Milano Fashion&Jewels
22-25 February 2025
fieramilano, Rho
Milano Fashion&Jewels
In September 2022, the event will host several brands that belong to Equo Garantito: an association that has been promoting Fair Trade for more than 30 years. President David Cambioli told us how this project grew and what it means to be part of it.
How was your project born? What are your association’s goals?
Equo Garantito is the Italian association of Fair Trade companies that, for more than 30 years in Italy, have been producing, importing and reselling Fair Trade products while meeting international standards.
In fact, Equo Garantito member organizations are monitored through a certified guarantee system and can use our label on their products.
Equo Garantito represents and promotes Fair Trade companies that pursue the goal of fighting climate change and supporting social and economic justice. Fair Trade has a vision: a world in which business practices are more equitable and sustainable and help to promote development, solidarity, and respect for people and the environment.
What are the characteristics of your member companies?
The Equo Garantito member companies participating in the upcoming edition of HOMI Fashion&Jewels promote the principles of an economy of justice and handcraft clothing and accessories from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The AltraQualità cooperative has been working to create ethical approaches in the field of fashion for 20 years, while EquoMercato is a Lombardy-based cooperative that has been importing from several small producer associations in Africa, Asia and Latin America since 1993, respecting fair trade criteria. The RAMA association, on the other hand, is specialized in handicrafts from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia since 1988, made from raw materials available in the country of production with a focus on recycling and upcycling. LOOM Fair Trade is a non-profit cooperative established in 2014. Its goal is to support fair trade projects: following a visit to textile workshops in Vietnam, it imports handmade scarves and accessories produced in accordance with fair trade principles. Finally,Meridiano 361 is a social enterprise in the Reggio Emilia area that imports products made mainly by artisan groups from Madagascar, Indonesia, India and Ecuador.
What new products will we be able to find at HOMI Fashion&Jewels?
AltraQualità will take us to Vietnam with a line of bags and accessories made in a craft workshop that trains and provides stable employment for low-income and disabled people: a variety of natural and synthetic fabrics for an alternative to the use of leather.
We are flying to India with EquoMercato thanks to a collection of bags and accessories made from high-quality handcrafted leather, as well as fabric made from a yarn created entirely from recycled PET bottles: 39 PET bottles = 1 square meter of recycled fabric!
RAM will bring bags and accessories made by recycling fishing nets and mosquito nets, bags and plastic bottles, while LOOM will amaze us with scarves and accessories in fabrics made from 100 percent natural yarns in rural Vietnamese communities, Azo-Free certified eco-friendly colors (i.e., not harmful to humans and the environment). The silk produced locally, thanks to the pristine environment, is among the finest and prized for its characteristics of strength, softness and pearly white color.
Meridian 361 will introduce us to costume jewelry lines made of tagua-also called vegetable ivory-and various seeds from the Amazon rainforest. Tagua is made from the seed of a palm tree that grows in the rainforest, and its malleability allows it to be processed, while after drying the seed becomes hard and retains the shape it is given. The color in its natural state is similar to that of animal ivory, characterized by shades that make it unique. Therefore, the use of tagua seeds is sustainable for two reasons: not only does it help preserve rainforests, but it also provides an alternative to ivory and thus helping to protect elephants around the world.
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