Paragon Pixie

We believe passionately in fair trade and, although at the moment we do not have an official ‘fair trade’ logo on our products, we are working towards this aim, and still apply fair trade ethics to our business. We spent a number of weeks in November 2005 sourcing suppliers for our stock in India, and before agreeing to trade with any of them we visited their workshops to ensure that the working conditions, pay and treatment of the tailors was up to our expectations. As it is illegal to employ children under 16 in the tailoring trade in India, we ensure that this law is obeyed by all of our suppliers. We plan to make further, regular visits to our friends and their premises in the future, so that we can be confident that our fair trade ethics are being upheld.

We pay our suppliers the price that they request, and that truly reflects the cost of production. We make payments before the stock is made, to ensure that wages are paid in full and on time, and any materials can be bought without our suppliers encountering debts.

We make the payments directly to our suppliers, to ensure that the profit goes to the primary source and subsequently the tailors, not to any middle men or contractors. Rather than ‘bulk-buying’, we make regular orders with the same suppliers throughout the year, to provide continuous work and income for them, with the aim of enabling these small businesses to grow alongside ours.

We also encourage environmental responsibility. We reuse old sari pieces in many of our designs, from belts and bags to clothing, and remaining scraps are used by the tailors in the workshop and in their homes – nothing is wasted. We also apply this ethic to the day-to-day running of the stall by not buying our own plastic bags – we encourage customers to use any bags that they already have on them, or will alternatively provide recycled bags.