TWINE FAIR TRADE COMPANY

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TWINE FAIR TRADE COMPANY: FAIR FASHION

TaiwanKOLKATA, India
Year Founded:
5
Organization type: 
hybrid
Project Stage:
Growth
Budget: 
$10,000 - $50,000
Website:
http://www.twine.com.tw
Facebook: 
http://www.facebook.com/twinestudio
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Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

Twine the World with Taiwanese passion!

Fair Trade Fashion Rocks!

From One Seed to One T-shirt.

Wear Your Value!

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if the fashion industry is Fair and Sustainable?
About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

When we used to cheap fast fashion, we have neglect the cost of our environment and the cost of people behind the production of clothing. Have you ever wondered “who made your clothes?” "Twine the world with Taiwanese passion"! In Twine Fair Trade, we focus on designing products with Taiwanese elements, and hand-making products using sustainable materials by the producers of Fair Trade organizations in developing countries.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

We are now working with 3500 producers in 8 counties. We make sure the whole production meets the requirements of being fair to the producers (mostly women), and friendly to the environment. Hand-making production also provides more work opportunities to the women in those area. In designing, most our garments took inspirations from the memory of kites wandering on the sky in the slum of Mumbai. We intend to create the looseness feel with some details of sculptural cutting lines, combing with the use of the handmade fabrics to create multi-culture feelings.

Awards

Best Concept Brands in Taiwan 2013
Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

By working with those Fair Trade organizations, we are providing more job opportunities for the women in the villages in those developing countries. So that they can stay in the villages with their kids and families without need to work in the factories in the big city. We also provide they some tools to ease some of their work, and also capacity building on the design, and quality of the products.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

We are now working with 3500 producers in 8 counties. We hope that as our project works out, we can be able to work with more producers, and also we welcome more people join in this work as well.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

We hope we can achieve in the next few years that we can have all of our clothes using organic cottons, and we can let more interactions between customers with the producers, such as the customers can have chance to visit and work with producers, or the producers can come and see who are their buying their products.
Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

Our main income is from our shops sales, so we have to make sure most of our shops has stable income monthly.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these approaches?

We are part of the social enterprise network and Fair Trade shops network in Taiwan. We are also certified Guarantee System member of WFTO. Different from the mainstream apparel market in Taiwan today, we are more concentrate on giving the background of our garments, to build step by step the customers who agree with this concept and want to support this concept.
Team

Founding Story

We use our own saving to start this business without any founding.

Team

We have currently 8 full-time staff and 8 part-time staff, excluding the 2 founders. As the founders are originally designers, they are doing most of the management and design works. Other staff are mainly working for shop managements, and sales. As the business growing, we will want to join more designers and marketing people in the future.
Value Chain: Where does your work fit into the apparel value chain? [check all that apply]

Consumption.

Your Role: What is your relationship to the apparel industry? [check all that apply]

Designer, Retail Representative - Specialty Store, Retail Representative - Mass-merchandise Chain, Trading Company Representative.

Target Population: What stakeholder groups do you engage or empower in your work? [check all that apply]

Brands, Designers, Retailers - Specialty Store.

● Intervention Focus: What are you trying to achieve / influence? [check all that apply]

Environmentally Sustainable Practices, Labor Rights (i.e. Collective Bargaining, etc.), Gender Equality, Anti-forced Labor or Anti-Human Trafficking, Recycling or Circular Economy, Physical Working Conditions, Transparency.

Lever for Change: Select up to 3 ways your work is helping to transform the industry.

Advocacy, Certification, Standards.

Is your project targeted at solving any of the following key barriers?

A Job is Not Enough: Low-Income Workers Cannot Secure Long-Term Well-Being, Consumers Aren't Motivated to Care: Neither Compelling Reasons Nor Easy Means to Change Consumption Habits.

Does your project utilize any of the innovative design principles below?

Activate Local Know-how for Driving Solutions: Build Opportunities for Workers to Become Leaders.

Innovation Inspiration: When you first conceived of your project, did you think of it as applicable to the apparel industry?

no

If you answered "no" to the previous question, which industry was your project originally aimed at transforming?

Fair Trade, Green consumerism, Human Rights & Equality.

● Replicating in the Apparel Industry: If your project didn't initially target the apparel industry, how are you specifically tailoring it to do so now?

Fair Trade clothing is more associate with people's daily life than Fair Trade handicrafts.

Are you nurturing or inspiring others to be changemakers? If so, how?

We frequently have newsletter in our website and screens of films about Fair and sustainable clothing.

● Tell us about the partnerships that enhance your approach. How have you collaborated with others in the industry to increase your impact?

We are part of Fashion Revolution member, and we also participate big exhibitions for sustainable lifestyles.

File attachments: 
PDF icon twinewfto.compressed.pdf