Ask Gen-Z what Fair Trade is and they’ll likely look puzzled. Fresh from the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) Summit in Berlin last week, we want to share with you what’s happening in Fair Trade today. How The Fair Trade narrative is changing Fair Trade gathered momentum in Europe in the 1960s when it was often seen as a political gesture against neo-imperialism: and used the slogan at the time, ‘Trade not Aid’. At I was a Sari, we’ve been inspired by fair trade principles [...]

Featuring Lou Stokes in her one-of-a-kind I was a Sari bomber “The way I dress and consume fashion has completely transformed. I used to be an unconscious and impulse shopper, obsessed with having the latest trends. Every week I’d be buying something new. It wasn’t until I looked inwards that I realised impulse-buying was only a way to fill a void. I was addicted to the short-term feel-good factor of buying something new.” Guest Post by Lou Stokes - Yogi, Stylist and Teacher [...]

Shopping from us in 2021, rather than other brands, has stopped 168,000 square meters of saris become waste given regular income to 176 female artisans and their families in India, paying them for 151,000 hours of work. Most companies measure success by their sales. These are important, but we also value how much we can lower waste and transform the lives of the people we employ. Since 2016 we have stopped more than 1 million square meters of saris, the main dress of Indian women, [...]

Indian saris have been traditionally used to keep women cool and elegantly covered. They’re made of 5 meters of fabric and usually worn with a top. They’re not usually worn for warmth. At I was a Sari, we’re taking the sari global, turning her into contemporary wear and accessories. So we gave our Design Team a challenge - can a sari become winter wear? Fighting darkness with color Winter wear has always been a tough nut to make chic and bright. Here’s where our Design [...]

Sustainability - we can call it the buzzword of the pandemic era, with food, travel and fashion industry using it way too often! But is it really important, and should it mean anything to us we ask - when used in the right spirit, of course a big resounding yes!  Owing to rising substantial global climate changes and living in a prolonged pandemic, the onus of sustainability lies not just on a selected few, but the current state of affairs is alarmingly urging all of [...]