The Express Tribune hi five - February 24

Ms FEBRUARY 24, 2013 ISSUE NO. 36

The Boho Spirit

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Wake up to ethical fashion

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inside drama mama —

Is a little bit of love, the perfect ending to a hectic day?

domestic goddess — Tangy BBQ wings

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page Section In-Charge: Batool Zehra Send your feedback to women@tribune.com.pk

Pisces man won’t take the bait?

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Ms

the buzz

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

Do you wear conscientiousness

on your sleeve?

Exploring the ethics of ethical fashion Take a woman of few means who lives in a village, give her the basic materials to create a design, pay her a nominal rate for her work, transport it to your store, slap on a fancy label, add a sob story about the woman’s circumstances, promise that the proceeds will go back to the society... and wait for the ‘pity factor’ to bring in some moolah. That seems to be the commonly understood definition of ethical fashion these days. But does the buyer even understand what ethical fashion really is?

“Ethical fashion is a subset of fashion that focuses on fairness and transparency from sourcing to production and making sure everyone involved in making the product is compensated fairly,” says Ayesha Mustafa, owner of online luxury clothing and accessories platform Fashion Compassion which sells ethical brands from the Middle East and Asia.

This requires brands to take the environmental aspect into account by, let’s say, using eco-friendly materials. Additionally, it means taking care of employees by providing them comfortable working conditions and even compensating them for their handiwork at a rate that is higher than the market rate dictated by comparative machine-work. Fair trade considerations — such as eliminating unnecessary middlemen and putting artisans directly in contact with the designer — also factor in.

Still, it seems that purveyors of ethical fashion in the west give far too much importance to the environmental facet whereas locally ethical fashion labels give more importance to the people involved in the production process. However, isn’t a truly ethical brand one that balances both aspects equally well?

“As hard as you might try, it’s impossible to be sustainable in every way. For instance, if you’re shipping or transporting your goods from one country to another, you are still adding to your carbon footprint. This is why ethical fashion continues to be subjective,” says Ayesha Mustafa.

Syed Moiz Farooq, CEO of a Lahore-based apparel company Looptex, takes the definition of ethical fashion a bit further. “Ethical fashion is all about leading a responsible and honest lifestyle as a human being. Wearing ethical fashion and leading an unethical lifestyle is a big contradiction and is not sustainable.”

Sustainability is a buzz word often dropped by ethical designers but few buyers fully understand it. When it comes to ‘people’, sustainability would mean providing artisans with a constant source of income that can be continued for a long time and not a one-off investment in their skills. But with ‘environment’, sustainability would mean ensuring that the materials used in the design can be replaced or replenished.

When it comes to the players in the ethical design market, a discussion on ethical fashion can’t seriously begin without mentioning an iconic modelturned-fashion designer and UN ambassador Bibi Russel from Banglandesh. She has played a revolutionary role in bringing ethical fashion to the limelight and uniting ethical fashion designers from different South Asian countries on one front.

by Saba Khalid

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THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

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There are many people who are working on the revival of crafts in Pakistan. Shubhinak, owned by Farooq’s company Looptex, is a brand that has been striving to incorporate all aspects of ethical fashion, including social, environmental, health and safety of workers and workplace, fair wages, compliance with local and international laws. It engages 800 female artisans from Chitral and plans to bring that number up to 5,000 artisans in the next three years. Polly&Me works with female artisans from Chitral and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to make luxury hand-embroidered accessories. The brand which is an initiative of Cath and Ange Braid, works with these artisans through a partner cooperation called Mogh Limited. Every female artisan who makes a Polly&Me bag is a shareholder of Mogh Limited. Although there are many more ethical brands like these available in the market, awareness about them remains limited.

“For ethical fashion to really gain momentum in Pakistan, it’s paramount for consumers to understand the repercussions of their buying habits. Although ‘fast fashion’ is very alluring, it has numerous adverse effects on both the people and the environment,” says Ayesha Mustafa.

By ‘fast fashion’, Mustafa refers to clothing that moves from the catwalk to the store in the shortest time possible to capitalise on a certain trend.

However, Farooq from Looptex disagrees about the awareness levels.

“Pakistani people have a high level of awareness about ethical fashion and a lot of appreciation for such products. Until recently, Pakistan was naturally sustainable and an organic country. Our previous generations hand-knitted, crocheted or embroidered their clothing. However, it is becoming tougher to make the younger generation appreciate the value of craftsmanship.”

Besides lack of awareness, there is also the notion that ethical goods cost more. This is partly true, because of the high costs associated with producing ethical goods — money has to be spent on sourcing ecofriendly materials and maintaining fair trade business practices. But ethical fashion doesn’t always have to be expensive.

“We have managed to keep Shubhinak’s prices fair by constantly innovating, lowering our own margins, and maintaining efficiency and cost effectiveness, without compromising on quality,” says Farooq.

Still, on the surface, it seems that only a privileged niche from Pakistan is picking up ethical goods. “Ethical fashion is picked by educated and responsible citizens who care about the society and environment they live in,” says Mustafa. “They are well-aware of social issues and believe in giving back in ways that can create a sustainable change in people’s lives.”

Farooq agrees: “Shubhinak’s products are for all those who share our philosophy irrespective of what income group they belong to.”

One of the biggest questions that almost all consumers should ask an ethical fashion label is how they make sure that all suppliers and partners in the chain remain ethical. Choosing suppliers that follow the same philosophy and building long-lasting relationships is one of the challenges these brands face. “We do our groundwork and make them fill out an extensive questionnaire which helps asses what aspect of ethical fashion they are working on: Are they reviving crafts? Are they empowering communities?” says Mustafa, explaining how Fashion Compassion works.

On the other hand, Shubhinak not only complies with Global Organic Textile Standards for its finished products, it makes sure its supply partners also comply with the same standards.

With all this importance given to the ‘people’ element by local ethical fashion designers, are the artisans compensated fairly?

“In the open market, hand-embroidered or hand-crocheted items are sold at very low prices, which leads to unfairly low wages for the artisan,” says Farooq. “Buyers pressure artisans to compete with machine-embroidered or crocheted laces and the poor artisans can’t earn a decent living.”

Shubhinak lets artists command their own price and make products at their own convenience. But keeping the wages fair and maintaining low margins comes with its own set of challenges. Take, for instance, the difficulties associated with transporting goods from Lahore to Chitral in unpredictable weather conditions and challenging terrains.

At Polly&Me, artisans are paid per piece for the accessory textiles, depending on the design, size and technique. “Mogh manages all payments to the artisans and the prices are set after discussions with centre supervisors,” explains Cath.

When an artisan stitches or weaves something for a brand linked with Fashion Compassion, they are paid for the raw article there and then.

“The aim of all the brands associated with Fashion Compassion is to pay the artisans for their work whether the product gets sold or not,” Mustafa says. “The brand then adds value to that article and then keeps the profits that come from selling that high-end product.”

Another forgotten and often ignored aspect of ethical fashion is its advertising. For a brand to be truly ethical, should it advertise and add to the already high levels of consumerism? Those in the business argue that advertising is essential to get your brand across to people. It is integral for an ethical brand to educate the market and create a space for itself — and that can only be done with advertising. But even if we concede that advertising is necessary, shouldn’t ethical brands portray real women with real bodies who actually buy those pieces? Putting a skinny runaway model makes young girls emulate those unhealthy body types, and promoting this image can’t be ethical. However, most ethical brands appear to be using models to advertise their products.

Besides high-end brands, a lot of NGOs have also ventured into ethical fashion recently. Since NGOs have a humanitarian goal while brands and designers are concerned with profit-making, some people are of the opinion that it makes more sense for ethical buyers to choose the former.

For the regular woman on a budget, an easy way to take the ethical route to fashion is to resist the urge to shop the latest trends, and instead be creative and redesign or refurbish your old clothes. And then there are the treasure troves that are our mother’s and grandmother’s old clothes — your Dadi’s sari will look just as sophisticated on you as it did on her 40 years ago. It’s about time our fashion choices not only reflect our style but also our conscience. Let’s not get swayed by unethical brands and try to do our bit to use fashion for creating change.

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Ms

en vogue

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

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THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

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Umer Mushtaq azmi -up: N-Pro (Nabila)

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Ms

drama mama

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

Love is enough. Even on the days it feels like it isn’t.

by Hiba Masood

Hiba Masood is a stay-at-home mother to fouryear-old Beta and one-yearold Beti. Writing about parenting affords her time away from actually doing it.

Love is all you need, I say to myself when I struggle to get out of bed at the crack of dawn to take Beta to the bathroom. Love is all you need, I remind myself through gritted teeth when Beti insists on sleeping only in my arms. Love is all you need, I console myself when Hums doesn’t get me anything for my birthday.

Love is all you need, I shrug dismissively when it takes me days to write one column. It has become a mantra of sorts, a constant internal refrain to help me be content with my roles as a mother and wife and fulfill willingly, lovingly, all the demands that they place on me.

On most days, though, love doesn’t seem nearly enough. I need patience, humour, wet wipes! And that’s just for Hums… don’t even get me started on what I need for the kids.

“I feel like I spend my whole life taking people to the bathroom,” my sister, a mom of four, mused over the phone when I told her about my painfully early morning. We laughed over the potential for a gripping time lapse film version of her life: A rapid-fire sequence of Baji trekking repeatedly towards the bathroom in varying outfits with children of different sizes while the sun rises and sets again and again in the window behind her.

I know the feeling. Honestly, some weeks I feel as if my whole life boils down to dinner and every evening, it’s the same evening. I say, “Let’s have dinner now” and Beta says, “Where’s Baba?” And I explain how Baba is at the office and it’s always the same: “But when is he coming? When? When? When?” I try to stay calm but because I’m a) Tired b) Hungry c) Bored of the same darn conversation everyday and d) Irritated at Baba for coming home late and leaving me to fend

for myself on weekdays, I say, either calmly, “I don’t know. Let’s have dinner.” Or furiously, “I. Don’t. Know.

Eat. Dinner. Now!” I guess the real issue these days is time. And how there’s not enough of it. I work from home part time and I only have the two kids. I know that most people have much more complicated schedules than I do. But I’ve still somehow become a person who looks with real interest at Pinterest posts with names like, “10 Quick Ideas to Keep Your Kids Busy” and “A Week of Dinners Ready in Minutes” and “The One Easy Way to Wow Your Husband” (I hate to ruin the suspense, but the secret to all of these is: eggs.) And it’s not just my web browsing that’s taken an intellectual hit. Just the other night, we went to dinner with a bunch of smart, interesting people who spoke about books, history, philosophy and the role of the middle class in changing society’s notions of morality... and I spent most of it arranging French fries in funny patterns. Later that night, when one of my friends texted me teasingly, “Great time tonight. The kids behaved better than you,” I couldn’t even come up with a witty riposte to show that I’d still got ‘it’ (intelligence, humour, social savoir faire). No, I was too busy researching tricks to heal a freaky pimple on my eyebrow (eggs again) while juggling Beti on one hip, singing the alphabet with Beta and “Mm-hmm” –ing interestedly as Hums recounted some anecdote from work. And even when I was done with all of that, I still didn’t get to reply to her, because like I said, no matter, what time it is around here, it’s probably dinner time.

I realise that I am a wife and parent in lucky times.

I live in the same city as my sister and there is the internet and there is chocolate. The happy combina-

tion of these three things keeps me sane. It feels ungrateful and luxurious to talk about my problems, as if they were Problems. I know they are not. I know at some point in my life, I will get a chance to look into those things I’ve heard other people talking about: “girl’s night out” and “me time”. (I’m not exactly sure what these things are — they sound fascinating, though.) I know how lucky I am to be loved and needed by my people. We all know that life is a mad scramble of housework and paycheck-work and school and doctor’s visits and restocking the washable markers, and blah blah blah. And mostly, it’s all good. But sometimes, it’s not. Sometimes, you (that is, I) feel a little stifled, a bit less intelligent than you were before, a tad impatient, a teensy “Can everyone just leave me alone right now?” And you honestly don’t think there’s anything wrong with those feelings either. So you allow yourself to wallow in them.

But then, life, that sneaky little thing, won’t let you get away with any pointless wallowing. So, of course, later that evening, when you are in the kitchen getting dinner (dinner!!!) ready, wrapped snugly in the cloak of your self-pity, you will hear your husband and the kids reading Leo the Lion’s Freaky Family in the other room.

Your Beti will shriek with laughter over something and Beta will count out the four of you and announce “We are a family!” and the husband will make his very best impression of a Baba lion. Suddenly, your cloak of self-pity will dissolve away and you will find yourself wrapped in a blanket of soul-crushing gratitude. You will put away your self-analysis for another day, another time. For now, you will just repeat to yourself as much and as often as necessary: Love is all you need.

All you need is love. Because, it is. And you do.

domestic goddess 7 7 recipe

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

Honey BBQ wings Shafia Agha works as a PR consultant and runs a food blog: gobblemywords.wordpress.com.

She loves trying out new recipes.

Follow her on facebook.com/ GobbleMyWords and @shafiaagha

Deep fried or charcoal-broiled, chicken wings are always a crowd pleaser. They are easy to make and the lip-smacking sauce makes them even yummier.

Make your next movie or game night a success by serving this flavourful finger food.

method • Marinate the chicken wings in vinegar, garam masala and salt for 30 minutes.

• Dust the marinated wings with flour and keep aside for 15 minutes.

• Heat oil and fry the wings until golden brown on both sides.

• Drain excess oil on kitchen paper.

ingredients For the wings: Chicken wings (with skin) 24 pieces Vinegar 1 tbsp All spice 1 tsp Salt to taste Flour to dust 1½ cup

• In a separate pan heat oil on low flame.

• Pour the honey BBQ sauce in the pan.

• Add ground coriander and chilies and let it simmer for a minute.

• Add the fried wings to the pan and heat.

• Sprinkle some chopped green onions to bring colour to the dish.

• Serve hot.

Preparation time: 45 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Number of servings: 6

For the sauce: Honey BBQ Sauce 1½ cup Oil 1 tsp Ground coriander 1 tsp Ground red chilies 1 tsp Oil for shallow frying ½ cup Green onions chopped 1 stalk

written in the stars 8

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

Reeling in the

Match made in heaven

man

Pisces man – Virgo Woman man

This is the true case of opposites attract. A V Virgo woman man who faces no fear in defining love will be captivated and ptivated by the Pisces man’s innocence innoc sensitivityy while he adores her earthy se sensuality. A Virgo woman man’s dreams an can help fulfill a Pisces m by giving him ideas into reality. m the tools to turn his idea

February 18 — March 19

In love with a Pisces? Ms. T has the inside on what makes this sign unique, how to make him yours and what not to do to drive him away.

d a e h s ’ n a e c s i P e h t e d i s In

s freedom ue to protect hi in nt co ill w an sm back hook, the Pisce will swim right a he in d d an pe ap th tr ea g sists bein m space to br ur hidden Just as a fish re itment. Give hi ill tune into yo m w m e H co s c! ti ou ri an se m to a ng care. an is a true ro before diving in with tender, lovi ul, the Pisces m r so he d er ne io ow sh sh fa d quires a lf an to you. An oldat heart and re ahead of himse ild r ch ne a rt is pa e s H . hi t s pu is likely that es appreciation emotions, alway ng a dreamer, it l, a Piscean crav ei ta B . en an im nt om w se d lm make Gentle, loyal an , mature and ca truly wanting to ng e ro it st sp a de s om m fr ea mpering ur limpid fulfill your dr high dose of pa ental. It is not yo m ancial means to dg fin ju e th ar of ne t re ou ality n whe he will often ru is unique person isces man is no H P . a ul , so de si ur us yo pl of l. On the survive. the beauty your life specia ill hook him but in their lives will w a at am th dr s e ok tl lo lit g a ppin ose who like eyes or jaw-dro ence and only th ti pa ’s an om w will test every

Celebrity Pisces These celebrities are proof that Pisces men are some of the hottest men alive.

DON’T even think about it Pisces man — Gemini Woman Gemini woman, there are other fish in the sea!

Geminis, being free souls, feel restricted by the Piscean’s sensitivity whereas the Pisces man is bound to feel that she is somewhat insensitive.

Make him fall for you hook, line and sinker 1. A Pisces man enjoys his share of freedom. If you see him drifting away, give him some breathing room — he is only looking for some space.

2. Get in touch with your nurturing side! He might lose track of where he’s going because he’s such a dreamer. You’ll have to be the one to gently administer a reality check every now and then.

3. Set the pace of the relationship and make it comfortable for him to be around you. He is loyal, and rather thin-skinned when it comes to matters of the heart and a sucker for your admiration.

Jon Bon Jovi

Don’t let him slip away 1. Remember he is very sensitive and emotional, so don’t ever make fun of his larger than life dreams!

2. Don’t utter the ‘C’ word just yet — he can go a long while before being ready for marriage.

Daniel Craig

Robert Downey Jr.

Aamir Khan

3. Don’t back off too far, as he may find that he is intellectually inspired by someone else sooner than you would think.