Fair trade focus: Bishopston Trading Company

If you are looking for products with an Indian feel to brighten up your house or wardrobe then look no further than Bishopston Trading Company. Jenny Butler writes.

The Bishopston Trading Company is a Workers’ Co-operative set up in Bristol in 1985 to create employment in the village of K.V.Kuppam in Tamil Nadu, South India. It is certified as a Fair Trade Organisation by the World Fair Trade Organisation – and was one of the first to do so for fashion.

The people of K.V.Kuppam provide the weaving and tailoring skills and the raw materials. The price it pays per garment allows the tailors to have above average wages, secure employment, allowance for health care, provident fund, gratuity, sickness benefit and a crèche.

Bishopston has Indian inspired clothes for woman, men and children and also toys and accessories. A small craft group batik and block printed cloth, printed shopping bags, jewellery, greeting cards and bead work.

The greetings cards are made by the crafts workers using printing, embroidery and appliqué work. There are 200 handloom weavers who produce the 15 tonnes of beautiful organic cotton that is used each year to make the clothes.

Twice a year Bishopston develops a new colour scheme and brings in fresh designs for the changing seasons, but much of the fashion is timeless.

You can buy Bishopston Trading Company’s many clothes, homewares and accessories across independent fair trade shops.

Bishopston Trading Company