The name of the Parisian fashion label refers to article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that says:
“(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

The designers from Article 23 not only take to heart, what the United Nations couched in 1948, they also walk the talk. The collection-pieces are made from 100% organic fabric and are sewed within a development aid- program in the Slums of South India. The sewing-manufactory already employed 250 women who escaped from terrible social and economic circumstances. The women not only get fairly paid, they as well get schooling and education as secure housing and living space. Combined with the designs from Article 23, the evolving collections do not only meet the qualitative and aesthetic expectations of the modern fashion market - they can also be marked with a label of extra merit regarding materials and production.

Inspired by the glamorous golden twenties the spring/summer collection of Article 23 builds a bridge from then to now. First-class materials like jersey, silk, satin, cotton and poplin are felicitously mixed and vitalize the collection that is kept in white, black and red. This is how modern fair trade fashion looks. Keep in mind! Buy!

Photo credits: Article 23

Grey, straight cut, frontprint. A T-Shirt “exclusively” designed for an unnamed client by the Berlin online shop Quartier-Deluxe. Better: 5€ per sold T-Shirt are donated to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that stands up for saving the rain forest. In the press release is written: A highlight for all fashion-enthusiasts, that like to show off both - a sense for hip and current fashion and ecological awareness. Responsibility proves taste and taste has to be shown!
Tssssss….don´t exaggerate. In fact, the T-Shirt is no artistic masterstroke but nice to see. Grey is the new black - especially in Berlin where people combine it with an adequate scarf. It´s questionable, if I will ever stand in a club with a striking “I saved a tree” on my breast, but though, I honor the “good deed” and regard the selling price of 25 € for very acceptable. At the end, there´s only one more soft-spoken question… did Quartier Deluxe bear in mind to produce in an ethical and ecological exemplary way, did they use organic cotton, did they check production preconditions or….

Photo credits: Quartier Deluxe

When I think of social fashion projects, inevitably images of grandma´s knitgroup and their christmasbazars or woven, gaudy textiles in Third-World Stores cross my mind - The social fashion-project Affentor disabuses me in having nothing in common with that.
Themed with “Holly Golightly meets Mary Quant” the label Affentor shows a high quality, well elaborated und at the same time enchanting beautiful spring/summer bag collection, composed of laptop-, pouch-, handle- and tote-bags for ladies and gentlemen. Alone, the collection is mentionable - especially the notebook bags are outstanding beautiful, but if you pay attention to the fact, that but that there´s a exciting social-fashion project behind Affentor it makes the brand even more attractive and recommendable.

In 2001, Eve Merceron and Christian Jungk founded Affentor based on the idea that emerging designers should be supported in producing and merchandising their products. But Affentor is way more than an umbrella brand for young designers pieces - Germ cell from Affentor is the socially conscious project run by the non-profit organization Werkstatt Frankfurt. Affentor, which developed out of the Werkstatt Frankfurt sewing workshop, offers long-term unemployed people the opportunity to become qualified in fashion-sewing, and consequentially improve their changes to find reemployment. The in-house workshops produce items designed by emerging designers, who have been selected on the basis of their creative merit. The sustainable concept is fulfilled by the use of fabric remains and old drapery stockings for limited editions and unicums and shows, how fashion biz could work it out for better.
Affentor embraces the philosophy that there should be a more conscious attitude towards social and ecological issues in regard to individual consumer patterns and the fashion world as a whole. When style does good - it´s Affentor!

Photo credits: Affentor

Related Posts by Grass Routes, Frankfurt Fashion, Mes Cliques, Angalossy