Earth Squared bags have been a firm favourite at Just Fair Trade for several years, combining great ethics with a creative, contemporary approach to design! The company is based just outside Edinburgh and the Scottish influence is particularly evident in the beautiful tweed ranges they produce each autumn.
But the bags themselves are made in Vietnam by women, most of whom were once rice farmers working in a country with widespread rural poverty. Earth Squared say:
Working as a seamstress or in quality control, for example, a person can earn a good standard of living and also send their children to school and on to higher education. In addition our partners pay national insurance for each staff member that covers medical costs and provides a pension for retirement all of which is above the national legal requirements.
All of the women working are trained on the job at the workshop in Hanoi. Each person is encouraged to progress and learn new skills so that they can be promoted. The working conditions at the workshops are clean and safe and the staff have regular breaks and days off work. There is flexibility for mothers who breastfeed as well as a system in place for women who are unable to come to work due to a child being ill and off school for example.
This stylish classic bag is made from a selection of wool tweeds and features a zipped pocket and mobile phone pouch and is only one of a stunning range of bags and purses in a range of designs and colours including their increasingly popular and practical oil cloth bags.