The Independent
'We are buying Choolips at Topshop' The Independent







Treehugger
'Choolips is a Green Fashion Success story' Bonnie Alter
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/choolips-dresses-from-ghana-for-topshop.php

Daisy Green Magazine
'Passion, drive and determination are all qualities you need to run your own business and the very lovely Annegret Affolderbach has these qualities in spades.' Nicola Alexander
http://www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk/fashion/features/living-the-fairytale/

Interviews with Annegret
Daisy Green Magazine
http://www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk/fashion/news/choolips-fairtrade-summer-dresses-now-available-in-topshop/

Style Journal






















The Telegraph






















JCReport






















FUK

Design4Life Ghana

Spring/Summer'09

CHOOLIPS in TOPSHOP NOW!

The beauties are in TOPSHOP NOW! Go and get your own CHOOLIPS @ TOPSHOP Flagship Store/London, Oxford Circus


Admittedly they have had quite a journey and we are ever so pleased they are looking georgeous! BIG Thanks to Juliana & Godknows, who have made them the marvels they are. Enjoy your own - that is the girls of course! And to all you men out there - the next collection holds surprises for you! So sit tight!

We Love...

Bamboo Bikes
I am crazy about these Bamboo Bikes OUT OF Zambia - genius! I love my red Choolips Bike but this is a whole new dimension and well no harm in having a spare bike, right?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8125274.stm

About CHOOLIPS

CHOOLIPS revamps textiles traditions creating textiles & womenswear simply on trend, playful & pretty.

‘Our ethics run much deeper than, well, this season’s fashion. The idea is to revive ancient textiles traditions by building fashionable Fairtrade collections reflecting the authenticity & beauty of the traditions we are working with.’

CHOOLIPS’ ‘Golden Coast’ collection is entirely made in Ghana. Printed on 100% Ghanaian Cotton it boosts the commercial accessibility of local Batik traditions whilst earning Ghanaian producers fair wages.

CHOOLIPS is fashion with a conscience making a difference at the roots without compromising the thrill for good style.

Juliana Mustapha, our Batiker, has doubled the size of her workshop & her workforce, laid a water pipe and is expanding each time we produce – educating new apprentices and paying for the education of her children.

Godknows, our producer has a workforce that is a force to be reckoned with. Sharp tailors, seamstresses & not to forget the secretary, they turn our textiles into georgeous dresses and more. He is a naturally born teacher & leads his force with ingenuity & firm education paving the way for a future Fashion School in the Capital Accra.

CHOOLIPS has received many accolades and awards for its innovative & entrepreneurial approach. Most recent finalist of the British Council’s ‘UK Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year 2009’ and winner of ‘Barclays Innovative Business of the Year 2008’, CHOOLIPS’ designs have been awarded ‘Best Global Commercial Design and Print’, by the Ethical Fashion Forum/Design4LifeGhana.

For more information do get in touch email: curious@choolips.com

Its time to launch...

CHOOLIPS & Its Ethical Relatives**
'Ethical Fashions answer to Parkinson'
Nina Baldwin, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion

The Ethical Relatives will be launched alongside the Centre for Sustainable Fashion’s Shared Talent India Competition with a celebration of ethical movers & shakers working in India.
25th February 2009
6.30 – 8.30pm
London College of Fashion, Rootstein Hopkins Space
20 John Princes Street, London W1G 0BJ
(nearest tube Oxford Circus)


I will have the honour to be in conversation with

Priya Kishore, ‘Bombay Electric’, Founder & Owner
www.bombayelectric.in

"Bombay Electric, the cutting-edge store in Mumbai, could be a template for the next millennium of Indian Style" "The Incarnation of the New Indian Cool" Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune
Besides being the place to find the hippest Indian Designers Bombay Electric also works with several NGOs and rural artisans to promote sustainable fashion.

‘Organic Silk God’
Samant Chauhan, Indian Fashion Designer
www.samantchauhan.net

“He is the next big thing to hit the Fashion world...the wonder kid who is sure to give the Sabyasachis and the Gaurav Guptas a sprint for their money.” Asian Age

Samant crafts masterpieces in Organic Silks that balance elegance with “larger than life” designs. He specialises in non-violent silk production supporting his village of weavers sustaining hand-loom production. He is the creator of India’s First Fashion Café!

Dilys Williams ‘Centre for Sustainable Fashion’
Designer & Innovator
www.sustainable-fashion.com

Founder of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion & Director for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion, Dilys is a pivotal & immiscible figure-head in Sustainable Fashion with 20years industry experience and expertise in design interventions for social, environmental and cultural change. She will be introducing the Centres latest India related programme & competition for Designers.

**CHOOLIPS & Its Ethical Relatives is a public THINK TANK of Ethical Movers & Shakers, Ambassadors for Ethical Fashion & Ethical Living making an outstanding contribution not just in Ethical Fashion but to Ethical Living.

"I believe that in personal conversation with people who are contributing to the pulse of Ethical practise we will open minds & contribute to put Ethical Fashion & Living on the real map – integrate it into our world not as a ‘Buzz’ word but as a true foundation for each household & individual lives."
CHOOLIPS' Designer Annegret Affolderbach

CHOOLIPS’ Ethical Relatives will be showcased in public heart-to-heart interviews that reveal their personal motivations and the ethics that drive their lives and professional work. This public THINK TANK will offer insights promoting transparency of an Industry that will guide our future and broaden ethical opportunities for the mainstream.

If you would like to be one of CHOOLIPS' Ethical Relatives or would like some more info - please get in touch with me personally curious@choolips.com

To find out more about the Shared India Competition visit
http://centreforsustainablefashion.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/csf-launches-shared-talent-india/
or contact: Hannah Higginson
h.higginson@fashion.arts.ac.uk

CHOOLIPS' going Doggie style - OOOPS!

Just in time for christmas! CHOOLIPS’ signature Coffee Bean fabrics have gone Doggie style with beautifully crafted Funky Mutts Dog Collars, Leads and matching hair bands for stylish dog owners...

Get these treasures for your friends & loved ones as a sweet treat and directly support CHOOLIPS’ Ghanaian producers by purchasing these unique gifts. Its easy! Click www.funkymutts.co.uk browse the lavish gallery for leads, collars and DO NOT LET THE CAT MISS OUT - get the accessory Coffee Bean Catnip Mouse!
Now that’s made my day...so me and the fat cat 'Jeeves' living in my house;) are having a little catnip knees up.

Merry Christmas and whatever it is in your parts of the world...we wish you a fabulous time celebrating with your loved ones looking ahead to the New Year sprakly and bright-eyed.

Digesting India – what a PLANET!

After a seemingly insatiable 30hrs sleep I am back on home turf with
my eyes peeled. Someone asked me how India was? Honestly...

It deserves a new addition to my vocabulary. Sitting there in my mind shimmering full of sense & nonsense, lavish & unassuming that it makes Jaipur - The Pink City look as pale as milk. My impressions flow like lucid dreams glazing over with the sunshine of Mumbai, candy coloured wedding garb, street children far from marble flooring, designers ‘bare’ rebellion or glitzy Bollywood-stream, history explosion turned Verve, Gaba trousers & plaits, hallucinating block prints & Masala Dosa, Bombay Electric contrasting educational establishment and the stream goes on.

The traffic never stopped - it only changed colours. Dusky Jaipur looked exquisite from my window frame and the block prints covering the walls of Gempalace inspired my own private ‘Darjeeling Limited’ that would do Wes Anderson proud – for sure.

The buglike cabs turned black in Mumbai and besides little me in a ***** Taj – they gave me the biggest joy since funfair rides. Riding along in these little bugs I screamed with joy inhaling heaps of cosmopolitan air wearing Little Shilpa & Nachiket Barve creations, enjoying a Fairtrade Melange, Masala tea with Bollywood ‘Maholtra’ supreme & a stroll through a sweatshop factory some place else that smelt very close to home.

Mumbai - Ahmedabad...all blending into one...Full of spicy mirrors woven into textiles, ‘candy-floss’ yarn strung & coloured by roadsides for spools to go with kites for local kids’ fun, food from stitched banana leaves & hundreds of nut crackers so beautifully bronzed they made you cry. A Calico Museum stuffed with textiles from all around Planet India living inside a private paradise garden decorated with Mosaic terraces only to be graced by the bare feet of elves. And finally! I get wrapped in the wealth of Sari by Shaymal & Bhumika…oh my!

NOW I understand the need for Princesses & Gempalace jewellery! Bollywood please take my humble hand. In fact NOW my home - 'Whitechapel High Street' - galvanised with its mini sari palaces & miniature Gem Palaces makes sense. Underpinned with rationale IMG ‘databank’ Vikram Raizada and graceful Verve intelligence – I am left with the odd glimpse of what will be my INDIA, what will crystalise in time to bind itself around my heart – exciting enough to be future.

Thanks for an unforgettable & infinite inspiration to my creative juices – Planet India.

Jam it India

For these first few days India has been framed by my car window heading out for back to back meetings with academics, a government man who looks after the Loom Weavers of India, MY personal Entrepreneur of the Year – The Head of Fashion Council of India, the director of FabIndia the ‘Philip Green’ of India, countless studio visits & socials with established designer entrepreneurs working with the Crafts of India. The welcomes are warm to my pleasure accompanied with cookies & cake topped with a wealth of inspirations, insights & stories that leave me feeling humbled and excited for their exceedingly exquisite potential. So I sit digesting it all soaking in the world starring out of my car window in between all the Welcomes.

Pointedly the Director of Apparel Export Promotion Council suggests:
‘Our streets are the Life. They are for marriage, trade, sleeping, living, innovation, parties …” In his scheme of things least for driving?

Funny! traffic is dominating my window pictures painted with decorated elephants, horses, zillions of hooting cars traffic-jammin’ and inbetween yellow-green gas-fuelled taxis frolick across four lines of traffic - little fun-loving bug-like creatures. Constant surround sound of hoots - every emotion expressed by hoots Bass, Dur and Moll. All this dressed up by the grace of Indian women spicing up the mix with luscious coloured saris on the backs of motorcycles – sitting sideways like ladies on horseback. Pretty flowers everywhere cutting through the pollution that sinks onto the New Delhi like a silent mist. My eyes are met with friendly curiosity & acknowledging stares.
Passing by Wedding Farms covered in light chains and fake castles – weddings are in season for the next three months. Weddings and religious festivals circulate the Indian calendar. Besides weddings that last four days with up to 21 dresses for the bride and dowrys in the shape of Rolls Royce, bling, cash and I presume anything else possible!!! there is the Festival of Ganesh – an Elephant God that is beautifully dressed and symbol for prosperity. On his celebration people flock to the sea carrying the clay elephants - decorated as colourful as the brides with paints & flowers. They take it to water in order to return it to the Earth creating good fortune throughout the next year. The elephants souls sail off in thousands into the distance & I don’t know, but they must dive to the bottom of the sea, every year. Elephant reef must be beautiful – and if not at least its biodegradable.

I pass shanty towns – poorer than I have seen them in Africa, begging children with flower chains slung around their necks, a heady mix of the streets spruced up with pigs, cows, birds, dogs, monkeys, flower stalls & fruit displays that are immaculate in colour and arrangement. All these mixed up are almost as perfect as the weave of a sari with a golden border.

There is something else - I cannot stop comparing this place to Africa – the colours, the scent, but then I listen to BOB MARLEY jammin’ it and I stop in my tracks – a vision I cannot shake… Indian Youths moving it to BOB? My current music is the symphony of traffic & the wild dogs playing outside the window when I drift off to sleep…. so its hard to imagine and maybe it doesn’t exist? I need to go to a nightclub! Settle that into my schedule.

For now I staring at the land between Delhi & Jaipur on our way to Jaipur - the pink City. In my humble opinion one cannot go wrong with a bit of pink – so I am excited about this one!

CHOOLIPS' awards & journey to India

"Having seen Annegret in action over the last two years, she is a beacon of light within the fashion industry, at the forefront of looking at ways that she can build the capacity of small business co-operatives in Africa. "

Claire Hamer, Buyer and Entrepreneur
(former Buyer for Topshop)

Cheering up those rainy London days...I am thrilled! CHOOLIPS just won 'Barclays Innovative Business of the Year' 2008 with the RSATrust/Enfield Enterprise Agency for its ethical business approach & stepping up the pace with its latest innovative twist to Batik printing. Adding fresh sparkle to our prints for next year we will keep the twist up our sleeves for the time being as all will be revealed with pretty dresses next Spring.

It seems we are not stopping here! CHOOLIPS is also shortlisted 'UK Young Fashion Entrepreneur of the Year 2009' with the British Council in partnership with NESTA** http://www.creativeconomy.org.uk/UKYFE
The UK Young Fashion Entrepreneur Award is the latest edition to the British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur programme, which focuses on design, screen, music, publishing and fashion.

So off we go to India tomorrow for two weeks! Along with five other finalists I will gain precious insight into one of the world’s fastest-developing and most dynamic economies on this specially-tailored tour opening the door to India’s fashion industry. We will meet leading figures from India's fashion industry and their peers, other Indian young entrepreneurs from the sector and find out more about the industry's infrastructure, the market and how to do business in India. On our return we will be re-interviewed to assess what we have learned from the opportunity and how we might take the experience forward. A winner will be chosen and announced at London Fashion Week in Feb'09.

If you care to join me on my journey to India over the next two weeks I will be sharing my impressions on the BLOG every few days. I cannot wait to have my eyes filled with India & discover a few new CHOOLIPS'.

**NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. Its mission is to transform the UK’s capacity for innovation. With the largest portfolio of early-stage businesses in the country, it is a leading authority on how to grow new ideas. We also stimulate imaginative solutions to pressing social issues and shape policy to help the UK meet its national innovation challenges. www.nesta.org.uk

Choolips, the Global Mama & Willbaforce - lets GO!

I am just back from Ghana with a suitcase full of newly printed colours. Re-united with Juliana, our Batiker, we have just completed prints for the Spring/Summer'09 range using our award-winning new stamps produced in the UK. CHOOLIPS' latest innovation, a new Batik stamp development has brought excitement to Juliana's eyes!



Besides getting to grips with the new stamps we also had TRIPLE celebrations - much laughter and Ghanaian food. Juliana blew me away as she is now crowned Global Mama of the Year! Rewarded by NGO 'Women In Progress', who brought to life the brand 'Global Mamas', Juliana was awarded for the quality of her Batik printing and swift turn around of orders. Such a fine business women she has also built a new workshop and now accommodates 3 Assistants - many changes since last year February! I am impressed.

Meanwhile we have also linked up with Willbaforce, an agency providing support to the Creative & Fashion Industries in the UK and Globally. The heart & soul of the Business Jennifer Williams-Baffoe, wholeheartedly supports our entrepreneurial endeavours strengthening and supporting set-up of our production in Ghana. She has been supporting us with much valued information & direction to get things off the ground. Her particular expertise on production abroad has been guiding us in our professional choices, terms of production and future business strategy. www.willbaforce.com Things are moving fast - Exciting times!

Coca Cola Dream Experience – a Day with CHOOLIPS through the eyes of a winner

Having had a fabulous couple of days hosting two Fashion loving winners at my studio, I thought it best to get news from the horse’s mouth. I cannot wait to present these ladies their personalised Batik fabrics, garments & accessories!...you have been splendid & I look forward to a nice glass of Champagne & Catwalking glamour when I see you next!!

‘I couldn’t believe I’d won such an amazing prize, a day with a Fashion Designer. The day finally came and I was a little nervous to meet Annegret. When I arrived at Annegret’s studio, I was welcomed with a huge hug and a bunch of flowers…I knew we’d get along really well. Annegret explained how she started out, her interests in Batik prints, Japanese kimono and Fairtrade.
Her passion really shone through and I was inspired by her laid back attitude and hands on approach to Choolips. I think it’s brilliant how she works with businesses in Ghana and the traditional values this gives her designs. The energy and love that goes into the designs are unmistakable and the stories behind each so personal and moving.
After a lovely chat over lunch, we headed back to Annegret’s studio where I got to design my very own batik print that I chose to have made into a clutch bag. Overall I had a lovely day and could not have wished to spend the day with a better person. Annegret’s energy and attitude has inspired me to keep designing and to build up my skills gradually so that I can make the most of them and be more confident in what I can achieve.’ Nikita

‘Having been lucky enough in August to win one of Coca-Cola’s Dream Experiences, I was even more fortunate to find that my prize was a day to be spent with Annegret. Friday, 19th September was the chosen day and during the morning at Annegret’s studio I was really interested to learn how passionate she is about her work and of the events in her life that led her, some years ago, to take what was an unorthodox path but one which, in the current climate, is now reaping thoroughly justified rewards. This very personable and vivacious young lady has carved a niche in the fashion industry on her own terms working with Ghanaian businesses, which hand-produce her colourful fabrics in striking designs.

Lunch, we took poolside at an oasis high above the capital. It was all wonderfully surreal, particularly as we could never have imagined a late-September day being so hot - someone was really smiling on us.

On our return to the studio we settled down to select a design and colourway for the garment to be made for me. The suggestion for this item was an easy one for me - I have recently had a large colourful tattoo done on my back and thought it would be great to have a tailor-made top that would show it off to perfection. The colours of the rainbow, in the form of wings feature prominently - so Annegret’s new range of tattoo-inspired designs was a revelation. It was a simple choice to make – winged hearts to echo my design, with the highest and lowest rainbow hues forming the colour way. Annegret suggested the material and took my measurements, and everything came together effortlessly.

All too soon my time with Annegret had to come to an end, but as another part of my prize I shall be returning to London. She is a beautiful, exceptional person with good, strong, well-focused views and I wholeheartedly wish her every success. Hazel

New Ideas for Africa

This month's 'New Ideas for Africa' will be hosted by Choolips offering the opportunity to interact with exciting individuals from a range of professions who share a passion for Africa and are committed to working on practical action to see it develop.

Organized by 'Africa ++' an organisation set up to promote collaborative action as a means of addressing specific socio-economic needs in Africa. It encourages the use of collective resources from local communities in Africa, the African Diaspora and friends of Africa to achieve this objective. More than just a means to add social and economical value, it is a means to challenge the minds and mindsets on what our unique contribution to the world, and even more specifically our continent, would be. We seek to encourage Africans to take a more active role in the development of their communities and the African continent.

This month there will be time available to explore some of the progress made on the two ideas that arose at last month's event and we positively anticipate that people will bring new, exciting ideas and passions into the discussions.

We are looking forward to chatting to and seeing everyone; and to continue to be part of laying the foundation for some pioneering socially-minded projects and initiatives for Africa.

Date: Thursday 18th September, 2008
Time: 18h30 - 21h00
Venue: Choolips & Bowis Studio, 123/127 New Road, London E1 1HJ (The studio is accessed via Whitechapel High Street - black gate leading into a car park. The actual entrance to the building is the end of the car park )
Nearest Tube: Whitechapel (on the District and Hammersmith and City Line – Zone 2)
Contribution: £5 to support the costs of the event (includes light refreshment)
RSVP: Femi at femi@africaplusplus.org

New Ideas for Africa in London is hosted on the 3rd Thursday of every month and in Johannesburg on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Please add to you diaries.

Buy a ‘Coke’ and win a Choolip

Fancy yourself as the next big fashion guru? Here’s a chance for you to win a day with Ethical Fashion Designer CHOOLIPS of behind-the-scenes fashion insight and design. You’ll dream up the perfect dress, bag, T-shirt or tie, have it beautifully tailored and sent to you! The day is open to both beginners and experts.

‘Coca-Cola’ & CHOOLIPS have teamed up for ‘Coke’ ‘Live Olympic’ to bring you 2 x 1day for you to
+ spend @ CHOOLIPS’ studio discussing the history of the collection and gain insights behind the scenes
+ lunch with CHOOLIPS at a suitably “cool” restaurant
+ design a fabric using colour charts and mood boards
+ your design will be sent to Ghana to be made into a piece of fabric using Batik then to be made into a dress, t-shirt, tie or bag for you to keep
+ write a Blog to be published on Choolips’ Blog about your day
+ You will be provided with £100 travel allowance (total), £75 spending money (total) and 1 night’s 4* hotel twin or double accommodation AND MUCH MORE… for more details visit www.coca-cola.co.uk

Go & Buy a special 500ml promotional pack of 'Coca-Cola', 'Diet Coke' & 'Coke Zero', while stocks last. You will find a 12 digit code printed on the bottle. Go to www.coca-cola.co.uk and enter. Each code can only be entered once. There are 2 prizes up for grabs with CHOOLIPS and offers will change on a daily basis, There are 32 dream experiences to be won so make sure you check the website every day not to miss out.
The promotion runs from 1/08/08 ending on 31/08/08 at midnight. Extra draw closes on 26/10/08 at midnight.

*** PLEASE NOTE
+ This promotion is open to residents of Great Britain, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands only, excluding employees and their immediate families of Coca-Cola Great Britain, Coca-Cola Enterprises Limited, their agencies, third parties or anyone else professionally connected with the promotion
+ Each valid code can only be entered once. All entry codes received after midnight on 31/08/08 will be entered into an extra prize draw closing at midnight on 26/10/08.
+ Winners under 18 years old require parental consent and must be accompanied by a person aged 18 years or over subject

'Turning Disney world on its head in Style'

Have you ever heard of the 'House of Fairytales'* - THE most innovative festival set in the magic grounds of Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire?

Over the August bank holiday weekend over 3000 people of all ages, will be taken on a seamless journey, a groundbreaking interactive artwork created by 500 artists, performers, educators, musicians, acrobats, puppeteers, designers, philosophers, writers and magicians working together to produce a parallel universe with its own rules, currency, social structures, time travel portals and police force.

CHOOLIPS is tremendously excited! Everyday we will run workshops in the Fabidashery. We will make fashion without clothes - weird wacky and wonderful creations for the body, created from recycled household items, such as newspapers& magazines, tea bags, doilies and tiddlywinks. Think Mad Hatters tea party meets living sculpture! Playing with design, scale & origami we will sculpt garments and hats onto bodies inspiring creatures of the future universe. The last day we will style with a BANG! a final Fashionshow will see all wild festival creations strut down catwalk.

As well as watching world class acts, the public will make and perform puppetry, build space age flying machines, play music, design & make costumes, learn about the forth dimension, perform quests, games and puzzles from physical to mental, write scripts and perform theatre themselves … the list is endless. Each day at Sudeley Castle is rounded off with entertainers & chat around campfires under the stars soaking in the beautiful backdrop.

Join us and book your tickets now on http://www.houseoffairytales.org/index.php?pg_id=39
For more information get in touch with me on curious@choolips.com and check out www.houseoffairytales.org

* ‘The House of Fairy Tales – Festival of The Creative Act’
Established by artists Deborah Curtis and Gavin Turk, The House of Fairy Tales is an arts-based education project, which uses the vast narrative scope of fairy tales to provide creative, innovative and transformative learning experiences for children of all ages and their families.

Creamy Festival Treats

Creamfields, the ‘crown jewel of dance festivals’ & CHOOLIPS teamed up to bring you ‘Fashion Fields’ in the latest edition of Creamfields magazine. View www.cream.co.uk/hosted/creamfields08/magazines/02/

CHOOLIPS is presenting a cherry picked selection of festival attire alongside CHOOLIPS’ Stylesurgery open between July & August ONLY! helping you prep your festival wardrobe. For those who like to keep their festival wear ethical, sexy & fun... fire away your questions & write to stylesurgery@choolips.com

To top the whole affair WIN yourself a limited edition t-shirt, specially hand-printed by ‘Illustrated People’. SIMPLY email your name & mobile number to info@creamfields.co.uk with the subject line “CHOOLIPS”.

Creamfields weekend 23rd & 24th August - for the line-up & tickets visit www.creamfields.com

Lusty Flies

Let me tell you about the brief, lusty life of the Mayfly. They have a life expectancy of only one day. Are they miserable about it? Not one bit. With just a few hours to live, these swarming insects, who’s home is the water, have only one thing on their minds. They cram every moment full of the things they love. They simply embrace life & make the most of it.

When their time comes to emerge, the water’s surface explodes to life. Adult males flutter above the water’s shimmer in a blue cape of newly minted wings, a massive whir. Fish, warbles, swallows, fly catchers, thrushes & kingfishers gather for a catch of protein dinner. Those Mayflies, which do escape the fish & birds, take to the air & scurry off the water to attach themselves to heather or trees, there to dry their wings in the sparkling sun. Then the mating of Mayfly 'spinners' begins. Rising in huge clouds, they take flight and skim the water’s surface awaiting the females to hatch for a dance. In the absence of the skirts they may meanwhile attempt to get it off with another fluttery male. However once the skirts appear for the dance they whirl off in a trance to finally mate with them. The sweet romance takes place above the water with the female finally entrusting her eggs back into the blue depths, where these wait for another three years for the exciting hatch. The mayfly romancers then die fulfilled in ecstasy; their beautiful remains left floating on the surface of the sparkling Blue just to be gathered by turtles & frogs for delicious dessert.

THE shoe ... of the Year

I have been finding shoes all my life and admittedly most times they have found me...some of them so good I kept them on when going to sleep!

...Its an infatuation with shapes, colours and comfort, but most of all having yummy shoes provides me with the sense that my feet are a delicious part of me. All the shoes I have stay with me too...they stay and they get worn! And when I have worn them out the memory of our walks fills me with joy.

This time I found them...
I remember the first time I saw them was on www.terraplana.com
They struck me with a deep excitement and I knew they were the pair for this year! Some days later a friend met me for coffee and she was wearing them! ... They looked even better on the feet...and NOW they look even better on MY feet. Thanks to my dear friend for sending a pair in the post! These are by far the most delicious pair I ...psssst, don't want to insult my other shoes... they are so light and more comfortable than any trainer I have ever worn. My feet are in fluffy world... they are looked after by an utterly stylish and comfortable... VEGGIE???? Incredible... these are a VEGGIE LEATHER SHOES! I have never bought into Veggie shoes. I am sold! What other colours do these come in? Lets have a look... www.terraplana.com

The air around me...

While I am diving into future pursuits, I felt like sneaking back into the near past … my heart skips a beat when I see these beauties.

This time last year I was recovering in snowy Germany after a hot December spent in Ghana working with Global Mamas on making my award winning ‘Design 4 Life Ghana’ dresses a FAIRTRADE reality for retailer TOPSHOP. I slept for ten days, tugged inside the blaze of African sun and pure joy of Ghana’s people. I snug away holding onto visual feasts and touches of conversation that will grip me for a life – time – since preserved and cherished as my muse.

Juliana, a Batiker with her workshop outside her home on top of a banana tree plateau and Florence, a Seamstress with her workshop inside an old shipping container by the roadside in Cape Coast, joint forces to produce my coffee bean dresses. We worked long hard days exchanging gifts of knowledge, stories and future dreams while refining methods for printing & assembling dresses. The knowledge exchanged laying strong foundations for potential future projects. I drifted inside a haze of a shared dream taking shapes of reality while listening to gripping life stories and feeling the drenching warmth of hope and beautiful gratitude to Natures gifts. I returned to Europe for a dip in the snow and flew again to Ghana beginning of February’07 to add final touches to production methods. We were exhausted and excited by the work and future prospects. My haze only lifted when dipping forks into spicy African stews and eventually when the dresses arrived at TOPSHOP’s flagship store in OXFORD CIRCUS in April. I stood bewildered in front of the window display, people passing & reading our story. Drifting inside the store about midday the first order of dresses had virtually flown out the store. Our Ghanaian ladies had earned themselves 13times the average wage and most of all more orders!!! Most delightful, Juliana, the Batiker, has now expanded her workshop and doesn’t need to fetch water in buckets anymore. She has been able to lay a water pipe providing fresh water access necessary for the batiking process.

The press had a few things to say about it….see for yourselves:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/03/03/smethic03.xml
http://www.stylejournalonline.com/article_detail.php?articleID=23

There has been much talk the past year between myself & other ethically minded movers thinking about how to shape up a fashionable future. With all this future talk I have turned to producing more work with my Batiker.

The air around me remains filled with the colourful life of an African township, the breeze of the ocean & the substantial knowledge of the impact a few pretty dresses can make in ethical ways.