subject: Fair Trade Clothing: Keep It Simple, Silly! [print this page] An elementary school teacher I know uses an acronym, Keep It Simple, Silly, or KISS, to help her kids understand the importance of using what works, without overcomplicating things. Her use of this acronym extends into all sorts of different situations. When students are looking for solutions in math, why let befuddlement creep in? Just use the strategies you know, she often says. Or when her students are trying to read a difficult word, she encourages them to just relax and use the phonetic skills and other strategies they are familiar with. It starts to mean something like, just trust yourself and let your skills come out. Recently, I have started using the KISS acronym as I work with customers who are putting together wardrobes. It is a good reminder to just keep your ideas simple, letting your passions and sense of style do the work without overly complicating things.
Fair trade clothing tends to be fairly simply to start with. Easy summer tops and skirts are complemented with all sorts of accessory options that can complete the look, such as footwear, scarves, jewelry or hats. The overall effect can be as intricate or as simple as you want it to be. Evidently, this trend has been noticed by retailers who find wholesale fair trade options for their stores. They are noticing that the simpler options are quite popular and the more intricate options in accessories can work well against the simplest of patterns or looks.
Fair trade clothing is available in a wide variety of natural fibers. Recently, some lines of apparel made in India also feature all natural, herbal medicinal dyes. Traditional textile arts in India have always used natural herbs for dyes, and the resurgence of this practice has brought attention to the many important qualities herbal dyes possess. First of all, herbal medicinal dyes are the safest dyes to have in your homes and on your skin. In fact, the medicinal values are well known when taken internally. Since our skin is porous it only makes sense to try to include medicinal qualities within the clothing we wear.
When you think of the values inherent in fair trade clothing you will find many ways to stick to the KISS mantra. As the wholesale fair trade market is now learning overall, fair practices allow a more direct correspondence between conscientious consumers and better compensated producers. Production becomes more joyful and the products become more unique, more carefully made and more functional in the widest sense of the word.
