Made With Dignity

Textiles are about people. The industry employs one in six of the world’s population. A community of sharply contrasting lives and fates; it includes struggling smallhold cotton farmers in developing countries, wealthy subsidised “cotton barons” in the West; weavers and artisans in remote communities, and mistreated workers in overcrowded and hazardous factories. Our buying decisions affect their lives. Supporting socially-responsible companies creates commercial pressure for sweatshops to improve their conditions. Asking where our cotton comes from, and avoiding unfairly subsidised Western companies, stops vulnerable cotton farmers being driven out of business by illegal subsidies (to learn more, click here). Demanding cotton grown without pesticides saves thousands of lives every year (to learn more, click here). And supporting initiatives to transform lives through textiles achieves just that, as some of our suppliers clearly show.

We have worked hard to find suppliers who shared our ideals and who could also provide the quality we need. Our solution is a team that includes factories in India and Peru that have led the way with fair trade practices and that support small farming communities, cooperatives, poverty relief organisations, and companies supporting traditional skills on fair terms.

Our Indian bed linen producer is a fair trade partner of Oxfam and Greenpeace, and started the first organic cotton project in Central India in 1993. Their manufacturing unit has good working conditions and employees are paid a premium over usual market rates, as well as receiving medical cover for themselves and their families. The company also supports government community projects to improve health and education. The organic cotton farmers are pre-financed, receive premium rates, and have the security of a commitment to purchase all their production for the next three years.

Our Peruvian partner has just received fair trade certification for the organic pima cotton it supplies to Luma. This supplier has been leading fair trade and organic cotton projects in Peru for over 20 years, including the Native Cotton Project, backed by UNESCO. Grown on small farmyard plots by rural artisan and Indian families, native cotton cultivation supports self-help development programs for the benefit of peasant communities and women's co-operatives. The project has also been successful in recovering several thousand hectares of land from the cultivation of coca leaf, used to make cocaine.

LUMA pashmina blankets and throws are made by a cooperative of women weavers in Northern India. The cooperative was founded by a group of determined and resilient women with dreams of a better life. The women of this region are often responsible for home, fields, cattle and children, resulting in lives of back-breaking dawn to dusk work. In 1997, the women started learning to weave, using looms and spinning wheels made my local carpenters to traditional designs. Initially, the men looked upon these activities with indulgent amusement then, when they realised how determined the women were, tried their best to bully and coerce them out of their training, saying it was “corrupting” their attitude. The women persevered and, after three years they started selling their products. The lives of the women changed dramatically once they became breadwinners. Their children were better nourished, better dressed and went to better schools. The women became leaders and role models in their rural society. Today, the cooperative employs over 700 women, all of whom are shareholders and directors, and has a waiting list of over 1000 women waiting to join.

Our merino and angora wool throws and blankets are hand spun and woven in a valley on the edge of the Himalayas. A cottage industry of weaving and spinning, going back for generations, underpins the valley’s economy. Almost every house in the valley has a handloom. Our provider has trained a group of about 100 local women to produce high quality products that embrace their traditional skills using specialised yarns. The women operate as a self-help group, collecting money that goes to a member in need (perhaps for medical reasons) or to be invested in their children or themselves.

LUMA’s linen and silk throws and cushion covers are made by an established, thriving organisation whose philosophy fits with ours. Formed 22 years ago, they started work with a small group of weavers whose families had developed exceptional skills over hundreds of years. With many of the original weavers still on board, the group has now grown to over 200 weavers. All of whom are paid twice the usual market rates to reflect the high quality of their work, resulting in increased prosperity and security. The fabric is made entirely by hand and no chemical processes are used.

LUMA’s exquisite hand-embroidery is individually created by rural women in India using traditional skills to secure a regular income and improve their quality of life. There are a number of wonderful not-for-profit organisations in India that support women workers to use skills handed down for generations in to provide them with security of work, income and food, as well as access to health care, child care and shelter. Many of the women are surprised that their exceptional skills have value. The support organisations’ aim is that, as well as becoming economically self-reliant, the women also develop an increased voice and representation.

A note about cotton subsidies

Cotton farming is critical to the livelihood of millions of poor rural households in developing countries. These vulnerable people are struggling to survive under the pressure of unfair and illegal subsidies in the West that have driven cotton prices down to their lowest levels, in real terms, since the Great Depression. The World Trade Organisation has ruled illegal the huge subsidies paid by the US to its cotton farmers. American cotton farmers receive three times more in subsidies than the entire US Aid programme for Africa’s 500 million people, a situation that Oxfam describe as “cultivating poverty” If you’d like to learn more, click here to read the Oxfam papers. If you’ve heard enough, just be assured that LUMA cotton supports the livelihoods of small communities in developing countries that desperately need that support.