FIN Fashion is modern, Norwegian, trendy and the world’s first organic Fairtrade fashion label.
22/02/2007 :: Fair trade and organic goods used to be something that only special interest groups were concerned about, but today more and more people want to be environmentally friendly and show a social conscience. This applies both to clothing producers and to consumers. The trend towards organic and ethical trade is spreading in the fashion world, and an increasing number of fashion labels are launching “fair” and organic lines.
Now Norwegian designers have launched the latest innovation in socially-conscious fashion: a specialist Fairtrade high fashion label.
“We want to run a business and save the world at the same time,” says FIN Fashion’s managing director Nikolai Herlofsen.
Herlofsen started FIN Fashion in 2006, together with Norwegians Eivind Ødegård and Nikolai Perwin and Norwegian-Finnish fashion designer Minna Hannila. The little Norwegian fashion company has already presented its 2007 autumn collection, Essentially Ethic, at major fashion trade fairs in Paris, Berlin, London, Stockholm and Oslo.
FIN’s clothes are made exclusively of organic and Fairtrade certified cotton.
“This means that no pesticides or other harmful chemicals have been used. In addition, the cotton farmers are guaranteed a minimum income and good social conditions,” says Herlofsen.
But aren’t there other fashion labels that produce “fair” and organic clothes?
“Yes, but that is not the same thing as having Fairtrade certification. The point is that Fairtrade certification is independent and ensures that ethical production guidelines are enforced by someone other than the fashion company,” says Herlofsen.
FIN Fashion’s founders also travel to India to check production personally.
“We want to ensure both that the products maintain high quality and that production is ethical. This means ensuring that workers are well paid, and that they enjoy good working conditions,” says Herlofsen.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs