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Do you associate fair trade with just coffee, cocoa, and cloth bags? If you do, it may come as a pleasant surprise for you to learn that fair trade practices extend to high fashion, accessories, textiles, homeware, and more. It's a brilliant source of inspiration when it comes to shopping for gifts whether it's for Christmas, Valentine's day, Mothers/Fathers day, or whatever pops up on the calendar.
As I see it, there are three splendid reasons to go fair trade shopping. One, you know you're doing the right thing by supporting ethical business practices. Two, you get to choose from a wide variety of items from all over the world. Three, these things are available at a local store near you or you can shop online.So, let the jaded gift ideas die a natural death as you shop for stunning new gifts sourced from different parts of the world that you've probably never been to. Here's a list of fair trade businesses in Melbourne from where you may want to do your holiday shopping.
Sankofa, the house of African tribal textiles and homewares, is located in Fitzroy. They have fair trade products such as brass, textiles, jewellery, kid's toys, and eco-friendly gift items sourced from Ghana, Burkina Faso, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. Their artwork includes baskets woven from elephant grass, metal work crafted by lost wax brass process, recycled glass beads, batik, and textile made from Kente weaving which is linked to the royalty among the Ashanti people. Visit Sankofa for more details or online shopping to get your holiday shopping started.
Open Monday to Friday 11 am to 6 pm; Saturday 11 am to 5 pm; Sunday 12 noon to 4 pm.
Safari Living, located in Prahran, brings you sophisticated objects from all over the world. You get Finnish textile and clothing, scrap wood wallpaper from Holland, Danish designed homeware, Italian tableware and porcelain, quirky British furnishing accessories, eco-friendly household cleaning products, Swiss Army recycling products created by a group of twelve women in a tiny Alpine village, Scandinavian personal artefacts, and much more.
Cylk is known for its sustainable practices as well as its minimalist manufacturing practices just as much as their stylish award winning designs. What you might find even more heart warming is that they donate $5 from every purchase to three charities—Second Bite, The Hunger Project, and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. To shop online or for more information, visit Cylk.
Give them a call to find exact opening hours.
Open Monday to Saturday 10 am to 5 pm.
I always try and grab Fair Trade coffee wherever I go, and it's great to see that now Fair Trade starting to expand into areas like fashion as well. Here's hoping it keeps growing and growing.