Sewing the seeds of change

An Aussie fashion designer's passion for ethical clothing takes her to a Rajasthani village

Meg Wilkinson's passion for textiles and clothing began with arc. She comp leted a Fine Arcs degree majoring in jeweUery and metal smith ing at the University of Tasmania.

"I think 1 was always a bit of a frustrated fashion designer," laughs Meg.

After making jeweUery for many years she went back to TAFE to snidy fas h ion and costume design and deve loped the idea of starting an ethical clothing business in India.

Meg's first trip to fodia was 15 years ago. "I landed at 2am and breached in the Delhi fragrance," says Meg. "11 [y heart just opened and I knew l'd come home".

What drives an Australian to scare a quest co help people on the other side of the wor ld? A passion for textiles and hand -embroidery, a desire co preserve traditio n al skills and the perseverance to produce clothing chat directly benefits the workers.

''l met a lot of peop le who go co Pushkar to ger clotl1es made," said Meg, "because making it in Australia i s too expens ive".

While working for The Body Shop, Meg was inspired by their ''Trade Not Aid" program, which advocates going inro developing countries and buying products from the source. Meg wanted to buy d irectl y from the artists and pay chem a little above tl1e normal wage. She saw tl1e difference it made to their Lives and village infrastructure

"It didn't cost much more but made a huge d ifference," she says.

A "major life shift" enabled Meg to resume study and travel to India. While staying in a guesthouse in Pushkar she fell in love with irs manager, Savar Ram. She cold him about her b usiness idea and they s carred Beej together in 2008

Beef is the Hindi word for seed, and \\~tl1 tbis enterprise Meg be lieves she is "sewing the seeds of change".

Beej employs workers from a smaU v illage about 20 kms ourside Pushkar. The initial set up was not w ithout its difficulties.

"1 wanted to create clotl1ing that used traditional skills with a modern edge and I was aiming at women 30 and over," s ays Meg. "l

Grevi/lea maxi dress thought the lo cal women would be fine co use traditional skills so I was shocked to learn char those skills were dying out because machine embroidery was rep lacing traditional hand embroidery". iVfeg had to train the women to create the embroidery for her des igns. Once the trai n ing was underway, man y of the women's grandmothers shared their memories about when they practised tl1e craft.

"It was difficult work for the women at first," says Meg. "They are used ro hard work (as the village is a farming community), but now tl1ey can have a break and do work that's more social and less physical".

Meg keeps her collections and runs small, crying to be as sustainable as possible. She poinrs out tl1at tl1e women aren't available all year because o f farm work, so they can work for Beej as ir suirs them. The women can earn extra money as Beej pays Rs 200 a clay minimum.

"Most women make Rs 70 on farms per day and I pay per p iece ratl1er than per day as an incentive. No one earns under 200 rupees and they are nor tied to the job".

Her practical approach is balanced with a desire to educate Australians about fair trade products. Her aim is ro "empower peop le who have nothing and peop le who have everytl1ing". She cites the recent building collapse in Bangladesh as an example of why there is a need fo r greater scrutiny of manufacturing practises.

"Ethical fashion is talked about, but people are not acting on ir," says Meg.

She poinrs out tl1at consw11ers need co be wary of labelling and how fair trade goods are produced Fair trade is a general term and a brand name and buyers need to be aware char "an item is Fair trade cotton only if it's bought from char particular company''

The same prob lem exists witl1 d1e label "orga nic." Cotton manufacturing using child labour bas been reported in six of tl1e seven cop countries chat produce organic cotton. Beej has taken a considered approach co producing ethical clothing The bright and beautiful clothing is made from surplus cotton and low chemical d yes "\Y.le wanred to used Khadi band-woven cotton, but couldn't get enough so we bu y from local cotton manufacturers who store an excess of cotton tl1ar would otherwise go ro waste," says Meg. " Our clotl1es are dyed with lmv impact cl1emical dyes that don't run and we use Rangoli threads made in L1dia".

Beej aims to use " upcyclecl" material including Gujarat embroidery and employs local arasans

In five years Beej has shown sceady growth. They sell online and at selected Festivals and markets .including Woodford, Music Festival, WOMAD,

Rajasthani frill bag designer markets like Brisbane's Finders Keepers and tl1e Qlcl Fair Tracie marker Meg wanes to sell clothes "w here people are excited about something that has a story and are giving back ro the community I want them ro come ro our staU and hear the background, knowing d1ey've made a difference and started on tl1e patb of buying ethical products and supporting ethical trade. I wane people co think".

She concludes, If yo u have a dream and follow it with a pure intention eve r yt hing falls into place. It's totally possible".