eco brand: anchal project, how design changes lives

if you had a superpower, what would it be? this is a question i love to ask people in my life. the founders + workers behind ethical businesses are made of tenacity, resilience and creative problem solving applied to our world’s pressing issues: i call them our modern-day superheroes. today we meet the entrepreneurs + the artisans behind the eco home goods label anchal project, a brand i’ve been following for years. exploring a sustainable brand, as a conscious consumer and citizen, means pulling back the curtain on a brand and getting to know the people, the processes, and the forces behind the label. and who doesn’t love to take a peek behind a superhero’s curtain {ahem, or cape}?

“We believe design can change lives. When you purchase Anchal’s handmade products, you invest in new economic realities for exploited women around the world.”

— Maggie and Colleen Clines

anchal {the urdu word for shelter} brings safety, stability + shelter to vulnerable women across the globe through sustainable employment and handmade designs. a movement for forward change + freedom can happen with a sea of steadfast people, and sometimes, a movement starts with two savvy, strong-willed sisters. colleen and maggie clines place human rights at the center of their organization, working with survivors of sex trafficking and transforming lives via sustainable employment. colleen and maggie are today’s supersheroes and their capes are fair trade.

anchal project is a nonprofit that uses design and collaboration to provide economic opportunities for marginalized women to empower themselves through the creation of handmade, fair trade products. ordinary quilts + pillows these are not, my friends.

all entrepreneurs start with an idea {there it is, skipping about, frolicking in our brains} and suddenly, it’s standing there before us, a once fermenting idea has now come to fruition. and sometimes that idea comes into existence to create positive change on this planet we all call home.

colleen clines took a trip to india in 2009. she was introduced to the world of commercial sex trade and the lack of opportunity for women in the community. it was then that she was galvanized to address social and environmental systems, “the women we met became our sisters, sisters we had to fight for.” 

rooted in collaboration and creative design solutions, anchal is a non-profit that operates like a business via both sales and donations. women are hired as artisans and every artisan has her own personal bank account. 100% of artisans are investing in their children’s education, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty + exploitation.

anchal’s programs demonstrate that when employment inequality is systematically addressed, this can reduce the number of women reliant on commercial sex work and eliminate the stigma that women and girls face around the world. 95% of anchal artisans have left the commercial sex trade or dramatically reduced their clients.

from the founders of anchal, “our impact is evident in each artisan’s personal growth, which we measure annually. ferosa purchased a plot of land and has ideas for a farm, renu bought her family a water filter to ensure safe drinking water, seema purchased purple tile for her kitchen and laxmi sent her daughter to college.

our holistic program is designed to address the diverse needs of each woman and equip them with the tools to sustain employment as an anchal artisan and beyond. by offering alternatives to dangerous and exploitative work, we help women rediscover their dignity, independence and creativity in a financially rewarding way. our programs offer women design and skills training, full-time employment, educational workshops, health services, a supportive community, and access to an international marketplace.”

ethical consumption is indeed a potent form of protest. cheap goods are linked to poverty wages, to dangerous working conditions for factory workers {with 86% being young females} and to environmental degradation with factories contributing to pollution of local communities. this holiday season, choose an ethical label, choose an experience for a loved one, choose to be a superhero yourself via each purchase your make. together we can choose better.

“I think when there is peace, respect and freedom, anybody can be more productive and creative. When I am making something I have many images in my head, but only need to reproduce them on the fabric.”

— Lupe, Anchal Project Artisan

to learn more about anchal’s work, follow them on IG or skip on over to their website for fair trade goodness + life changing products. remember friends, only buy what you need because quality over quantity is what the cool eco cats are doing.

until next time, stay green dear hearts!

eco beauty: the wonders of dry shampoo

in phoebe waller-bridge’s brilliant series, fleabag, she proclaims in a convincing + comical monologue on tresses, “hair is everything. it’s the difference between a good day and a bad day.” in the end, we learn that life is not about our hair, but hygiene, personal expression + self confidence certainly matter + shape our days.

the secret to my shiny, healthy hair is quite simple: i don’t wash it regularly, friends.

before you raise a finger in curious protest, i have answers for your inquiring minds! today we’re talking about one of my favorite eco-friendly products: dry shampoo. dry powder shampoo, what a mystery it was to me only a few years ago. how does one use it, and more importantly, why does one use it?!

dry powder shampoo allows us to refresh our hair without a wet wash in the shower, saving both time + water. it’s a wonderful natural product for removing excess oils while adding texture + volume: simply rub gently into your roots, work through your dry hair + style. voila!

now, know that i do use natural, botanical oils to add shine + soothe frayed ends {the same magical plant-based oils i use for face + body} and i use dry shampoo. with ingredients plucked from nature, this product is sweet-scented, eco-friendly + compact {so easy-to-pack}. here we have 4 fab vegan, non-toxic + cruelty-free choices:

green + gorgeous

green + gorgeous has a fantastic, light + organic powder to freshen + revive your lion’s mane. beautifully scented, with eco-friendly, cardboard packaging. ingredients include arrowroot powder, rice powder, shavegrass powder, natural clay + essential oils.

on hot summer days, this little pocket-sized, powerful product was always by my side; it’s both convenient + effective.

their petite travel sizes are perfect for nomadic hearts traveling with carry-on luggage only!

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little barn apothecary

little barn apothecary offers a nurturing dry shampoo to help refresh our scalps and rid our strands of grease + grime. a light, flower essence, corn starch + pink clay make for glory days.

what exactly does a nurturing dry shampoo mean? dry shampoo allows us to wash our hair less because wet washing often can strip our skin + our locks of their natural glow + luster by washing away natural oils needed to keep dry hair + skin hydrated. but we want to keep our bath + beauty products clean + toxin-free: so just say no to harmful ingredients like talc, silicone + phenoxyethanol.

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captain blankenship

captain blankenship if it’s good enough for the mermaids of the world, then it’s good enough for yours truly.

i’ll admit, it took me a while to remember the name of this all-natural and organic bath + beauty label. but they do make out-of-this-world, efficacious hair care products. formulated with organic + non-toxic ingredients in sustainable, reusable + recyclable packaging. ingredients include arrowroot powder, kaolin with palmarosa oil + rose geranium essential oils.

it’s okay to want a good hair day, my friends; the captain gets you to where you want to go on your hair voyages!

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alder

alder is a new-york-based, plant-strong brand that makes fantastic natural products, and this texture powder restores volume to lazy locks while helping to nurture your scalp with ingredients like sea clay, kaolin, shavegrass powder, rice powder and eucalyptus + lime essential oils.

herbal extracts yield high-performing products that will perk up even the most taxed locks. and they smell like a summer breeze! who doesn’t want to smell like summer {before the sultry subway ride, that is!}? here a good hair day, there a good hair day!

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{don’t forget the tip} why choose a “clean beauty” product with fair trade, vegan + organic ingredients? conventional products are made with hazardous ingredients like paraben, sulfate, mineral oil, petrolatum, and formaldehyde. these ingredients bio-accumulate in our bodies leading to illness, infertility and cancer. choose natural products with certified organic ingredients free of synthetic fragrances and free of man-made chemicals. good for your hair, good for your health!

remember eco boys + girls, we speak not of dry shampoo in aerosol cans. aerosol cans deplete our ozone layer + end up in our landfills. we are most definitely talking about the dry shampoo powder, found in little cylindrical cardboard containers + sometimes in recycled plastic bottles, but jump on that paper-based, biodegradable container always first. want to learn more about clean + safe products? click here! and follow made safe on ig.

until next time, stay green dear hearts!

eco brand: studio kimaya, building a community

sophie planet is an eco entrepreneur with an alacritous mind + a charming french accent, and she’s telling me about her steamy morning hike through the lush woods of auroville, located in south india. sophie has moved to this small village, where she lives between serenity beach + sadhana forest.

hers is an unconventional story: this is the story of sophie’s serendipitous journey to a life of wellness, balance + ethical entrepreneurship.

auroville is an experimental town + utopian village that provides a milieu for material and spiritual awakening. and this is where sophie planet has come to live, and where she has built her ethical apparel brand kimaya from seed to sustainable garment.

sophie is recounting her first trip to india, a city that spoke to her in gray. she recalls stepping into the blistering heat + conspicuous pollution. she remembers thinking she couldn’t live here, but 15 years later, life spilled sophie right into india.

“The universe put me [in India] to push me away from my comfort zone - I’m grateful for that. Life pushes you beyond your limits every time there is a challenge.”

sophie shares her youthful wow moments before creating her own eco fashion label kimaya: working for luxury fashion label burberry, having financial security, early morning walks to work through the metropolis + sunbeams of paris. at this time she wasn’t traveling much, at the horizon of her life stood her lone office work building.

sophie knew from a young age that she wanted to be a fashion designer. she would go on to study english literature before attending fashion school in paris. soon, she was working alongside her designer cousin, growing her small fashion brand, a brand built from scratch.

eventually sophie went on to work for other fashion labels; these big machines offered a life of structure, but she had the irksome feeling that there was no human connection, the focus was on money. this thought seemed perennially perched on her shoulders.

“It’s really important to be connected, to foster good relationships. I know the names of the children of each worker, where they go to holiday: it’s really a collaboration, a co-creation. ”

and then one fateful day, while helping a friend tend to her paris bookshop, she found herself surrounded by shelves plump with spiritual books + a solicitous client who highly recommended a masseuse. the masseuse highly recommended a trip to pondicherry, india. and before long, sophie was on a plane headed to the seaside city in india. there she stepped wittingly into an ashram to meditate, and this is where she had the distinct feeling that she was home. she traveled further south, and upon her arrival to auroville, she thought, “what do i have to do to live here?”

she then wondered, “why am i asking this question?” she was quite happy in paris. but on the flight home, she found herself crying. back in france, she soon understood the tear shed. while at reike, she learned that these were cleansing tears, tears allowing her to shed the old + welcome the new, “i had something to do. the reason was because i was saying goodbye to my old life and a new life was coming. change was coming.”

it was like a bottle had washed up on the shore of sophie’s life, and inside was the answer to her own spiritual awakening. how do we listen to our intuition when it seems to be guiding us into the unknown, a new direction, yet speaking to us so clearly?

sophie tells her story easily, as if narrating the unfolding of her favorite rom-com. it makes me believe that we are all capable of sculpting our lives exactly as we imagine in the far recesses of our mind.

a determined sophie booked a return flight to india, “the idea was to see that i didn't feel the same way, but i felt exactly the same and it was even stronger, it was home. i had to follow my intuition because i have very strong intuition. my intent was not just to live but to enjoy the present moment.”

after making the decision to move her life to auroville, and taking time to settle in, she eventually knew it was the right time to start her own ethical fashion brand. “every step is important. i have met wonderful people who were the right people [to start this eco business]: the right weavers, the right pattern makers.”

“It’ important to take pleasure and love what we are doing. Then everything flows. Gratitude changes the energy around you. You feel it in you and in the product.”

kimaya now employs 12-15 people, all locals, including sewers + batik dyers. sophie has created a community that envelopes her workers. “i know everyone by name. i want to empower the workers. i want to recreate something like a family.” 

kimaya uses local textiles from regional farms, “humane fabrics” including organic cotton, banana fibers + bamboo, and all clothing tags are made by an ashram in pondicherry using recycled t-shirts. sophie herself designs classic, feminine jumpers; wide-legged pants in calming hues; liquid tops, soft + flowing like the energy she speaks of. she shares emphatically, “design is so important, if it's not beautiful, men + women won't be moved to change their habits towards clean fashion.” 

“it’s important to do things with consciousness. it’s important to take care of the planet and its resources as well as the people with whom we are working. gratitude changes the energy around you. you feel it in you and in the product. it’s all about co-creation and connection to people.”

by the end of our conversation, i’m a bit mesmerized by sophie, much the way she was spellbound while sitting in the ashram, years ago, in india for the first time. i ask her how she balances it all: life, a burgeoning business, self care?

“meditation every day helps me to be grounded and connected to life and people. i also take a walk in the forest every morning and evening. it’s important because it gives love to my body and it gives me energy.”  

it seems to make perfect sense that sophie has come to live in auroville, on the outskirts of sadhana forest; sadhana means you are using everything as a tool for your well being. and i think this is exactly what sophie is doing, putting her energy into her community + its people, and giving the world products prepared with love, care + positive energy.

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eco mode: wearing gifted kimaya organic cotton top with vintage skirt and thrifted jacket. check out my instagram to see how i style the fab banana silk shorts + this wear-with-anything top.