Emily Katz
Designer, artist, musician and activist, Emily Katz, designs stylish sustainable clothing and jewelry, as well as fronts the Portland, Oregon band, Love Menu, similarly made up of artist, designers and musicians.
Les Fees de Bengale
Les Fees de Bengale’s is a story of three young women from Paris with a common vision, to create a label for women by women, while respecting the planet and each individual that plays a role in the production of the collection. Their work is fashionable, ethical and organic, and entirely made from ecological and natural fibers, ranging from jersey, drop needle rib and baby fleece all made from organic cotton. Organic cotton satin and cotton voile inject the whimsy and femininity to the collection, while organic cotton twill adds the urban edge. The collection consists of pretty, feminine separates and dresses. Items are floaty and flounced, with generous cuts, clever tucking details and playful silhouettes or urban angel with a casual sex in the city flavor, only with Paris the city instead of New York, and featuring off the shoulder angel wing T-shirts, worn over wide leg pants. Colors range through petal, cappuccino, storm, sand and oriental blue, adding a touch of retro glamour to the look.
Having traveled around India in search of suppliers that displayed a desire to develop capacities and competencies, as well as a willingness to work with and support destitute women through social projects, Les Fees de Bengale selected an NGO that manage thirty small cooperatives in the slums of Bombay. Each cooperative consists of about twenty women, each one of whom receive six months general sewing training, with an additional two years of coaching and training in the sewing workshop. Various support systems are in place to assist the women with their transition from the street; micro loan programs are available to support the creation of new sewing workshops, to purchase new equipment, to pursue other professional activities, and to improve their children’s education, funded by profits, with thirty to forty percent of the NGO’s profits reinvested into the development of new activities and programs.
The partners, Elodie le Derf, Camille Dupuy and Sophie Dupey, travel to India twice a year to work directly with the women in the cooperative, teaching them dressmaking and sewing techniques.
The collection is sold through Les Fees de Bengale’s own website, as well as through boutiques across France, the UK, Switzerland and Germany, and other online resources. They have received press in Marie Claire, Elle and French Vogue to name just a fraction of their coverage.
Le Fees de Bengale operated until 2012.
