Who Makes the Items You Like At Plum Ethical?

Achkiy Jewellery 

Since 1995, Achkiy has been working to bring light and hope to some of Peru’s most impoverished communities. From the rubbish tips in the north of Lima to the shanty towns in the south, Achkiy has been training resourceful women to make high quality jewellery for a non-poverty wage.

The project was set up by Ruth Pacheco from Peru and Julia Crellin from the UK who shared a deep concern for the plight of Lima's marginalised women. Together, they organised simple jewellery making workshops, hoping the women might achieve some degree of financial stability and a greater sense of self-worth.

Fifteen years on, these women are empowered to design and create different jewellery collections that fuse traditional techniques with contemporary trends. Taking inspiration from the materials that surround them, they have recently introduced a new range of distinctive pieces to the collection that use felt, recycled plastic bags and vegetable ivory.

Achkiy is divided into two parts: the trading arm "Achkiy Ltd"  and the charity "Achkiy Training and Development". All profits from the trading arm go directly to the charity to enable new training initiatives such as felt-making workshops in Cusco.

Frank & Faith 

Frank & Faith is a Dorset based, socially conscious clothing label launched in Autumn 2006 by fashion designer and buyer, "Faith", and her Chartered Accountant husband, "Frank". Their founding philosophy is that their clothes look beautiful and fashionable but are manufactured in an ethical and sustainable way.

Frank & Faith clothes will always use organic, recycled or sustainable yarns and fabrics, be made ethically, and with equal importance – will always be fashionable.

After working for many years for some of the biggest high street fashion retailers “Faith” decided there must be a more ethical and socially beneficial way of producing and manufacturing affordable fashion “savvy” clothing.

Their aim is to produce clothing ethically by manufacturing in Britain. The usage of our Made in Britain" label further promotes locally produced goods and industries. This enables them to be sure their garments are made fairly, as all manufacturing falls under UK labour laws (including the minimum wage), EU labour directives and International Labour Organization conventions. In addition they can easily visit their factories to assess working conditions on a regular basis. This protects the Frank & Faith brand from “Sweat Shop” manufacturing.

Frank & Faith support and nurture small factories and businesses in Britain. These are often in areas of deprived communities with high unemployment. Their aim is to retain specialist skills fast disappearing in the British Isles. This also provides work for people who have trained to this skill set in the UK. A further benefit is the reduced environmental cost of transporting raw materials and clothing around the world. Their garments have significantly less “clothes miles” than many garments manufactured in the Far East.

Frank & Faith does business with factories based not only on price and margin but also focuses on providing a deeper commitment by working with the factories to grow their capabilities so they are a viable resource for Frank & Faith as well as other brands.

Neumatica

Neumatica are based in Argentina where they make all their bags.

When rubber inner-tubes from tyres of any kind are discarded they take more than 500 years to decompose - and if burned they are highly contaminating. Around 100,000 tons of this material is disposed every year, in Argentina alone. Recycling is a compromise with the planet, and fashion has to do its part, making recycling fun (yes, that's allowed).

Two years ago, Neumatica decided to save inner tubes and make them roll again, turning them into daily design objects, such as bags. All new rubber inner-tubes are plain and have no texture when new, but after being used, the heat of the rolling tyres transfers the design to them, so you will find multiple, unique textures in Neumatica products. Each finished piece has the story of many miles driven.

The designs are gorgeous, with an urban feel; so much better than some other tyre-reuse companies out there. We think the quality is absolutely second-to-none. Obviously, the bags are vegan and they are also fair-trade (with the supply chain being very short to maximise the benefits to everyone). As with most fair-trade products, transport is an issue, but we make shipments as big and infrequent as possible.

Boob

We only have a few items from Boob, but we though it was important to make some effort to sell clothes for pregnant and new mums.  It's not an easy market to find ethical clothes.  Boob clothes are designed to be beautiful, funky, and comfortable, as well as using organic cotton (and some rayon and lyocell) and being made under EU law in Sweden.  They say:

"The idea behind Boob was born on a cold, windy day in the autumn of 1999. I watched my sister nurse her newborn son in a park in Stockholm, waist bare to the icy northern wind. Then and there, I decided that it should be every woman’s right to nurse in comfort and in style. The answer was Boob nursing wear – a Swedish patented innovation that will make you look great.

"And that was just the beginning. Today, we’ve got you covered from maternity through nursing. Motherhood is an amazing journey and we are here to help you make it in comfort and looking you best ever - all the way from tiny bump to baby at your breast.

"With best regards, Mia Seipel, founder of Boob"

PlanetSilverChilli

People love the design of these bags. The ideas are really simple, but they're so effective, and the get people talking, which is great for expanding the ethical cause. And they are extremely inexpensive, which makes them accessible to anyone.

PlanetSilverchilli work with fair trade producers in Mexico to bring us funky, chic bags and fashion accessories made from recycled crisp packets and can ring pulls! Unique, colourful and above all, fairy traded and environmentally friendly!

PlanetSilverchilli are registered with the British associate of fair-trade shops. The bags are shipped en masse from Mexico, then transport is from within the UK.

The Rubber Cow Co.

The Rubber Cow Co. make non-leather bags, and point out the wastefulness of breeding and feeding millions of animals just to kill them for their hides - especially when we can't even feed ourselves. What other species would do that? This is something that's happening more and more, despite the availability of hides as a by-product of the food industry.

Although bags are made of plastic, they are as wasteful like ordinary plastic bags because they are bags that will be used again and again, many, many times over. The Rubber Cow Co. decided that this was better than killing animals. It also means that their bags are cheap, and light, making them available to anyone who wants to embrace animal-free bags. Transport is from within the UK.

MooFree

MooFree have an almost identical approach and reason for existence as Rubber Cow.  See Rubber Cow's description.  We are switching from Rubber Cow to MooFree.  Both companies are as good as things get as far as ethical fashion bags go.  Do you know a company who are better at making similar bags?  Please tell us (not jute bags, not felt bags, not... well, you get the idea, bags that are fashionable).  If we don't try to do something about it, who will?

dA-LaTA

dA-LaTA' started in April '09 with a vision to offer a wide selection of unique ecologically recycled products for fashion and interiors.

Their products are handmade in Brazil with social responsibility, recycled and sustainable materials. All their designs are unique.

A lady called Pretinha coordinates a group of very disadvantaged women from cooperatives in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. She teaches these communities the traditional crochet techniques used in the products and they make these unique ecological handicrafts. They now proudly make a living through this work of art supporting their families and a day care centre for disadvantage kids in Rio de Janeiro.

'dA-LaTA' supports a culture that respects each individual in our team, encouraging him or her to apply his or her own values, strengths and creativity to what we do.

Hundreds of individuals from disadvantaged communities from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo make a living by being 'Catadores' or pickers. They collect thousands of beer and fizzy drinks cans around the beautiful beaches of Rio and São Paulo's coast every day thus preventing many millions of soda cans, juice packs and candy wrappers from being burnt, buried or simply littering the streets and waterways. Over 80% of all aluminium cans in Brazil are now recycled. This amazing handicraft is bringing much needed employment and economic independence to these communities in the heart of Rio de Janeiro.

Each ring-pull is selected, they cannot be stained, dirty or broken, and they are flattened with pliers to make it safe and comfortable to wear. They are linked to each other with traditional crochet techniques or metal links. The original ring-pulls are shiny; other special colours are painted speacially. Overall, each item takes between 2 to 5 days to be assembled.