Author Spotlight
Starting as cotton in the hands of Indian seamstresses isolated in a leprosy colony, blue handmade fabric with floral swirls goes through the steps to become a handbag or coin purse for Joyn India. After the women weave the cotton, the cloth is hand stamped by teenagers trapped in the poverty cycle in the slums of India. After supporting every person who contributes to the work, Joyn then employs those who sew the final bags. This chain of giving back was introduced to me by a friend who went to India for spring break and witnessed the production first-hand. She told me of the fabric that sits around waiting to be used as this company is eager for growth. These inexpensive bags have an ethnic flair that should be sought after and will benefit chains of worthy workers.
Feed Projects is a charitable company that sparked my interest in the area of shopping for a cause in the first place. When I learned of Lauren Bush Lauren and her connection to George Bush and Ralph Lauren, her career interested me. She was a model and found her place as a humanitarian working for UNICEF. In an effort to promote UNICEF’s Feed program that provided meals to solve world hunger, Lauren started a company that was quick to boom because of her position in the political and business world. The idea behind the Target-sponsored industry is that when one bag is bought, one person receives lunches for a year. Different designs, sizes and prices correlate to anywhere from providing one school meal to 1,000 meals to the hungry people around the world. The number of meals given through that bag become the symbol of the company and is stamped as a giant black number on the burlap tote. The variety of these bags has grown from the traditional Feed 1 burlap tote, to Tory Burch sponsored messenger bags and vastly range in price that makes the popular item accessible to any online shopper or Target browser.
I’ll start off by warning you that purses from Popinjay are exceedingly out of my price range and probably yours too. However, this is part of the company’s purpose. They want to provide products that are worthy of style but not the designer bags that go in and out of season and turn into knock off products sold on the streets. Popinjay employs 150 of the finest artisans in Punjab, Pakistan and they pay the people what they believe their work is worth. Each item is close the the creator’s heart and is therefore worth the hundreds of dollars rather than a typical, manufactured designer bag. The creative accents that border the leather looks designer and deserves the title.
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