callow.

The post Talking Plastics in Clothing on BBC Suffolk appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

On 5th May 2021 our founder Jo Salter took part in a discussion on the Climate Rage radio show. Hosted by Sharon O’Connor and Stewart Moore the conversation covered a range of climate related topics from fashion to finance.

You can hear a recording at https://www.spreaker.com/user/spectrumonair/climate-rage-05-05-21

The post Climate Rage – Jo Salter on Spectrum Radio Show appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Jo Salter again joins BBC Radio Suffolk’s Jon Wright in the virtual pub. As it’s the start of Fashion Revolution week, discussion covers the need for change in the clothing industry, Earth Day and, of course, the re-opening of real pubs!

The post Fashion Revolution Discussion in the Virtual Pub appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

by Kaniya Abubakar

Last month we celebrated International Women’s Day on the 8th of March to highlight the cultural, political and socioeonomic achievements of women. This eventful day provides the perfect platform to amplify our concerns on the pervasive issues which continue to transcend time, such as: gender inequality, reproductive rights and violence against women. The conception behind IWD, dates back to labour movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century and this campaign continues to be marked by protests and radical change for women across the globe.

This years campaign theme #Choosetochallenge encourages people to raise their hands high to show their commitment in confronting gender bias, to foster a more inclusive world. Be forthcoming, disruptive and an active citizen in the pursuit of fighting for justice – challenges are usually followed by change, so the more we continue to raise our voices as a collective the more we can enact positive change. 

Despite overcoming barriers since the early 20th century, there are still structural limitations that we as women endure. For example, this past month we saw the tragic kidnapping and subsequent murder of Sarah Everard, by a male authority figure working for the Metropolitan police. It’s events like this, which reinforce fear and anxiety amongst us who feel powerless in a system that is meant to protect and serve. 

Consequently, this horrific murder has sparked a national dialogue on the security and welfare of women and in turn implement interventions and further laws to protect our welbeing. There have been calls to make misogyny a hate crime with Sian Berry, a Green Party candidate running to become Mayor of London stating “it will help police and others see the extent of this problem, tackle perpetrators more appropriately and shed new light on the toxic culture that currently permits a host of harmful behaviour against women, from catcalls to unwanted touching to violence”. Here at Where Does It Come From? We couldnt agree more.

As a growing ethical brand, we will continue to fight for gender equality, provide partnerships and opportunities for women within the Global South. This starts with ensuring they’re justly remunerated for their services. We will also like to take the time out to shed light on other social enterprises doing something similar. A prime example is our friends over at Ethiqana who champion womens right’s and NGO’s in Jaipur, who work towards womens empowerment. All in all, IWD allows us to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women, who have played an extraordinary role in shaping their communities and countries for a more equitable society. 

The post Working for Women – IWD 2021 appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Jo made her second visit to the BBC Radio Suffolk virtual pub on 8th March 2021 hosted by Jon Wright and with fellow guest Ann Hirst.

You can listen to their part of the show by clicking below…

The post BBC Radio Suffolk – Jo Salter visits the virtual pub! appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Our founder Jo was featured for International Women’s Day by the Successful Founder – you can read the article by clicking the link below

https://thesuccessfulfounder.com/articles/f/iwd-inspirational-female-founders-spotlight-jo-salter

The post Founder Jo Salter featured in The Successful Founder for International Womens Day appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Our founder Jo Salter was interviewed this week on a new internet TV channel on entrepreneurship and enterprise, set up by Nick Looby and David Bell.

Discussion was wide ranging, from ethical business to post-covid road maps -You can watch the episode below and Jo is on from 43 minutes in!

The post Founder Jo Salter interviewed on new UniEE TV channel appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Great to be featured in the Essex County Standard following our participation in the PACE Manningtree event ‘Zoom in on Fashion’. Our founder Jo Salter gave a talk on ethical fashion outlining steps people can take to make their clothing choices help save the planet.

The post Essex County Standard feature on PACE Manningtree event ‘Zoom Into Fashion’ appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Jo was invited onto Jon Wright’s show on 2nd February 2021, with a show and tell and a wide ranging discussion in the virtual pub!

You can listen to the show below.

The post Jo Salter at BBC Radio Suffolk’s Virtual Pub, with Jon Wright and Stefan Freedman appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Where Does It Come From? 2020: Where Does It Come From? is a social enterprise, incorporated as a Limited company in the UK in May 2013.  Our strapline is ‘Kind Clothes that Tell Tales’ because we focus on building transparent supply chains that ensure the most positive impacts for planet, maker and customer. We do this by creating partnerships with co-operatives, social enterprises and artisan groups that support eco-friendly practices and support marginalised communities. Each item we create comes with a code on the label so the customer can explore its story, finding out about the people and the processes involved. We believe this helps connect people to what they buy and inspires their future choices too.

Our Eco/Ethical Goal

To inspire people and businesses away from a damaging and unjust clothing and textile industry by offering support, guidance and a truly ethical and transparent alternative.

We do this by:

• Supporting businesses and organisations in switching their supply chains to more ethical and transparent productions through consultancy, specification and production management.
• Inspiring consumers to more ethical shopping and living choices through our retail product ranges, blogs and events.
• Supporting livelihoods for marginalised and vulnerable workers via our supply chain social enterprise producers.
• Choosing planet friendly fibres, materials and processes for productions and also selecting eco alternatives to run our business, including power, technology and web hosting.

2020 – A unique year

The whole world was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic which caused a huge death toll as well as lock downs, upheaval and job losses.  Many businesses were affected leading to temporary or permanent closure, with those that survived having to re-evaluate their plans for the year.   The pandemic also led to a change in customer behaviour and had huge knock on effects for artisans and garment makers, with many larger brands refusing to pay for orders already underway, in some cases delivered, leading to an increase in poverty.  It was a challenging year for most and we are grateful to have survived as a brand.  Thank you to all who supported us through this.

Products and Channels

Working with Businesses

Plans for 2020 included increasing our impact through working directly with businesses.  Many organisations are now much more aware of sustainability and ethics, so supporting them to deliver products, corporate gifts and even staff clothing with a minimal negative effect on people and planet has to be a big win all round.

At the start of the year we were in talks with some large organisations including a food delivery brand and a grocery chain – these were both focussed on switching out plastic bags for re-usable, sustainable, cloth versions.  We were also in initial conversations on other clothing related projects such as T shirts.

Unfortunately when the pandemic hit all this work abruptly ceased as these organisations had to re-focus their efforts.  Our suppliers were also in lockdown so could not work for several months and freight services were haphazard and, for some products, non-workable.

From May we concentrated on the very necessary face mask product in partnership with our friends at Khadi London CIC and set up a UK production capacity. When our social enterprise suppliers were able to start working and shipping to us again, our product manager Lucy Kerry trained them in the design and quality assurance required and we switched production to Gram Sewa Mandal, a rural co-operative in Maharashtra, India.  We then fulfilled wholesale orders for face masks, for Ecovibe, Essential Trading and East of England Co-op.

As lockdowns eased towards the end of the summer we were able to pick up some new contracts for production and created drawstring  printed product bags for Love Heartwood and Kind 2, as well as some hemp pouches for CBD oil brand The Hemp Way.  We also supplied some of our handwoven scarves wholesale to giftbox brand From Suffolk With Love.

2021 will see us focused on rebuilding our sales pipeline with businesses.

Retail Sales

Sales via our own website and via our resellers were similarly hit by the pandemic.  The majority of our sales over the summer were face masks with only small demand for other products.  Due to media coverage for our face masks we were able to reach new customers.

The Christmas sales were better than expected, helped by our new range of handwoven throws and cushion covers.  As in previous years scarves were a popular choice as a Christmas gift.

Very few live customer events took place in 2020 – just one, at Suffolk Yoga in Ipswich.  We took part in a number of pre-Christmas online markets to raise our visibility.

Impact

We are strongly focused on positive impacts for the environment and for the people involved in our supply chains.  We know that by selecting organic or native fibres, by working with fair trade producers and by using processes with low carbon and water impacts we are making a real difference. One of our goals for 2021 is to share more information about our positive impacts, collecting data for each production and interviewing makers/producers/farmers where possible.  To further this goal we had a summer student assess our face mask collaboration project against the UN Sustainable Development Goals, working directly with the social enterprise involved to find out about the environmental and worker benefits enabled by the project.  This is now complete and will be published very soon.  Here is a sample of the information contained in the report.

Campaigning and Influencing

The year started with a trip to India where our Founder/CEO Jo Salter was invited to speak at an international conference in Jaipur.  This was a wonderful opportunity to meet with existing connections and to make new ones, as well as publicise the work of Where Does It Come From? (and Khadi London who we were also representing).  Find out more in our article Fabric and Fine Wine – Making Khadi Connections.

As Lockdown started in March we re-visited our plans to hold our annual Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution event, moving from the existing plans to hold a multi-centre, global series of events, to creating an online, week long global conference.  This was hard work but a very rewarding experience for the first part of lock down, with 62 speakers taking part (thank you!).  Ticket sales included a donation to Fashion Revolutions charities.  Speakers included activists, brands, makers, organic farmer organisations, politicians and more.  Read our article Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution 2020 – The Highs and Lows of running a Global Conference Online to find out more.

We’ve published a series of articles on our blog throughout the year, as well as in magazines (The Ethical Rebel) and as guest blogs on other sites (Make an Impact CIC and Khadi London). 

Media Coverage

The brand and our founder were featured in a number of publications this year, including MyGreenpod magazine (distributed with the Guardian Newspaper) – twice!, Ethical Rebel Magazine, East Anglian Daily Times and the Ipswich Star (several times) as well as in articles published on the Eco-Age and GoodonYou websites – both well known ethical fashion resources. Jo was also invited onto BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio Suffolk, Ipswich Community Radio and Rendlesham Community Radio to talk about ethics and sustainability in the clothing industry. You can find out more in the Media section of our website.

Recognition for our Work

We were delighted that Where Does It Come From? was included in Social Enterprise UK’s roll of honour for 2020 and for our founder Jo Salter to be listed as one of the 100 WISE (Women in Social Enterprise) ‘showing Covid who’e boss’ this year selected by NatWest and the Pioneers Post.

Where Does It Come From? was also selected by NatWest to join it’s accelerator programme which started in April and is ongoing.  This provides masterclasses and a mentorship programme which is very helpful in learning skills, gaining custom advice and also networking.

As part of the NatWest programme we were introduced to Vikki Kirby of Vibrato consulting, who wrote our ‘Covid pivot story’!

What will 2021 Hold for Where Does It Come From?

Key focus areas for the year ahead include:

• Building and growing our Business Customer pipeline for consultancy and productions
• Creating a new website – ours is tired and out of date!
• Hopefully bringing in a new team member under the UK Government Kickstart Programme
• Focusing on measuring and sharing the positive impacts that we make for our social enterprise partners and the environment
• Supporting all our customers with events, knowledge and beautiful products!

Please do stick with us and keep in touch through our social media, email list (sign up below!) and our Facebook group.

The post Where Does It Come From? 2020 Annual Review- The Year That Was…. appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Thank you to Eco-Age and writer Elizabeth Bennett for featuring Where Does It Come From? in their article about transparency in fashion.

The post Where Does It Come From? featured in Eco-Age appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

By Jo Salter, Founder Where Does It Come From? – Kind Clothes that Tell Tales

You’ve probably heard negative things about cotton.  It’s often referred to as ‘the dirty crop’ or ‘the thirsty crop’ because of the large amounts of chemical pesticides and water used to grow and process it.  Sustainably speaking, it’s usually pitched as a bit of a no no.

Example – Remember the iconic image of Stacey Dooley standing in the dust bed of what used to be the Aral Sea, in her documentary ‘Fashion’s Dirty Secrets’?  The Aral Sea used to be the fourth largest lake in the world but it has all but dried up now.  The water was diverted over the last 80 years or so to water the cotton fields of the former soviet regions, including those that are now Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. 

So cotton gets a bad press and much of it is deserved. But it’s not actually the crop itself that’s the problem – it’s down to how we’ve changed the ways that we cultivate, process and use cotton over the past couple of centuries.  This includes the seeds we plant, the farming techniques, how we turn the little cotton balls into fabric and even how we dispose of garments at the end of their life.  it’s the human species that has chosen the non-sustainable options that are now showing their true colours – in the damage they’re doing to our planet.

Past mass cultivation making way for a return to native seed varieties

I’m not an agriculturist but what I’ve learned over the past few years through working on sustainable cotton sourcing has left me reeling. As a species we’ve made a series of mistakes with cotton production, and then we’ve tried to fix them without actually looking back to where we started from.

Cotton has a long and rich history.  Cotton fragments have been unearthed at archaeological sites all over the world, reckoned to date back thousands of years. Cotton had a significant role to play in slavery, the American civil war, the industrial revolution and Indian independence from the British Empire.  Now its primary role has become fast fashion – ever increasing mass-production, a brief window of use and then a trip to landfill.

When some bright spark first realised that cotton balls could be ginned (deseeded and cleaned) then spun and woven into cloth, the cotton that was growing would have been from a seed variety native to that particular location.  That seed would have ‘natural’ affinity to its geography, a resilience developed over time – so that it is more resistant to the bugs and the weather patterns of the area. 

Cultivation of cotton grew in many locations but especially Asia, gradually moving into Egypt and then the United States.  Looking for ever increasing cotton yields meant that cotton seeds were imported across the world, often to places where they did not suit the geography.  Water and pesticides were used to increase the amount produced and to avoid insect blights.  In recent years genetic modification has also been introduced to seed varieties to increase yield even more and, in theory, to reduce the need for added chemicals.

Mass Cotton Production – It’s In The Genes

The appliance of science has led to genetically modified seed, often called GM or BT cotton, ‘trained’ to require less pesticides and produce higher yields.  These new seeds are owned by corporations such as Monsanto.  A by-product, of course, is that farmers are encouraged to buy the new varieties, being told that their requirement for expensive pesticides will be reduced or eliminated. Unfortunately, and it’s no co-incidence, the farmers have to buy new seeds every year, rather than just keeping some back from the previous year’s crop as was done traditionally.

Over time the bugs became resistant to the GM seed so the farmers needed to use pesticides anyway – an unplanned cost on top of the expensive recurring seed price.  Many cotton farmers, already in financial difficulties, were forced into unrecoverable amounts of debt and took the ultimate way out.  Just google ‘farmer suicides in India’ to find out more, but brace yourself for some disturbing images.

In India in particular a new direction has been led by organic organisations and the government, rolling back the reliance on GM cotton and returning to native varieties such as Kala and Desi cotton varieties. Check out one of our production stories using native cotton – scarves for the software company SAP.

A Return to Native Seeds and Traditional Production

There’s now a strong movement in more ethically focused clothing brands to use organic cotton and, as awareness grows, to use native cotton varieties that are fed by the rain and require little or no pesticides.  At Where Does It Come From?, a brand I founded in 2013, we’ve been working with native cotton for many years, including in productions for retail and for enlightened business customers such as SAP.  In our most recent production, a collaboration with Khadi London, we have created face masks from 100% organic native cotton – an alternative to the disposable, high plastic option.  There are a growing number of brands in the UK using this type of cotton, including Project Pico for their cotton underwear.

This move to more natural seeds has other knock on effects too – a greater appreciation of artisanal production processes such as hand weaving and block printing.  Some more traditional cloths offer social and environmental benefits too, such as Khadi, which helps build local communities and provide rural, skilled livelihoods.

It’s clear that there is a balance that must be made.  People need clothes but our environment needs help.  At the moment the clothing requirements argument has tilted the scales away from the environmental needs, leading to the damage which is becoming all too clear.  Now it’s time to consider how the need for clothes can be met in a more sustainable way – options must include drastic reductions in the amount of clothing created as well as choosing better options in materials and processes.

Let’s start with the cotton in our clothes.  It’s time for the return of the native.

To explore our range of organic, native and locally sourced cotton shirts, tunics, scarves, children’s clothing and accessories, please visit our shop.

The post Time to Cotton on – The return of the native appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

by Jo Salter

Yesterday’s events in the USA remind us that:

Believing you are right is not enough.

Having friends in high places does not justify breaking the law.

Violence changes your message to hate and your demonstration to destruction.

As activists our goal is to inspire people to consider and commit to behaviour change through education and facts, dialogue and discussion. But we must always do this through positive means and never hate. We can disagree but we must not denigrate. We must paint a vision of the world we want and take people with us on the journey.

Peaceful demonstration is a means to inspire and educate as well as show depth of feeling for a cause. It is legal in democracy and has been used effectively to provoke thought and widen discussion. Greta’s school protests took her from individual action to addressing global leaders. Extinction Rebellion gave an outlet to the many people who felt voiceless in the shadow of climate change. The peaceful protests ensured media coverage and brought the topic to the mainstream, but any reports of aggression turned public support to wariness.

When commitment becomes obsession and rationality becomes dogma there is a danger of activism turning to terrorism. People are energised to activism by an inspiring leader and a relatable goal – lose either of these and the vision is lost.

The post When does Activism become Terrorism? appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

We were delighted that Where Does It Come From? founder Jo Salter was invited onto Ipswich Community Radio last week and interviewed by the host Graham Blackburn.

The discussion was all about our work and how we’ve coped over the pandemic so far, including plans to support livelihoods for our locked down production partners. You can catch the interview at around 59 minutes in (but it’s well worth listening to the first couple of minutes of the show for cheery start!)

The post Where Does It Come From? on the ICR Breakfast Show…. appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

It was great to have our founder Jo Salter back on BBC Radio Suffolk this week. Jon Wright invited Jo along with Mel Menhams from Cupboard Love Suffolk back on to catch up on what’s been happening since their Tuesday Night Takeover last year!

You can listen in to the snippet below:

The post BBC Radio Suffolk 2nd September – Suffolk Saves the Planet catch up! appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Read Jo’s guest blog for Making an Impact CIC here.

The post The quest for transparent clothing (no, not see through!) appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Where Does It Come From? founder Jo Salter was invited onto Radio 2 this week to take part in a discussion about transparency in the garment industry. This subject was being debated in the light of revelations about factories in Leicester paying far under minimum wages and forcing their staff to come to work even when unwell or having tested positive for Covid 19.

This interview has now timed out on BBC Sounds, but we’ll endeavour to get hold of a recording.

The post Founder Jo Salter on the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Where Does It Come From? Founder Jo Salter talks ethical fashion on the Eco Show -interviewed by Victoria Proctor on Rendlesham Community Radio.

A huge range of topics – from native cottons that are fed by the rain, fast fashion brands lack of support for garment workers during covid 19 to transparent supply chains.

After Jo the Preloved Chica (Elene Marsden) is interviewed to help you in your preloved fashion shopping.

The post Jo Salter talks Ethical Fashion on Rendlesham Community Radio appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

We were delighted to be featured in this article in the East Anglian Daily Times on Suffolk brands who are selling face masks.

You can read the full article here.

You can order some here.

The post Where can you buy a face mask in Suffolk? appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Our May 2020 launch of organic cotton face masks was well received both by customers and the media. You can see our organic cotton face masks in the news at East Anglian Daily Times feature ‘Ethical clothing brand in Ipswich launches organic cotton face masks’ (17th May).

Our founder Jo Salter was also interviewed on BBC Radio Suffolk on 19th May by Jon Wright on our organic cotton face mask project.

You can order your organic cotton facemasks here.

The post Organic Cotton Face Masks in the News! appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

The Highs and Lows of Running a Global Ethical Fashion Conference under Lockdown

by Jo Salter, Founder Where Does It Come From?

Clearly a lot of things have had to change due to Covid 19, and rightly so.  For those of us in lockdown but fortunate enough to be healthy, we’ve learned to adapt to our new lives, grateful for the technology that enables us to keep in touch, keep learning and keep collaborating.

That technology enabled the collaboration that was Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution 2020 – an online, week long global conference in April 2020.  We served 62 webinars across a number of ethical and sustainable fashion themes to a wide audience – all at different stages of their journey towards a more values driven clothing lifestyle.

Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution 2020 – Background

I set up a Facebook group called Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution around four years ago.  Inspired by the amazing ethical fashion movement Fashion Revolution that was encouraging customers to ask their fashion brands ‘who made my clothes?’ I felt that there was a key role for the ethical fashion brands – the ones who already can answer this question.  We can tell our customers not only who made our clothes but also how they did it and all the positive benefits to people, planet and community that come from the clothing productions we run.

For Fashion Revolution 2017 I produced a video in collaboration with 9 ethical fashion brands.  For the next two annual Fashion Revolution weeks, in April 2018 and 2019, I collaborated with Ethical Hour to run live events in London under the banner Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution, featuring up to 30 brands, live panel sessions, demonstrations and workshops.  You can find out more about the history of Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution here.

But this year had to be different.

Pre-Lockdown planning and swivel

The Facebook group I started in 2016/7 has grown exponentially and much of that membership was from across the world.  Fashion Revolution itself is a global movement so it felt like the right time look wider than a single London based event.  After initiating discussions within the group we pulled together a number of people and organisations who were either already planning something or wanted to be involved, across around ten different global locations.  It was getting exciting.

But then, Covid 19 happened and each event and plan tumbled as cancellations happened.  There would be no global string of live events for us this year!

In mid-March the idea came to me that we could turn all of this into an online event, and in fact make it not only global but also a week long conference.  At that point I was just thinking of using a software platform like Zoom and having intermittent talks and panel sessions through the week.  I spent a few hours brainstorming myself until I had a draft proposal of what it could be.

I posted the basic idea in the Facebook group where it was met with great enthusiasm.  Even better a team of people volunteered to help me run it – it could start to take shape!

Defining Themes and Creating an Agenda

One of those who offered to be involved was the lifestyle blogger Izzy McLeod, also known as the Quirky Environmentalist.  Izzy had already planned a blogging schedule for the week, with a different theme for each day, with hashtags and blog ideas associated.  These were great and given the timescales it seemed sensible to take them as a starting point.  With Izzy’s permission I used her daily themes to create a high level conference plan, fleshing out each day with my thoughts of content we could have – from pre-recorded videos to live key notes and panels.  It was important to me to have a global reach, including the voice of suppliers and campaigning organisations as well as brands and influencers.  I shared this vision with those who had volunteered to help and we had our first team meeting on Friday 27^th March – 5 days after lockdown officially began in the UK. 

Enthusiastic planning ensued and everyone took ownership of areas, based on their skills and the amount of time they were able to commit – amazing given we were in lockdown with our families and trying to juggle our own businesses and organisations too!

The team that came together through the event organisation was amazing – spanning UK, USA and France.  Here they are….

Team – left to right. Top Row: Roberta Lee, Luisa Kearney, Kamilah Sanders, Jo Salter, Izzy McLeod, Claire Couchman.  Bottom Row: Eleanor Pritchard, Ruth MacGilp, Tze Ching Yeung, Margarida Vasconcelos, Inga Grinko.

And here are the themes that the whole agenda was built around – linking in with Izzy’s blogger programme.

From Concept to Reality

To get started the first steps were to set up a website and start selling tickets.  I approached Vicky from Make Hay Green Hosting to talk websites.   We use Make Hay for Where Does It Come From? because of their very eco-friendly (windpowered) approach and their excellent customer service.  Vicky very kindly offered to host the website for free! 

Claire Couchman of Couchman Bespoke, took on the ticketing role and soon had the ticket sales up and running with an early bird offer.  I set up the website and we were off!  Tze Ching Yeung of Jake and Maya Kids (soon known as Digital Marketing Queen) created some fabulous event graphics and started driving up awareness and Roberta Lee, the Sustainable Stylist looked into the technology we would need to run the conference, with the help of her tech team at Ethical Brand Directory. 

The next mammoth task was to contact all the organisations and people that we wanted to take part – this involved a huge number of emails, phone calls and video conferences.  I’ll spare you the detail but you can see the final result in our Conference Agenda.  Suffice to say that I was blown away and humbled by the way people jumped on board and gave of their time and knowledge.  I’ll be forever grateful.

The Dream Team

We aligned ourselves with roles – I pulled together the agenda and the speakers as well as setting up the website.  I also performed a ‘puller together’ role, making sure all the other strands were fitting together as needed to ensure the vision came to pass.  Kamilah helped me by pulling together the sponsorship pack and the speakers profile page on the website.  Inga also worked with me, pulling together the brands for the brands marketplace and getting them all loaded onto the website.  Claire handled ticketing, Tze Ching, with help from Luisa and Eleanor sorted the digital marketing and Roberta looked into the technology that would get this delivered professionally – sorting out a webinar system called Webinar Jam.  Ruth created our press release and Margarida was fabulous at linking us up with people and sharing all the content on social media to help build up the excitement.  Izzy’s blogger programme ran through the week too, raising awareness of Fashion Revolution.

There were also people who stepped in and helped with various sessions – such as Rae Ritchie, Rachel Kan, Sian Conway and Kate Auguste who created pre-recorded interview content.

Sponsorship

Kamilah wrote a wonderful sponsorship pack which we circulated around – sadly no one offered us any financial assistance – a shame as we could have widened our reach through advertising.  But we were extremely grateful to have Make Hay sponsoring the website and Roberta kindly offered sponsorship of the Webinar technology from her brand Ethical Brand Directory.

Highs and Lows

The Highs…

1. The speakers: Obviously the biggest, most massive high for me was the amazing people that supported us in our keynotes, panels, live interviews and pre-recorded discussions.  The list is huge – you can find out more about most of them here (a few were shy and didn’t send us their bio!).    I was so grateful for the support of key organisations such as Fashion Revolution, Hubbub, Common Objective, Labour Behind the Label, Fashion Roundtable, Microfinance Opportunities, Extinction Rebellion and so many brands and businesses who are working for positive change.
   
   Personal highlights were interviewing journalist Lucy Siegle and former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.  It was also fabulous to be able to include global speakers – such as Shailini Sheth Amin, Medha Shah, Kapil Shah and Madhu Vaishnav from India, Kamilah Sanders and Adam Siegel from the USA, Brian Eislin from Switzerland and Tai Ford from Germany.

For me some sessions were a bit like having a chat in the pub with mates, such as the Fibres in my Clothes panel with Jo Godden (Ruby Moon Gym to Swim), Catherine Price Williams (Ted and Bessie Alpaca), Sven Segal (Po-Zu shoes) and Sophie Slater (Birdsong) and the Culture Change Panel with Laura Cave (BAFTS and Just Trade), Georgina Wilson-Powell (Pebble Magazine) and Jen Gale (Sustainable-ish).

1. The Team

As discussed above – the team really were a dream team.  We all gave what we could in terms of time and skills and supported each other.  It shows what you can do when you all have a shared positive goal. Community and collaboration were there in bucketloads and cringey as it sounds I do feel that I have gained lots of new friends and colleagues.

2. Attendees participation

Many of those who ‘came’ to the conference were active in the chat box – asking questions, making comments, linking up with each other and generally giving such a ‘real’ conference feel that it was very uplifting as a host and presenter.  The community spirit was really obvious and made the conference very special.

3. Hidden Gems

Researching for the conference uncovered several speakers and organisations that I was unfamiliar with – speakers that shared such fascinating stories that the audience (as well as me) were enthralled.  For me the ones that spring to mind are Peter Gorse (Golf Refugees) on the chemicals in our clothes, Madhu Vaishnav (Saheli Women) and Guy Stewart and Dani Ortega from Microfinance Opportunities.

4. Supporting key charities

Although this was a conference for learning and inspiration, we wanted to provide concrete help to make change happen too.  The conference was not for profit so we agreed that anything above covering our costs would be donated to the Fashion Revolution Charities.  We’re still finalising our costs but we are hoping that this donation will be around £200.

The Lows…

1. Technology Gremlins    

Whilst being HUGELY grateful for the technologies that made Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution 2020 possible in the first place, there were a few occasions where tech issues caused palpatations, hair standing on end and cold sweats.

Ethical Brand Directory kindly sponsored our use of their Webinar Jam system (which was awesome!) but the learning curve was steep and quick ie. In the 2 days prior to the conference :-).    Once we were up and running it was superb, and thankfully all was fine by conference launch on Monday morning.  But suffice to say that the Sunday was not a very calm day.

During the week other issues also caused angst – speakers dropping out mid interview/panel due to having low bandwidth,  presenters forgetting to turn their microphones on (ok, I admit this was me on the very first webinar), previously loaded slides disappearing, and much more.  My most hairy moment was when I was chatting to Lucy Siegle prior to going live, pressing the ‘Go’ button, and her audio feed completely disappearing.  She then wisely exited the webinar and came back in again (where it worked fine of course) but the moments when she had disappeared were anxious ones.

2. Exhaustion!

As always I completely underestimated how tiring it would be to run a week long conference – I think we all did.  Now I know why conferences are rarely more than a few days long.  There was a lot going on behind the scenes, both prior to the conference and during the week.  We were all juggling family and business commitments too so it was a huge relief when all was delivered successfully.  In fact our last webinar became a celebration of this and we had a glass of wine and invited some guests (Steve Woody – the marvellous tech guru and Olesya Lane) to come on screen for a live chat! I admit to being a little tipsy…

Follow Up and Futures

It’s almost a month since the conference closed and we have some fabulous ideas for follow up.

The 62 webinars have been downloaded from the webinar software (over 11 Gigabyes!) and we will be making plans for the future, including podcasts, regular webinars and much more.

Finally a huge thank you from me – to the team, the speakers, the sponsors and everyone who joined us and helped to make this conference so amazing. Would I do it again? Hmmmmm well never say never.

The post Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution 2020 – appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

We were grateful to Ipswich Star for featuring Where Does It Come From? in their article on Suffolk Fashion Brands and how we’re coping with lockdown. Great mention of our Serenity Scarf too!

You can read the full article at:

https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/where-to-buy-clothes-online-in-suffolk-1-6631431

The post Suffolk Fashion Brands in Lockdown…. appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

by Jo Salter, Founder Where Does It Come From?, Non Executive Director Khadi London

Are you a wine lover? It could be your Friday evening relaxant (guilty as charged!),  a social lubricant or part of a fine dining experience.  Perhaps you’re a wine connoisseur, knowing your vintages and vineyards. But what’s interesting is that for many wine drinkers the moment of actual drinking comes at the end of a pleasurable ritual.  First we explore the origins of the grapes – where is the vineyard?  When was it produced – was it a ‘good year’? and what were the various steps that were to turn fruit into the delicious stuff – from harvesting to how the wine was stored.  Then an examination by eye, swilling around the glass, giving it a sniff and finally, the first sip.  Ah.  (is your mouth watering yet?)

Khadi Connections – Re-establishing The Craft of Fabric

Unfortunately for much of what we consume these days we’ve moved away from these little rituals –  thinking about the ‘stuff’ in our lives as no more than just an end product. Nowadays it’s often just ‘how much is it’ and ‘how quickly can I have it’.  This is a real shame, because there’s so much pleasure to be had from individuality and uniqueness. Understanding the craft processes that brought us our fabrics and clothing builds a deeper connection and deeper love for the garments we wear.

Last month I was invited to address a conference in Jaipur India.  The conference was to explore the traditional Indian handloom fabric called khadi – the fabric we’ve been using at Where Does It Come From? since we set up in 2013.  khadi has an impressive heritage, promoted by Gandhi as part of Indian independence and social inclusion, but now its credentials are firmly set in sustainability and ethics. 

There’s been a return to ecological farming of indigenous cotton varieties, some thousands of years old, which grow in partnership with the natural environment. These need little or no added water or pesticides and align with the already low carbon and fair trade processes of hand spinning and weaving. This all results in a tip top sustainability and ethics story that’s traceable too.  This is why I fell in love with it back then and why many others are joining the party.

So What’s The Problem?

Unfortunately we’ve all got used to our clothing being cheap and mass-produced.  But as consumers we’re now starting to become more aware of the negative impacts of so called ‘fast fashion’, where cheaper garments are churned out in anonymous factories using materials that have enough hazardous chemicals to make your eyes pop.

But culturally we’re still used to paying very little for clothes – mainstream clothing prices have barely risen since the 1980s.  And why would customers pay more, especially when so many cheap alternatives are being pushed at us as the norm?

Making Connections with Khadi

But back to Khadi Connections – what has inspired this vintaculture analogy?  At the Jaipur conference a fellow speaker confided to me that this year’s cotton crop was likely to be better than last years due to the higher rainfall.  This got me thinking about how we’ve drifted away from the idea of fabric as having dependency on nature. We understand that with fine wine there will be good years and bad years, why not with fabric too?

And not just the crop – it also matters how you process the wine – whether you age it in an oak or metal vat, whether you mix varieties of grape etc. For natural fabrics the processes also add uniqueness , the varying thickness of threads driven by the spinner’s human touch, the places where the weaver changed thread – each piece of handcrafted fabric carries something of the artisan uniquely within it.

Just as with fine wine, there is so much to connect with in a hand crafted fabric like khadi. I yearn for a future where we choose what we want to buy kindly and thoughtfully, considering the impacts on our planet and all the people in the creation chain as well as our own desires. It would wonderful indeed if we learned to understand and love the ritual and craft that brought our clothes into being. I imagine myself one day looking at a khadi shirt, feeling the fabric and saying ‘2020 – that was a good year’.

The post Fabric and Fine Wine – Making Khadi Connections… appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

The new year is the time of year when many of us look back over the previous year and make plans for the next one – it’s a chance to take a moment to be glad and grateful for what we’ve achieved, as well as setting the direction for the next part of the journey. So in this vain I want to share some of our 2019 highlights and say a HUGE thank you to our friends, supporters, team members and partners that we’ve worked with over the last year. Please bear with me (I promise not to cry).

So in no particular order……

 Our African Tunics project: Following our crowdfund at the end of 2018 we worked with Proudly Made in Africa, Cotonea and Mayamiko Trust to create our beautiful range of organic tunics with a tale (and accessories too) Thank you to Vikki, Feena, Dirk and Paola (and team) from these organisations as well as Thomas, Maggie and Troy for their help. The biggest thank you must go to our product manager Lucy Kerry for her attention to detail overseeing the design work and making sure the finished products are beautiful and functional. I couldn’t have done it without her. Thanks also to those of you who supported the project with donations, crowdfund pledges, purchases or just sharing the word.

Sustainable products for business: We’ve had some wonderful projects this year creating sustainable textiles (bags, scarves etc) for businesses and a growing order book for next year too. Favourites include shopping bags for Hanks Deli and Shop, product bags for Love HeartWood and a Christmas scarf project for a major global software company. Big thanks to our long term partners Moralfibre Fabrics and Khadi London who have worked with us on these projects. Creating ethical textiles with a tale for your business is a wonderful way to make a really positive impact on people and planet – find out more about creating Ethical Products for your Business.

Campaigning and events: We run and get involved with a number of events during the year but the key one of 2019 was our Ethical Brands for Fashion Revolution Event at London’s Museum of Brands back in April. In Partnership with Ethical Hour we ran a whole day session with 25 ethical fashion and accessories brands and ran 3 panel sessions with experts from natural fabrics and recycled fibres to harnessing technologies like blockchain and shopping apps. We even got invited onto BBC Radio Five Live to talk about it! Thanks to all the brands who took part, everyone who attended and especially Elizabeth Ings our event manager. We are starting to plan for Fashion Revolution 2020 so watch this space!

Other fun this year included our pop up shop in Framlingham with Lina Hogg and Jenny Hogg from Arya Candles. We’ve kept up our ongoing work with resellers including Ipswich Fair Trade Shop, Ethical.market, Mamoq and Fair and Fabulous plus a new partnership with Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

We’ve had some fantastic publicity, including an article in Forbes, mentions on the BBC (TV and Radio) and lots of support from the East Anglian Daily Times and Natural Mumma magazine. Thanks also to BBC Radio Suffolk for keeping us involved in any ethical fashion discussions that come along and letting us co-host our first radio show on sustainable living ……

The MOST important thing is people. Where Does It Come From? only exists because of our wider team who are generous with their time and knowledge. These include Lucy and also Alexandra who interned with us, along with Katya, Steff, Mark, Rob and many others who have given us advice and support through the year. We also rely totally on our customers (we don’t get money from anywhere else!) so thank you for having faith in us, buying our products and sharing our story. If you aren’t already signed up to our mailing list please do – it’s at the bottom of this page!

Oh yes and we won the ‘Greenest Product’ award at the Suffolk ‘Green Oscars’ this year too, which we were quite pleased about…. (thank you!)

Please stick with us in 2020 – as sustainability and ethics become even more in the public eye we are planning to have an even bigger positive impact and would love to have you with us on the journey….

The post Our 2019 Gratitudes and 2020 Vision appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

It’s Christmas again and a wonderful time to let our friends and family know how much we care. With increasing awareness of how much ‘stuff’ we dispose of each year – 240,000 items of clothing end up in landfill in the UK each year! – we want to choose wisely. If you are buying ethical Christmas gifts then here are a few suggestions that are kind – to the planet, to the makers and to your loved ones too! What’s more each comes with a code on the label so their new owners can explore the story behind each garment or accessory – from the sustainable cotton farms, through skilled co-operative working to hand printing and tailoring. Knowing the story helps people build a deeper connection and love their new clothes even more!

Ethical Christmas For Children……

Christmas shopping for children is a tough one – they often want the latest trend or a plastic toy – which we know will be discarded before too long. Our range of organic shirts and handwoven denim jeans, shorts, jackets and dresses are a fabulous way to buy something that will last, with the Christmas day Wow factor of looking up the code on the label and showing them their garment story as part of the celebration.

You can choose something from our range of Ethical Children’s Clothing, and even have it wrapped and sent (anywhere in the world!) in our Christmas Shop.

Ethical Christmas Gifts for Him

Buying gifts for Dads, husbands, boyfriends and brothers can be a challenge – well it is for me! We created our handwoven organic shirts to be a practical luxury – they look and feel amazing and have a classic design so appeal to all ages. The wooden buttons give them a quirky, eco feel and you can choose from a range of colours and either long or short sleeves. The code on the label means he can look up the shirt’s story from the organic cotton fields of India, through spinning and weaving in a co-operative and hand tailoring in a Gujarati workshop.

Bonus: These shirts are designed to be unisex so you can borrow it when he’s not looking…..

A gift option for a man who likes to dress up could be one of our African Pocket Squares. Created from Ugandan organic cotton and tailored in a Fairtrade workshop in Malawi, these squares are vibrant, stylish and come with a QR code on the label for you to trace the story.

Sustainable Gifts for Women

Buying clothes for a woman can be a minefield! We created our African Tunics this year as a versatile capsule wardrobe item suitable for smart and casual wear.

Created using organic, eco-farmed cotton from Uganda and tailored in a Fairtrade workshop in Malawi, these tunics have a truly sustainable and ethical story. Each has a QR code inside so your loved one can explore this story for themselves!

These tunics are available in sizes 8 to 18 and three vibrant print designs.

If you prefer a more straightforward option then you can’t go wrong with a handprinted scarf! One size fits all and we have a large range of colours and designs, from bees to beasts and tigers to teapots….

Stocking Fillers

After something smaller? How about one of our reusable tote bags with an ethical slogan….. These are created using handwoven, organic cotton and handprinted with our favourite slogans. Each has a QR code so you can explore it’s creation story – fun and education on Christmas day!

A zero-waste stocking filler for girls could be our African scrunchies, created with offcuts from our transparent supply chain in Africa.

The post Ethical Christmas Gifts that Come with their Story appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Changing our Clothes: Where Does It Come From founder and sustainable fashion campaigner Jo Salter was invited onto BBC Radio Suffolk to talk awith Sarah Lilley. You can listen to the interview at:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07rxkwr (from 1 hour 23 minutes).

Interviewed before Jo was Jill from Oxfam about their campaign Secondhand September – well worth a listen!

The post Changing Our Clothes – Jo Salter on BBC Radio Suffolk 12th November 2019 appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

It’s the time of year when marketing campaigns are really ramping up. Christmas, one of the best selling times, is in sight. Black Friday, an import from the USA which pushes bargains at us and incites a frenzy of shopping, will happen on 29th November. Every year more retailers jump on the bandwagon as customers spend hundreds of pounds each on this date – believing they are in some way gaining an advantage. (spoiler: shops won’t sell stuff to you if they don’t make money from you). The total Black Friday spend in the UK runs into the billions but figures from last year imply this trend could be slowing down or even reversing.

Why Shop Ethical Instead?

We all want to have a merry and bright Christmas – but why do it at the expense of the people working in terrible conditions for unfair wages? Why do it when the products we are buying are causing damage to our environment?

The answer is price – when we’re focused on getting a bargain we forget about the impacts of making goods cheaply. If something is a bargain then there is a reason for it – and it’s not because the retailer is making a loss. The people making the goods and the planet we live on are the ones who are paying for your pleasure.

How to find Ethical Brands….

At Where Does It Come From? we are once again involved in #ShopEthicalInstead – a campaign in collaboration with many other ethical brands driven by positive values and not just turning a profit. Run by our friends at Ethicalhour, the campaign is asking people to avoid the over-consumption madness and shop ethical instead.

Where Does It Come From? doesn’t compromise on ethics or sustainability, plus you can explore the whole story of how your product was made using a code on the label. We share with you the whole story of our clothing creation – from the fields where the sustainable cotton crop grew, the social enterprises we’ve worked with to create the fabrics and the artisan units who do the tailoring, dyeing and printing. We make sure that what we do is as eco-friendly and fair trade as we can make it and, by sharing the story with you, we hope that you and the people you are buying for can build a deeper connection with their clothes and love them even more! You can view our kind clothes that tell tales in our website shop!

We’ll be taking part in a virtual high street over on Ethicalhour’s Facebook page every day of the week in which Black Friday falls. Ethical brands, including us, will be showcased so you can get to know what positive mission drives them, see the products they create and meet the people behind the brand.

You can see the session on Fashion and Accessories in this video – Where Does It Come From? is featured first….

We are all small brands, run with passion and energy to do good. Every purchase helps us on our journey and we can’t do it without you!

This year let’s all choose to do our Christmas shopping mindfully and buy from brands that make positive change to people and planet. It’s a different way of thinking – buying gifts that give not just to the person that you are buying for but also for the makers and the planet.

Will we see you there?

The post Black Friday? – Let’s Shop Ethical Instead! appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.

Our new khadi bags for Hanks Deli featured in the Ipswich Star yesterday. You can read the article online at
https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/business/ipswich-vegan-deli-teams-up-with-where-does-it-come-from-1-6360505

We also created some fabulous new Organic Shoulder Bags printed with some ethical shopping slogans – you can find them in our Ethical Shopping Marketplace.

The post New Bags for Hanks Deli in the Ipswich Star appeared first on Where Does It Come From?.