What Daisy Did Next

I recently in met both Daisy and Ozric, the two  23 year olds behind the fab range What Daisy Did Next.  I am so impressed with these guys that I had to let you know a little more about what they do.   I love the selection of Fairtrade & Recycled leather bags, purses and now backpacks that they design.  

Here is a bit of background information on how this company works so here it is....

'To create our bags we work with two brothers in India called Pinu and Manish who we visit every year.  Pinu and Manish share responsibility such as sourcing materials, distributing the work between the communities, paying tailors and managing orders.

Our new Carnival Collections is made from recycled leather that has been wasted by factories within a 140km radius of where the bags are made.  If not collected, this leather wold otherwise be wasted.  The brothers travel around making arrangements with the owners, offering to pay for the wasted scraps and end of roll material.  Most of them are too wealthy to take a moment out of their time to make any arrangements, which makes this process very difficult and only a small number of visited factories make successful deals.  The cotton lining is also from factory dead-stock.

We have 60 families (thirty women and fifty seven men) producing the bags for us.  They live in small communites in a 60km radius of the brothers home.  Many of the tailors are ex shoemakers that lost their jobs in the trade shift to China.  All tailors are paid a fair commission, with living wages realistically achievable within normal working hours.  All tailors work from home and have complete working flexibility.  Flexible work is great for our tailors as it means they can work around other commitments such as university and parenting.

The machinery, tools and electricity (when used) is all supplied to them my Pinu and Manish.  We don not use any child, elderly or forced labour.  Workers set their own deadlines for what they can produce, meaning no pressure is put on them to meet deadlines.  We work around them, so to speak.  We also keep work availability consistent by building up stock during quiet times.  We have three master tailors, who train fellow tailors, create our templates and turn our designs in reality.  Chota has had a life long career as a tailor and is responsible for the Carnival Collection.  The lining in the bags is all deadstock - end of roll cotton.'